Chain lakes Trailblazer hike

The magic number is "12".

The wilderness regulations state that the maximum hiking group shall be 12, exactly the number in our group today!

We began our Chain lakes hike today at the Artist point parking lot.
(Reminder - click on the pictures to view them larger)

A beautiful if not a little warm (mid 80's) day of hiking.

Every direction I looked was breathtaking, I obviously could have taken way more pictures.

We stopped for lunch at Iceberg lake.

my husband couldn't resist a cooling dip!

after lunch we walked a little further enjoying the many blueberries along the trail. 

Jean put hers in a container for her pancakes tomorrow morning!

We saw lots of different mushrooms along the trail. Here's my favorites - by favorites I mean to look at, I have no idea if they are edible or if they should be eaten.

As I said earlier it was a warm hike, whenever we found shade we stopped to cool down a bit.

I saw these bees and a butterfly in the flowers beside the trail.

In a word, the day was "Glorious"

Endomondo stats:
5.48 total miles hiked
4643 Min. altitude
5266 Max. altitude
3943 Total ascent
3800 Total descent

Mt. Erie Trailblazer hike

Only 7 of us decided to show up and see where the weather would take us. We were scheduled to go and hike Yellow Aster Butte, but the forecast was for an increasing chance of rain, thunder and lightening later in the day. We headed towards Anacortes instead! The Anacortes area is usually a dryer option when it's rainy here in Bellingham. Fragrance lake and Mt. Erie were mentioned as possible alternatives and since it was Fred's last hike with us this season, we agreed with his choice of Mt. Erie.  Sorry the picture is a little blurry, but I wanted to show this one with Fred in it helping Carol with her rain gear.

We chose wisely there really wasn't too much rain to suffer through!

The sun filtered softly through the trees off and on during our forest walk.

We went on alot of different trail numbers: 302, 305, 21....etc., till I was very confused. I really didn't think I could retrace our route if it were left up to me. So thankful that Pat knows his way around so many trail systems as well as he does.

Owen's remark to the following sight - "He's really out on a limb"!

A welcome sign -

When ate lunch at the top, not much of a view.

but by the time we left....

ahhhhhhhhhh 

Pat showing us just how extensive the trail system is.

A wonderful alternative hike, and we didn't see any sign of the trail bullies.

Endomondo stats:
6.67 total miles hike
281 Min. altitude
1328 Max. altitude
6638 Total ascent
6759 Total descent

Anniversary Celebrating!

As I said in this post "42 years - Together" we would be celebrating our Anniversary. My husband took some days off & we enjoyed some of our favorite local places together. Tuesday we went on a drive to Whidbey Island and ate Fish & Chips at Keystone cafe, right next to the Coupeville ferry landing. We then drove leisurely around the Island stopping here and there to enjoy the area.

The best around - (stock photo)

Yes, we brought the beast with us :-)

Then on Wednesday (our day of love) we drove down to Arlington to begin our bike ride. We rode north towards Nakashima barn and back.

Our start in Arlington

have I said before that I love this trail!? 

Thanks to my husbands alert eyes, we saw this pond turtle beside the trail.

Pond turtle

Nakashima barn

We stopped at the barn for a late lunch and discussed whether we wanted to ride to hwy 9 where the trail ends. From the barn to the hwy it is still grass and hasn't been finished yet. As we were riding towards the grass path I spotted this sign right before the bridge crossing. We didn't see one, but it did make it a bit more exciting.

We rode for about 1 1/2 miles on this path, it was really beautiful. We then rode the hwy back to the barn to return on the paved trail. We rode about 20 miles total, afterwards we cleaned up/changed our clothes and went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Such a great way to spend our special day together.

Thursday it was raining but that didn't stop us, we put on our boots and rain gear and went for a walk at the BP public access area. We really enjoy walking here with our dog Lexis.

On Saturday we went to the Fragrance garden at Tennant Lake.

42 years - Together!

42 years - Together

     as my husband & I were contemplating our life together, he said today "we're closer to death than we've ever been, both of us are contemplating how to live without the other, knowing that it could happen anytime. Even the dog who's on her last legs could leave one or the other of us completely alone"

    This is what I've had to live with for 42 years. He has an interesting and quirky way about him that always makes me smile. The above statement made by him was all said in jest, just so you know ;-)

Tomorrow we are celebrating our 42nd anniversary with a bicycle ride & picnic on the Centennial trail in Snohomish county, one of our favorite places to be. Marriage for us has been a journey of ups and downs, great joy and great pain. We've both had our moments of utter stupidity and then of incredible strength for each other with unconditional love. To us marriage is a lifetime commitment, when the bumps of life come along we put in the effort to be better. After all, marriage is really just learning how to accept each other where we're at.

42 years 

pretty good for a young couple, that started out the way we did (me 17 and pregnant, him 19 and going to college).

When we were married we were told by someone that it would never work, 

well just look at us now!

Blanchard Mtn./Lily and Lizard lakes Trailblazer hike

I should have titled this the "Separation hike". 14 of us met at the Bellingham Senior Center this morning to sign in and to talk about where we were going and to split up for our carpool rides to the trail head. When we got to the Blanchard Mtn. trail head on Barrel Springs road we realized that one of the cars wasn't with us. Thanks to Ed who had a cell phone, we got in touch with them and since they had gone to the wrong place, they decided to go on their own hike today instead of trying to find us. The driver of their car miss-heard our destination and had headed for Chuckanut drive. So they had 3 in their group and our group was now 11.

This is where we were all supposed to meet

getting ready to hike

Today's hike would be all in the forest except for a trip to North Butte to check out the view.

As we were going along my left calf that I had injured in 2011 was feeling pretty tight. It had been getting really sore the last mile of last weeks long hike, I told my husband that I didn't like how it felt so we talked about it and agreed that instead of hiking up to North Butte with the rest of the group, we would continue past Lily and Lizard lakes and hike on down to the car and wait for them to return. Our leader Pat agreed that this would be a good idea.

"OUR" separation, they went left - we went right 

This separation would shorten our hike by a little over a mile. Since we left the group we could now hike at a slower pace that was more comfortable for my leg. 

We didn't really go to these lakes, just passed by the sign

The trail to Lizard lake was so cute, a trail crew had lined the path with rocks. We decided this would be a nice place to sit and eat our lunch.

It was nice to take a more leisurely walk with my husband. The trail had several benches on the way down. So of course I took the opportunity to have my picture taken!

I noticed this tree along the trail (in the photo below), it had completely outgrown it's mother tree. 

Now that was a good "mother" ;-)

last bridge on the way out

We only had to wait about 40 minutes for the group to rejoin us. Not too bad, and my leg survived. I think ice will be my friend for the next few days.

together at last

I will be skipping next week's hike to Park Butte, I'd like my leg to feel better before I go again, besides next week is our 42nd wedding anniversary. 

Our shortened hike today just right! 

Endomondo stats:

7.82 total miles hiked

818 Min. altitude

2160 Max. altitude

10735 Total ascent

10740 Total descent