Galbraith Mtn. Trailblazer hike

10 of us cheery souls met today & drove to the Birch st. access for our Galbraith mountain hike. This area is predominantly known  for being a Mountain biking area, but today we claimed it as a hiking paradise.

It was a bit chilly today and we were well bundled up in our layers.

not far up the trail we passed a tree that someone had decorated festively for Christmas.

The trails have wonderful names, some of the ones we passed were:

Family Fun Center 

There to Here

? (yes that's all that was on the sign board)

Candy

I loved how these tree roots embraced this rock.

we also saw some interesting frost that looked like fur, Owen blew on it to prove that it would indeed melt.

There were a few viewpoints, but the hike was mostly in a fern filled forest.

we ate lunch at about the 4 mile point and I checked my phone's AccuWeather app and it said it was 30 degrees & the real feel was 23. We all agreed. Brrrrrr.

Lots of fun visiting and laughing today. Marijke topped it off by having us do a group hug, 

where we  wished each other a Merry Christmas.

Endomondo stats:

7.2 total miles hiked

 448 Min. altitude

1366 Max. altitude

878 Total ascent

890 Total descent

Out and About

I put together some photos of some interesting sights we've seen 

on some of our rides lately. 

Of course since Christmas is nearly here, 

we see the occasional tree decorated along the road.

Every time we drive by this old shack I want to take a photo of it, I finally did! 

I'd like to talk with it about what kind of a life it's had. Oh the stories it would probably tell.....

of course we went birding ;-)

and we saw many, many Snow Geese -

Here's a video, you can watch them fly and hear how noisy they are!

we were heading home at just the right time to see  a rosy Mt. Baker above the Blueberry fields.

and now that the N'east winds have left us, and it's beginning to warm a bit, today we got a little snow!