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Banana Slug

British Army trail hike

Today we decided to hike the British Army trail on Blanchard mountain. I'm glad my husband studies the trail maps before we go on these hikes because I'm sure I wouldn't have found the trail as it connects from the gated logging road we followed at the start of our hike. We started from the upper trailhead parking lot off of Barrel Springs road. After walking about 1 mile we came to the Alternate incline trailhead, but we marched on past it and continued up the road.

A view of Samish lake in the distance.

3 1/2 miles of gravel road walking from the parking lot brought us to the British Army trailhead. If you look on the rock on the lower left section of the photo below you'll see a rock with a white trail blaze painted on it. That was our route.

The British Army trail is part of the PNT (Pacific Northwest Trail). There was a plethora of blazes on the trees along the trail. You can read about the formation of the PNT trail and why we have a trail named "the British Army trail" on Blanchard mountain here in this article - http://www.pnt.org/who-we-are/history/. 

I took a screen shot of the sections of the PNT trail from the Pacific Northwest trail association website, so you could see the states/sections included in the PNT trail. You can read more at their site HERE.

The British Army trail

A little friend crossing the trail.

Trillium!

A face in the forest.

"Many" Turkey tails on this fallen log,

We stopped at the North end of Lizard lake for our lunch. We had a wonderful few minutes of sun to warm us while we ate.

Then it was back on the trail, we walked along the west side of Lizard lake before connecting with the Lily/Lizard lake trail.

Another face in the forest.

We choose to return via Max's shortcut, the Larry Reed trail, and finally the Lily lake trail which took us back to the upper trailhead parking lot.

I thoroughly enjoyed our day on Blanchard mountain.

Max's shortcut

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 10.05 miles

minimum altitude - 821 feet

maximum altitude - 2087 feet

total ascent - 1585 feet

total descent - 1667 feet