Anacortes plus Trailblazer hike

To tell you the truth I didn't know if we were going to hike or just sit around the table and drink coffee and visit today as I left home for today's hike. We had a terrific wind storm during the night and when I woke up we had no power and part of our fence had blown over.

Knowing our "fearless leader" Pat wouldn't take us anywhere unsafe, I brought my hiking gear to see what was in store for us.

9 brave souls showed up at the Bellingham Senior activity center. The wind was still blowing pretty strong when we left. The plan was to hike the trails in Washington park then head over to the Tommy Thompson trail, so two hikes in one day.

I looked up the last time our group had hiked this and it was July 2014. It was another not great weather day in Bellingham that ended up being a wonderful Anacortes hiking day. You can read that post HERE. 

Before we began hiking I checked out an app on my iphone "windalert" to see what the local winds were near where we would be hiking.

Here's a screenshot of the hours leading up to our hike, a high gust of over 70 mph, wow! -

We started the hike by walking a short ways on the loop road before joining the trail. Just before we got on the trail we went down to the beach to enjoy the views.

We walked a short ways on the trail and found a tree crossing our path.

Pat showed us his map for the trail through the park, the trail posts were marked with colors instead of names/numbers like most trail systems.

 The area is full of Madrona's and an oddity to the area Rocky mountain junipers. We walked through an area with Glacial carvings along a large rock.

 Then up to a wonderful open area that reminded me of the headlands near Sausalito, California.

 We saw some early spring flowers and a few deer as we walked along.

We came down to the parking lot for lunch, most went to the protection of the trees (out of the wind) but a couple couldn't resist going down to the beach and sitting in the sun. After I ate my lunch in the trees, I went down to see what I had missed, boy am I glad I did.

Panorama photo below

Even though the wind was blowing, we were fairly protected in the forest. There was a bit of blown down branches from earlier storms, but I never felt unsafe while we were walking. 

You never know where your safe harbor will be, for us it was Anacortes.

First hike endomondo stats:

 total miles hiked - 3.05 miles

minimum altitude - minus 15 feet

maximum altitude - 229 feet

total ascent - 449 feet

 total descent - 464 feet

Second hike endomondo stats:

(a city trail, you can see a photo of it in the above link from 2014)

total miles hiked - 4 miles

 minimum altitude - 2 feet

maximum altitude - 62 feet

total ascent - 36 feet

total descent - 67 feet

Picture of the week ~ Skagit Valley Daffodils

February Summary: Spartan races, 1/2 & full marathon(s) training

Training summary for the month of February, click HERE to see January's (endomondo) stats.

My totals for the month are:

28,998 - total calories burned
pounds lost since January 1st - 10

124.3 miles - run, walk, hike

6 hours 9 minutes and 25 seconds - circuit training

1 hour 48 minutes - weight training

3 hours 40 minutes - Yoga

1 hour 52 minutes - Tai chi

The picture below was taken while training on the Padilla Bay trail on a warm February day.

Fragrance lake Trailblazer hike

17 of us enjoyed hiking to Fragrance lake from the Lost lake parking lot. We packed and dressed for rain but just got a few drops right before lunch. Our "Fearless leader" Pat said he did a rain dance last night so we would have good weather, it worked!

I've probably taken a picture of this particular tree with its roots growing over the rock several times, but I'm always intrigued with it.

A few of our group hiked out to the overlook, there was a bit of a view even the the sky was overcast.

Someone laid their hiking poles against the rail fence, I thought it was worth a photo!

Owen and Bill posing at the sign for me, Bill has been with us a couple of hikes now. He's normally a Group 1 hiker, but we've enjoyed his company.

An interesting set of bracket fungus on the tree below.

The last time I hiked this trail with our group, it was in November. There was a great reflection of the trees in the lake that day. If you'd like to see the photo and read about that day's hike click HERE.

It's always nice when someone takes a photo of me when they're with us, I'm rarely in my posts since I'm taking the photos. Bill sent me this one - proof, I really was there!

I took this macro photo of some tiny spring buds near the lake.

The photo below was sent to me from Bill as well. It shows the rocks near the lake and the trees growing up in every nook and cranny wherever there was enough soil.

We walked part of the way around the lake and found a nice place to eat our lunches. Then we continued on around.

We walked the road down instead of  continue back on the trail, I'm glad we did because we got to see this wonderful waterfall.

There was a lot of windblown branches in the forest from some of the last wind storms, but this was very sobering to come along. So many trees over the road, but I wonder did anyone here them when the fell???

Such a nice day in the forest, thanks Pat for doing that rain dance!

I saw this on a car in the parking lot ;-)

Endomondo stats:

Total miles hiked - 6.5

Minimum altitude 135 feet

Maximum altitude - 1168 feet

Total ascent - 1126 feet

Total descent - 1174 feet

Picture of the week ~ Lake Padden

Oyster Dome Trailblazer hike

18 of us Senior Trailblazers started at the Samish Overlook and headed towards Oyster Dome.

I was excited to see the new trail work to bypass the rooted uphill experience of the old trail.

old trail

new trail

When we got to the top, the view was fantastic. On a sunny day the rock on the top is really a nice place to laze around and enjoy the day.

As we headed down we followed Max's short cut and then on to Larry Reed's trail.

macro mushroom

Endomondo stats:

*I had my doubts about the accuracy of today's stats

total miles hiked - 8.25

minimum altitude - 111 feet

maximum altitude - 2096 feet

total ascent - 2566 feet

total descent - 1396 feet

In November I used a picture of Marjan, one of our hikers for the picture of the week. She was building a kayak from a kit. Yesterday I was happy to watch her put her kayak in the lake and paddle it's maiden voyage. 

Here are some pictures of the day -

Karen brought Sparkling cider, we toasted and Marjan poured a bit on the bow to christen it!

It turned out beautifully and I was happy that I got to share her joy!

Picture of the week ~ goodbye 61

Looking forward to 62!