Heart lake photo shoot day

My husband brought our big camera and I used my iphone to capture some of the sights along the trail yesterday. We walked about 3 1/2 miles and I used my Gaia gps app to see what trail number we needed to be on to find our way through the maze of trails near the lake. The purple arrow icon shows us where we are on the trail.

It didn't take us long to find things to take pictures of. I seemed to be one of my husbands featured subjects🤣

No, I don't know the names of everything that we see in the forest. I call this one "pretty little flower".

He caught me taking a close up of a flower.

I was getting a close up of a Calypso orchid.

We spotted some Calypso Orchid also known as Lady Slipper or Fairy slipper Orchids.

Lots of Oregon grape in bloom.

We then came across a fallen tree that someone had put markers for the dates in the rings of the tree.

I took a close up of each of the labeled sections. The above photo is the full image, below you can see what to labels say if you zoom in on the photo to enlarge it.

Another photo of a photographer photo.

My husband was patient and got some small wildlife photos, here a squirrel is having a snack,

and a couple of birds.

We walk out to the road and followed it until it came to another trail entrance.

The ferns are coming up. I took this photo

My husband got this close up of the unfurled tips of a fern.

A little yellow flower.

We didn't see many people on the trail, but we stopped and chatted with a local who had great knowledge of the plants in this trail area. She told us where we could possible find some more Orchids. Awesome, I mask up and keep my distance still when I meet people since my immunity is low while I am getting my chemo infusions.

It always pays to look up❤

More interesting sights along the trail:

Heart lake

Another photo of me.

Yes! We found some more Orchids near the trail finish.

Close up with my iphone.

A beautiful day enjoying the beauty of the Heart lake forest.

Some fun-filled days

I've had two Chemo infusions now. Learning and adapting that's how I'm moving through Chemo, that and my Movement is Medicine priority to hopefully help lessen the symptoms and keep my brain and body happy. 

Chemo day number two. This infusion hit hard after the two day Steroid intermission. Thankfully it didn't last long. The oncologist ordered me some new meds that should help in the future if I need them. I think I've figured out a plan for how to approach infusion number three.

As I've said I try to walk every day. This post is about some of the more fun outings we've had this past week.

Six days after my infusion I felt like I wanted to go to the Sand Dune trail at the Cranberry lake/West Beach area near Deception Pass. We've walked it before and it is interesting and scenic.

The lake was high when we began the trail.

I spied some baby Geese❤

We walked wide on the trail so we wouldn't disturb them too much.

As you can see our efforts weren't completely successful, they gathered together in a nice little group farther away from the trail.

The Sea Thrift was in full bloom when we were there.

I took a close up of one of the flowers.

We stopped at one of the view areas and looked over the grass filled area of the lake.

The trail has a great Sand Dune section,

and just a few steps away Goats beard hanging off of the trees.

More Sea Thrift through the Sand Dune trail

and more Goat's beard hanging in the trees. Such a diverse eco system on one short trail.

The Sand Dune trail leads to West Beach.

We walked the beach back to our car.

There were lots of drift wood structures along the shore, but this one was unique.

Little treasures had been tucked here and there.

On Thursday we went Kayaking for the first time this year.

So beautiful❤

If you expand the photo below you'll see that we were admiring the view of Mt. Baker in the distance.

While we had our Kayaks together I thought I'd get a selfie with both of us in it. It was obvious that it wasn't going to work. Both the angle of the boats when we leaned towards each other and my husbands lack of desire to be in a selfie won out. The following photo shows how fun I thought the joint selfie attempt was🤣

The following day we decided to head to the Centennial trail in Snohomish county for our walk. This was a low traffic day on the trail unless you count these folks. Since my immunity is lower now after chemo, I make sure to mask up and keep my distance when out in public.

Yesterday was the icing on the cake!! Our first Snow shoe of the year❤

The conditions were perfect for our snow walk. I felt the altitude every incline and had to rest to re-gain my breath, but mostly it was fine. I had a few of my chemo symptoms to manage during the walk, but I always bring a bag of supplies and helpful medications (I'm a quick learner). We went 1 1/2 miles around the upper ski area, looked over Bagley lakes/Herman Saddle and Table mtn. before turning towards a view of Shuksan on our return to the car. 

Table mountain

My husband looking towards Table mountain.

Me, walking along and enjoying the views.

We took a rest break and enjoyed watching skiers ski down off of Herman Saddle and into the Bagley lake basin. They skied to the right and below that area below Table mountain where you can see there had been avalanche activity.

Shuksan peeking out around the hillside.

I'm glad that the Chemo so far hasn't taken away my energy. I plan on getting out whenever I can to enjoy doing the things I love. I understand that my perspective on how I want to live while on chemo isn't what most people think of when they hear that someone is going through chemo, I have no intention of sitting around and waiting to do things till after I'm done with my treatments. I'd rather manage my symptoms while active than sit on the couch managing them. I'm not reckless about my health, if I'm tired I stay home and rest, If I feel good enough to get moving I get moving. Going through chemo myself has changed my own perspective on what I thought I would be able to do & I’m glad that it has.

Maybe my journey can give someone else a new perspective about what life can be like while going through their own cancer treatments.

Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.