February fun: snow, travel and hikes

 The first week of February brought us some cold temps and snow and lots of Elk sightings.

The photos are mostly done in collage form since I have so many for the month, click on them to see the larger version.

National Cancer Survivors day was also celebrated the first week of February. I'm always thankful that immunotherapy (Keytruda) was a match for my type of Cancer.

February 5th we drove to Anacortes and hiked Little Cranberry lake. We thought we'd driven far enough south to escape some fresh falling snow, but we were surprised by a nice snowfall as we hiked along.

So lovely to watch the large flakes falling over the lake.

https://youtu.be/BaDiZxi6z_c?feature=shared

We enjoyed watching the Ducks and Swans as they swam near the shore.

Scoutina enjoyed our times in the snow. We got in a nice walk on the interurban trail with her.

We also got to hike in the Northern State recreation area in the snow Feb. 8th

On our way home we saw the Nooksack Elk herd near the highway. The Twin Sisters are visible behind the trees. Sunset was just starting to color them pink.

On the 13th we headed to the Tommy Thompson trail. I got a couple of photos of a Great blue heron that was near the Trestle.

On Feb. 17th we headed south to the Oregon coast for my 71st birthday. We spent time just walking on the beach, walking the downtown strip and scenic drives.

We drove through Cannon beach, Pacific beach, Netarts bay and Cape Lookout before heading back to our base at Seaside. Elk were laying on a yard at the end of the town in Cannon beach.

More Elk spotted as we made our way back to Seaside.

We saw our first spring blooms in Seaside.

On my birthday we drove to the Astoria area. We drove through Fort Stevens and Warrenton. We saw Elk at the fort and in town grazing on peoples lawns and plants.

I took a video of some large Bull Elk at the fort, they were impressive.

https://youtu.be/4oGnczK5zJw?feature=shared

After playing tourist we ate my birthday meal at the Rogue restaurant in Astoria. 

Free beer on your birthday!

Very loud Sea Lions were along the marina jetty. If you listen to the youtube video you'll hear how loud they were. We watched them from the restaurant window as we ate our lunch.

https://youtu.be/TBpMrMOqtsw?feature=shared

The next day we packed up and began our way back north. We stopped at the Lewis and Clark national historical park. I really enjoyed it.

We drove the Long Beach peninsula and then I thought since we were on the coast I should have some razor clams for lunch. We found a great spot to order some. They were delicious!

It poured rain all the way home in Washington.

We found spring at home too! Our Crocus are in bloom.

Yesterday we hiked the North Butte loop on Blanchard mountain. We bumped into the Thursday Senior Trailblazers as they were coming back from their Oyster Dome hike. We passed by another smaller hiking group with familiar faces a bit farther up the trail. So fun to see happy people on the trail. It was a nice warm day for our hike. We sat on the rocks at North Butte and soaked up the sun while we had lunch.

Some trail crews had been busy cleaning up fallen trees and creating a new bridge for Lily lake. I hope they build handrails on it, it's a bit narrow.

North Butte view and Lily lake.

Lizard lake and down via the alternate incline trail.

Such a great February.

January hikes: Rosario, Northern state, Ebey & Fragrance lake

 Our January was beautiful. 

Click on the collages to enlarge them.

Rosario Head

Northern State Recreation area

Ebey Landing

Fragrance lake

To wrap up my thoughts for the month:

The outdoors is my place of peace. There are many people that are hurting, confused and broken by the overwhelming amount of hurtful changes to the core of our nation's decency by our current administration. I hope those that are reeling from these changes, also have places to go to clear your mind and heart for a moment of emotional peace.

I realized that another part of my happiness is going on hikes with my husband and our sweet Scoutina. I tried to be a Senior Trailblazer again for awhile, but realized I like to take my time to gaze at the sky, to ponder the depth of how blue it is as it takes my breath away or to slowly take inventory of the plants along the trail or to stop to take my endless amount of photos.  As I hiked with the group it didn't take me long to realize that it was not the place for me anymore. I had great memories with them years ago, but life has changed for me and I'm o.k. with that. I'm walking with a different purpose and mindset now than I felt in those groups. My chosen pace is slower and I'm thankful to just be where I am at the moment. Rushing along and not being able to take the time to notice the small pleasures along the way just isn't for me.

"Her nervous system had bee through so much. She decided to spend the rest of her life calming the inflammation. Thoughts, feelings, memories, behavior, relations. She soothed it all with deep, Loving breaths and gentle practices. The softer she became with herself, the softer she became with the world, which became softer with her. She birthed a generational cycle: Peace." ~Jaiya John

Chanterelle trail Power line loop

 Thursday we headed to Lake Whatcom to hike up the Chanterelle trail. Our plan was to exit at one of the road crossings and return by way of the power line road. This way we would get in a loop hike. As we made our way to the parking lot we saw a couple of runners just past the gate and heading up the road. I'll share more about the runners farther along in this post.

We stopped at the trailhead sign to check out the info.

Madrona💓

A road crossing to another section of the up.

My husband had been on the lookout for a tool to bring on our hikes to work on drainage for wet areas as we hike. He found a nice sturdy light weight one. He was happy doing his trail work.

Our moderate winter weather has kept the mushrooms growing. My husband spied this adorable one growing on a downed log.

We stopped at the viewpoint for a quick snack and a drink of warm broth, before heading farther up the trail.

The view from the overlook.

As we were making our way up the trail from the overlook we met the runners that we'd seen at the start of our hike. They had run up the road and were now coming back via the trail. They had run to the Acme diner up and over Stewart mtn. for lunch. Of course I asked them what they ate. They had Burgers and Blood Mary's. Wow, so that made their distance total about 24 miles. Not a bad way to get to a restaurant for lunch. I marked where Acme is on the map below with a red dot in relation to the trails we did for our route. They went A LOT farther than we did.

We came to where we needed to make a decision for our descent. The Upper Brown Pow trail (a mountain bike trail) junction led out to the road, but we decided to continue to the trail terminus. So onward it was. As I was standing at the corner of the trail I looked back at where the sign was for the Upper Brown Pow trail, it was upended when the tree on the right was uprooted. The sign post was now leaning against a tree. The trail sign on the left is after the hairpin turn.

Taking the hairpin turn towards the terminus and more up.

There was so much blow down in this area. I'm not sure what group did the trail clean up, but it was greatly appreciated by us. All of their hard work kept the trail obstacle free. 

Our first glimpse of snow on the ground. It was raining and we could hear the rain buzzing on the power lines above.

It didn't take long and we were hiking along the light dusting of snow on the ground.

As the snow got deeper Scoutina couldn't resist a good snow roll. Click on the link to watch her happiness

https://youtu.be/VDj5xwC0sK8?feature=shared.

After a few more switchbacks we were at the terminus.

Our usual lunch spot below the branches. There are a couple of planks on some rocks that make a nice sitting place. It was quite chilly and with gloves off to eat our hands got very cold. It was nice to finish eating and put on our gloves and pack to get walking and get our blood moving for warmth.

As we descended by the road it didn't take us long to warm up, not enough to take off our layers but enough to be comfortable. It was misty so we kept our rain coats on.

I didn't know if the clouds would be high enough for us to get a view, but we were able to see the lake from the road.

As we went down the road we passed by the trail junctions signs.

More scenic views and power line views

The chart below shows our up and down. As you can see, the down was a bit steeper.

It was a chilly, drizzly day. I'm glad we chose to go to the top before joining the road. It was a great adventure.

Total miles hiked: 9.6

Total ascent: 2175 feet