Our hike today found us in Skagit County at the Northern State Rec. area trail system. Click on the link to read about present and future trail plans at the site: Current projects.
We parked at the Swift Center parking lot on Hub drive along the Historical Auto tour loop.
The map below shows our route. We walked along the Beaver ponds (the large loop at the bottom of the map) and then crossed hwy 20 and joined the Cascade trail for a short distance mostly to get us off of the highway so we could get back into the Rec. area via Hemlick road. The south part of the Beaver ponds don't have a trail access for us to go all the way around unfortunately.
As we made our way back along the Beaver ponds we heard the familiar bloop bloop sound of a Bittern, we've seen one in this area before. Their sound is similar to dripping water, you can hear it HERE (turn your sound up to hear it better).
We then made our way up through the Frisbee disc course areas and up to the single track trail.
When we came to the pumphouse bridge and joined the Hill creek trail we were excited to see the new progress of the new trails. The Skagit Trail builders have been doing a great job expanding trails in the area.
As we walked along we went in and out of areas owned by different groups. They posted their boundaries along the way.
The raised areas they finished last year looked like they made it through winter's high water storms just fine.
The trail that goes around the Elk meadow were lined with blooming Bleeding Heart. It was a lush carpet of green along the trail.
I finally spotted my first Trillium of the year. Several were seen along the loop trail.
This section is a beautiful forest walk.
We gradually came to where we had stopped last time we were here because the trail had dead ended at this point. They had it roughed out to the meadow, it was prepped in places for the gravel to be laid down in the future.
Just before the meadow we came to some nice newly graveled trail surfaces.
The last section in the meadow hadn't been roughed out yet, but the dirt track was lined with white flags showing where it will be put in.
At the end of the meadow the "yet to be trail" joined the loop trail.
Nearing the end of our hike.
And back to where we parked.
A great day exploring the trails in the Recreation area.
We only had a couple of rain drops on us despite the grey sky.
Total miles: 7.3 miles
Total ascent: 364 feet
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, I welcome your comments.