Little Mountain Trailblazer hike

14 of us Trailblazers gathered eagerly today to carpool to the "mountain". 

No, not "THE" mountain. 

Here in our neck of the woods "THE" mountain is Mt. Baker. We will get up into the foothills of Mt. Baker soon, but today's hike was to be Little Mountain, located in Skagit Valley.

We've been having glorious weather lately, upper 70's and 80's. My kind of weather, I love it!

Pat in the photo below scouting out the map.

Then joined by Pam - more scrutinizing,

and we're on our way.

The forest made it ideal for hiking, the shade was nice and a slight breeze made it even better,

my favorite photo subject - "a sea of ferns"

 We gave this trail a 4 thumbs up rating, because there was a port a potty at the start, one at about our 1/2 way point up to our lunch spot and one at the view parking lot at the top. 

Outstanding!

If you click on the photo below, you will see that our fearless leader "Pat" seems to have an ethereal glow about him :-)

Ginny's Trail & our "Ginny"

The viewpoint looking to the North.

 

The photo below is a panorama, if you click on it to enlarge it, you will see Mt. Baker on the right.

Our merry crew, minus me & Joe. 

Joe was behind me taking a photo as well. 

We are the photo snappy ones of our troupe.

 I'm in the photo  below -  the one Joe took while I was taking the group photo.

photo credit Joe

I caught Helen enjoying the view at the overlook parking lot viewpoint.

If you click on the panorama below you will see what she was enjoying -

 "Skagit Valley".

I looked straight down and saw daisies.

We ate lunch at the viewpoint knoll.

A spectacular day!

Endomondo stats:

total miles hiked - 5.91

Maximum altitude - 958 feet

Minimum altitude - 139 feet

Total ascent - 908 feet

Total descent - 674 feet

Picture of the week ~ A run through tall grass

Goose Rock Trailblazer hike

Wow, it's been since April 30 that I was on a Trailblazer hike. 

Too long. 

What a great day for a hike! 17 of us met at the Bellingham Senior Center to begin the long carpool to Whidbey Island. I was excited not only because it was my first hike back with these great people, but because this is one of my favorite hikes (yes I know I have many favorites. hee hee). If you're interested you can read THIS POST from April 2014 (the first time I'd ever gone there).

We began our hike at Cranberry lake. I never know quite the route that our "fearless leader - Pat" will take us on, and he was true to form today. I've done this hike a couple of times before, but never with the route we took today. It's always interesting what our route and distance will be when it's all said and done.

Cranberry Lake

 

In the past when I've done this trail we have always taken a right at this sign in the photo below and headed up to the "balds" for lunch. Today Pat had other plans we went to the left around the Goose Rock perimeter trail before heading up the hill.

Cornet Bay

I had truly missed being in our beautiful Pacific Northwest forests.

Wild Rhododendron

 We also saw this little fellow below, with something in his/her tummy - lunch!?

Finally at the top.

Time to enjoy the view........

 & time for lunch.

On the way back we walked the beach.

I missed hiking with these great people while I was off playing for a few weeks.

If you ever get a chance to join a hiking group, by all means jump at the opportunity.

Another great day spent with great people.

Endomondo stats:

Total miles hiked - 7.6

Minimum Altitude - minus 10 feet

Maximum Altitude - 491 feet

Total Ascent - 755 feet

Total Descent - 802 feet

Picture of the week ~ Peony

Olympic Peninsula long weekend

The Trailblazer group I hike with on Thursday's are going to Stimpson Reserve for a 4 mile hike. I posted about our group hiking there last year. You can read about that trip HERE. I've been running & doing burpees there alot for my Spartan Training and felt like I wanted a change for my outing today. 

I may go for a long run instead.

I've been away from the Trailblazers for a few weeks now, due to my Montana Spartan Sprint race trip, Cousin reunion and Memorial long weekend travels.

I'll be looking forward to hiking with them again, but hopefully on a trail I haven't been on for awhile.

 My parents and my brother and his wife live in Sequim and it was nice to get out and enjoy the area with them. I thought I'd share some of the moments of our fun on the Olympic Peninsula.

We enjoyed a 10 mile bike ride along a section of the Olympic Discovery trail.

We got in some hikes to a few trails that were new to me.

Marymere & Madison fall, and Hurricane Hill. You can read about Marymere falls & Hurricane Hill in this article by Exotic Hikes (7 family friendly trails).

Marymere falls near Lake Crescent.

We then did the short hike to Madison falls.

While we in the area we drove up to see the  Elwha dam removal viewpoint. I was happy that this river has been set free & in my lifetime. 

Here is a time lapse video of the dam removal, it's short only about 4 1/2 minutes. If you'd like to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZE7kgXKJc#action=share

Our last hike was to be Hurricane Hill, The trailhead is a short drive just beyond the Hurricane Ridge visitors center

In the photo below, Hurricane Hill is just behind us.

Below is a panorama picture of the top of the "hill".

panorama - click to enlarge

The 2 photos below were my favorite photos of my husband on our trip.

Hiking in the high country made me anticipate our Trailblazer hikes this summer,

but today I shall run free in the lowlands of Whatcom county, hee hee.

Picture of the week ~ Red Poppy

Picture of the week ~ Diablo Lake