Hears Different Drummer

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Bowman Bay hike

Today's "up" (2018 Spartan race/Backpacking training) hike began at Bowman Bay on Fidalgo Island. I was a wee bit cold when I got out of our car after the drive from Bellingham. It was a long john & fleece clothing day for me.

Fitting weather for this Winter Solstice day

We first headed towards Lottie Bay,

but took a left turn and headed to Pass lake. We hiked past Pass lake and joined the John Tursi trail.

I loved this little "fungi" on this fallen log.

We spied a little off shoot trail and took a side trip to explore where this trail went. We marched around a small field and then made our way back to the trail.

We followed the Ginnett hill trail.

More "fungi's".

We came to the Ginnett/Tursi trail junction sign. We followed this trail for an out and back before heading "up" the Big Cedar trail.

On a sunny day this old house concrete pad is a great place to sit and eat lunch, but we wanted to hike a bit more before we stopped today.

Yay! A heart rock on the trail. I love finding these.

Now we are officially on the John Tursi trail.

The trail wanders along past an old cabin and mine. I love the picture below of my husband standing on the trail under these very green young trees.

A glimpse of Campbell lake.

The trail comes to an end on Donnell road. The trail head parking lot at this end is a 1/2 mile walk up the road.

I really enjoyed the Tursi trail. Lots of "up" from the road, with a few nice rock steps added here and there. A few more Madrona's along the trail.

Finally time for lunch. We stopped where we had a view of Campbell lake through the trees. It was very cold at lunch, I couldn't keep my gloves off for very long while I ate. The hot cocoa I put in our thermoses was a wonderful treat.

As I said this section of our hike was an out and back. We walked past the concrete slab again.

Just down the trail there was a marshy area. A small trail led in that direction, so we explored again. It didn't go too far, so it was back to our main trail.

The Big Cedar trail.

I couldn't get a photo of the height of the tree, but here is the trunk.

Such a big old tree.

It was another great "up" to the West Pass lake loop trail junction. We turned right at the sign, the trail goes to an old clearing then towards Rosario rd. We walked along a trail that parallels the road for a ways before coming to the Pass lake trail again.