Picture of the week ~ Top nine

My top nine "most liked" photos of 2018, from my Instagram account "@justme_alive"

Photos are described row by row, starting from the top left:

1. August 19, 43 years ago, we were at this place. Going back soon. Happy anniversary to us. #wonderlandtrail #mountrainier

2. April 10, Beasts OCR challenge to put up our transformation pics. Here's mine; transformation summary in photos from April 2008  #transformation #beastsocr

3.  June 3, Finishers! North Olympic Discovery trail marathon (ran 7 minutes/walked 3 minutes intervals) #NODMarathon

4. Feb. 25, I recently read this quote & can relate to it. There is a sense of not belonging in your "usual" life, after a multi-day adventure. This quote says it beautifully. "Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking. You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits." Cindy Ross #backpacking #northernloopmountrainier 

5. September 6, Wonderland trail day 5, Mowich lake to Golden lakes and into the rain. #backpacking #wonderlandtrail

6.September 8, Hard earned Beast in the books. It was all I could do to finish. Thank God for Mustard (stops cramps). I am definitely not recovered from the mountain. #determined #spartanseattle2018

7. September 23, X2 Trifecta 2018 medal (2 Trifecta's in one calendar year) X2 (tough course, 8.86 miles - 2748 feet ascent) #spartanvancouver2018 #X2trifectatribe #savoringmysixties #livinginsteadofjustexisting #justmealive

8. Nov. 8, My first snow angel of the year #snowangel #mtshuksan #artistpoint

9. #railroadbridge #christmaslights

Madrone Crest w/Chuckanut falls spur hike

Today we set out to explore Rufus creek trail in new trail system at Lookout Mtn. As we made our way to Bellingham we saw that the wind was still blowing pretty strong (I looked at my weather app and it said the gusts were at 36 mph). We had planned on going there yesterday but the forecast was for high winds and rain all day, and getting better on Friday so we put it off for today. We aren't too keen on hiking in the forest on windy days, our pumpkin heads are way too soft for large branches and heaven forbid full size trees falling on them. My husband made a wonderful decision for a change of destination since the winds were blowing out of the SSE. He figured the Sudden Valley area would probably be in the winds' path, so we headed towards Chuckanut mtn. Our plan would be to hike the west side of the mtn. and be sheltered from the wind. It worked out perfectly and we had no rain. Hurray!

Here's a photo of the route that we took as shown from my Garmin tracking.

We parked at the North Chuckanut parking lot and headed up the hill to the Interurban trail. It's a short uphill to a boardwalk trail just before the Interurban trail junction.

Hiking along the Interurban trail.

One of the small falls along the trail.

We took a right turn at the sign.

A closer view of the sign.

A sea of ferns ❤

Another small waterfall just off the trail.

We headed down the Chuckanut falls trail and noticed all of the treefall carnage along the way.

Chuckanut Falls

Back out to the trail to make our way towards Madrone crest by way of the Hemlock trail,

and the Huckleberry trail.

Wonderful bits of jelly? fungus here and there on the trees.

Mr. and Mrs. Pack enjoying their view at our lunchbreak. I don't know why they're sitting so far apart, hope they're getting along o.k.😉

One of the "less" foilaged sections of the trail.

The Mr. checking out the map board.

Looks like we'll meander up the Salal trail.

First some sawing to clear the way.

Yay! Cut and cleared!!

A nice mossy rock outcropping along the trail.

Lichen? I liked the contrasting colors in the photo.

More hanging trees, we got to go under and over some today.

Holly Berries ❤

Madrona tree ❤

(Madrona, Madrone or Arbutus?)

Mr. and Mrs. Pack stopped to enjoy the view at Madrone crest. Looks like they're getting along better now😍, sitting a bit closer together.

Not too much of a view today. Mt. Baker is hiding behind the clouds. We did have a fine view of a clear cut logging operation though.

I loved how the sun peeked in to the trail through the trees.

We made our way out to the Lost Lake trail and headed down the hill,

Of course a little more trail clean up again.

Fine work, trusty little handsaw!

Back to the Hemlock trail

and my first heart rock sighting of 2019❤

One more interesting lichen?

The final leg, down the boardwalk trail to the parking lot. Thanks to the Mr. for keeping us safe with his alternate route decision and thanks to his "trusty little handsaw" for clearing the way.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/vJVVv0ZL1dA

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 7.72

total ascent - 2188

total descent - 1719 feet