Bp, Point Whitehorn walkabout

My husband and I enjoyed a nice walk at one of our favorite areas, the local Bp public access area.
Here are some pictures of the access area I had taken on another day -

We decided to walk around most of the perimeter and then cut off into the Point Whitehorn trail access area.
Since we've been having such dry weather, I was surprised to see so many trees and ferns along the trail already going brown. They seem to be distressed without the water they are used to getting.

When I go to the BP area to run or walk I usually stick to the paved road that runs through the gated property, so going cross country was very fun for me. Adding the Point Whitehorn trail to the day may it different as well. It's always nice to drop down to the beach from the trail, a very different terrain from the start of our walk. The picture below was taken from another days walk, but I wanted to include it so you could see the beach access from the trail. The trail from the parking lot is wheelchair accessible until the top of these stairs.

There were quite a few of these jelly fish (which I'm assuming were dead) on the beach.

The crab below was really about an inch wide, but I took a macro photo of it so you could see how colorful it is.

We went back up to the BP land by way of a steep trail up a cliff. It was about 100 feet up and thankfully it had a rope tied along it the whole way to help us work our way up the trail.
*Very fun!

Endomondo stats:
Total miles walked - 5.25 miles
Total ascent - 100 feet
Total descent - 127 feet

*Did I happen to mention that I'm signed up to do the Montana Spartan Sprint again next May :-)

Picture of the week ~ Lavender Shortbread cookies

Picture of the week ~ Whose stick is it?!

Stimpson trail run

I varied from my regular Thursday hike, when I got an invite from my daughter to go for a trail run with her. She wanted something a little hillier than she has in her own location.

So we met at the local REI parking lot and drove together to Stimpson Reserve.

The plan was for me to run one loop and for her to run two loops while her kids were in camp. We only had a few hours to do this & we planned it just right for her to head home before their bus would arrive.

She and her husband do Spartan races, they will be doing one in August so she needed a good training run. They hope to earn a double Trifecta (2 Sprints, 2 Supers & 2 Beasts) this year. One Trifecta is when the three levels of Spartan races are completed in one calendar year: Sprint, Super & Beast. They accomplished the single Trifecta last year.

I posted about their first Spartan race in August of 2014 HERE.

We had a good morning exercising, (doing our push ups and mountain climbers)

and running (kindof) together! 

She passed me twice on the trail, once around Geneva pond where we purposely went opposite directions so we could say hi and the next time was about 1/2 mile from the finish.

Saying hi as we passed each other near Geneva pond

If you click to enlarge the photo, you will see her just coming out of the trees in the distance on the trail.

In the video (sorry iPhone users, you won't be able to see the video) she's passing by, and ready to be done. 

Fun morning with that girl of mine.

Picture(s) of the Week ~ Pillars of Wisdom

A finished a piece called "Pillars of Wisdom" for the 

Camano Island Library.

We had a chance to go and look at it in place. It looks amazing!

Ridley Creek Trailblazer hike

The destination for today's hike was Ridley creek, 

I thought I hadn't been on this trail before but my husband reminded me I had hiked it many moons ago. We had backpacked to the Mazama Park horse camp and spent the night at the meadow.

Today 12 of us Trailblazers carpooled up the Mt. Baker hwy, the Mosquito Lake road and then about 12 miles on FS road 38 to the trail head.

 Interesting sign to read at the beginning of the hike.

Click to enlarge to better read the signs

I found this link to a blog about the geology of the trail area.
You can read the post HERE .
I understand that this bridge crossing had been damaged in a rain we had a couple of days ago and was just repaired and replaced yesterday, perfect timing for our hike. 

The forest was very lush with lots of mosses, ferns, conks & blueberries. It was a magically beautiful place to spend the day.

Entering Mt. Baker Wilderness area

There were many mother logs in this forest, but this one I really liked.

This bridge was a little precarious for some in our group as it had no hand rail, but there was no water below at this time either, so it was an easy bridge to bypass. 

I enjoyed crossing it.

By the time we'd gone just a little over 3 miles and had been steadily going up we were all wanting to stop and eat our lunches. There was no view point or even a great place to sit, so we just plopped down along the trail and tried to find a good log or rock to sit on. 

Our fearless leader "Pat" was hoping to get us up to the opening of the Mazama meadow before heading down, but we only walked a short distance more after lunch before heading back. we all agreed it had been a beautiful forest hike with a few peeks at the Twin Sisters and Park Butte.

Our fearless leader Pat keeps track of our stops, starts, turns etc. on each of our hikes.

Click to view the Twin Sisters a bit better

Even though they were viewed through the trees and at a great distance away, we didn't feel too cheated at not getting any higher today.

click to enlarge to get a clearer view of Park Butte

There were a few clouds in the sky that obscured a view from us when we began our hike today, but as we crossed the Middle Fork river foot bridge on our return the sky had opened and we got a magnificent view of the Black Buttes and the Deming Glacier.

Most excellent!

click to enlarge to get a clearer view of  the Black Buttes and Deming glacier

Ridley Creek trail is a part of the historic Bellingham to Baker Marathon route. You can read about the historic race and of Daniel Probst's dreams to revive this race HERE.

Endomondo stats:

Total miles hiked - 7.17 miles

Minimum altitude - 2409 feet

Maximum altitude - 4354 feet

Total ascent - 2303 feet

Total descent - 2073 feet

Picture of the week ~ Trumpet Vine

Skyline Divide Trailblazer hike

Fires, Smoke and a change of plans.

Our Trailblazer group was scheduled to hike up Sauk Mtn. today, but a wildfire burning near Baker lake prompted our fearless leader Pat to make a change. So instead of heading south of Bellingham, we headed north to Skyline divide. We were hoping to get another chance to see some mountain wildflowers before they are all gone.

We drove the long gravel road (12 miles) up to the trail head from the Mt. Baker hwy. 

We stopped to watch a Grouse walk VERY SLOWLY across the road.

 Our group of 8 stretched our legs from the long ride, got our packs and boots on and headed up the trail.

Note, the blue bag dispenser hanging on the sign post. The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National forest requires that human waste be packed out in the blue bags.

Our fearless leader Pat signing in at the trail head.

A heart rock <3

We hadn't hiked for very long when we realized our leader was in distress. He has breathing difficulty normally on inclines, but this was much worse than usual. He wasn't doing well, we all agreed we should head back down the trail. I've stated this about our group before, but I really like how supportive and encouraging we are when one of our hikers is having a hard time. That is what it means to be in a group experience, we always yield to the person that is having difficulty. No one moans about the missed opportunity of going to the top. We rally around the particular person, doing what we can to get them back to the car as quickly and safely as possible. 

I tried to get a photo of the haze in the sky, we realized the reason for his labored breathing was the smoke in the air drifting down from the fires in British Columbia, Canada

Slight smoke haze in the air

 We dropped down in elevation and ate our lunch along the river, much cooler too. 

You can see by the milky colored water that there is alot of Glacier melt going on in the mountains.

more slight smoke haze in the air

 After lunch Pat enjoyed taking us on a little scenic drive to checkout the area.

 Of course the mandatory stop at Graham's for ice cream on the way home & as you can see I did manage to get a picture of some flowers too!

Little did we know that both of our hiking destinations would be impacted by the wildfires burning around us. It was still wonderful to be out with our group, even on an abbreviated hike.

Endomondo stats:

Total miles hiked - 1.77 miles

Minimum altitude - 4915 feet

Maximum altitude - 4117 feet

Total ascent - 825 feet

Total descent - 703 feet