North Butte - Blanchard Mountain

I had originally planned to start hiking with the Senior Trailblazers yesterday but my husband had the day off, so we decided to hike to the North Butte viewpoint on Blanchard Mountain instead. We started on the Alternate Incline trail, heading towards Lizard lake went all the way to the viewpoint on the top then came back down by Lily lake and returned by way of Max's shortcut.

Lizard Lake

Beaver activity

View from the top

Lily Lake

Very industrious Beaver activity

Columbine

It was a really nice hike, after doing Oyster Dome last week 

I didn't know if my legs would do it but it was great fun.

Endomondo stats:
7.76 total miles hiked

I've been hiking alot to get into shape to hike with the Trailblazers again. Here's the post I wrote that has a summary of the hikes I did to prepare for joining them again - https://hearsdifferentdrummer.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-resident-frog.html 

Our resident Frog

This week we were sad to find our resident frog dead in one of our ponds, he had a puncture wound. We think either a crow or Blue Heron might have taken a stab at him. Here's my post about how I finally got a picture of him sitting on our duck decoy - http://hearsdifferentdrummer.blogspot.com/2012/09/our-frog.html

Not long ago I got a picture of him sunning himself in our Irish Moss. 

I will miss him. I had started a habit of eating my meals outside by our pond on sunny days and watching him. I greatly enjoyed watching him: floating in the pond with just his eyes visible, sunning himself on the pond ledge & in the Irish Moss. We decided to give him a proper burial since he brought such joy to our days. RIP Frog.

What I've been doing lately -

I've been hiking again, trying to get myself fit enough for the trails. 

Running & biking are NOT the same as hiking. Whew, my legs have been talking to me.
I've hiked -
May 27th Stimpson Nature Reserve
Endomondo stats:
4.44 total miles hiked
Min. altitude 455
Max altitude 937
Total ascent 3520
Total descent 3549

June 5th Fragrance Lake
Endomondo stats:
5.27 total miles hiked
127 Min. altitude
1269 Max. altitude
5518 Total ascent
6017 Total descent

June 12th Pine and Cedar Lakes
Endomondo stats:
5.13 total miles hiked
252 Min. altitude
1740 Max. altitude
5881 Total ascent
6001 Total descent

June 19th Oyster Dome
Endomondo stats:
7.01 total miles hiked
74 Min. altitude
2247 Max. altitude
8224 Total ascent
8357 Total descent

I survived so am hopeful to join the Senior Trailblazers again soon. Here's a post of my first hike with them - http://hearsdifferentdrummer.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-day-with-senior-trailblazers.html

Over the weekend we drove down to get on the Mukilteo/Clinton ferry to Whidbey Island. Driving the back roads through Whidbey Island we found the most wonderful network of trails. Since we had our dog with us we only went for a short hike (she's getting older and can't go as far anymore). We found a trailhead at the Saratoga woods parking area.

We thoroughly enjoyed our hike through the forest, later as we were driving we came across a larger parking lot with a more official looking trail entry area. There was an info. board with this map on it, as you can see the trail system is extensive.

here's a link to more info.- http://www.putneywoods.org/about.html