Ebey's Landing - Whidbey Island

What a perfect hike for the winter.  When there is snow up in the hills, turn to the islands.  It was sprinkling as I headed out with Cedar and a friend of mine to the Mukilteo/Clinton Ferry, but close to Clinton he spotted some dolphins to starboard and that was pretty cool.  I hadn't seen harbor porpoises in a long time, and even a glimpse of their backs and dorsals coming up through the water was a real treat.
This 5+ mile hike started out at the Ebey's Landing area, specifically Prairie Overlook, next to a lovely cemetary.  I didn't think people would want Cedar watering their loved ones' headstones, or I might have been tempted to wander through and look at some of the inscriptions.  As I pulled into the parking area, a beautiful male pheasant walked in front of the car and then flew over a nearby fence.  Prairie Overlook looked over some lovely old farmhouses and a patchwork of farmland.

From there the trail went down to a gravel road and then out to the bluff.  The sun came out then and lit up the water, which was pretty calm.  Seabirds and kelp dotted the surface.  The trail followed along the top of the bluff next to the edge of a forest of windswept gnarled firs about 250-300 feet above the beach for about 2 miles.

The sun was quite warm and the view was just non-stop gorgeous.

A lot of cargo ships were going in and out of the Sound and I also spotted the Victoria Clipper.
Just as we began to descend, we saw a hawk sitting in one of the trees on the bluff.

We ate lunch on the driftwood logs, and then headed back toward Ebey's Landing, a 2 mile beach walk.  It was lovely, and a breeze was blowing that felt great after walking all that way.  There are some agates on that beach, but very few shells.

Another odd thing was that in many places bull kelp had apparently been buried upside down, so just the roots were sticking straight up out of the sand. 

The tide was pretty high, so I couldn't tell if it would be a good tidepooling beach.  Cedar found a dead gumboot chiton though (which he rolled on) and I found a dead jellyfish (which I did not roll on).

We also saw a submarine with a Coast Guard guard. 

Once back to Ebey's landing, it was steps back up to the prairie farmland, and across to the car.  Walking so far through the sand was a great workout.  My car felt very far away as we went that last stretch.  Cedar was apparently still feeling frisky though, because he pounced into the grass and caught a vole!  I should have taken a picture of it to prove I have a hunting dog now.

 This is definitely a hike I'll come back to!

Carkeek Park

Another close-in trail, and perfect for those of us who ate too much for Thanksgiving to tackle a very long trail, is the trail system at Carkeek Park.  There are miles of trails here, but you can meander through all of them (it’s not one continuous loop though), or just do a little bit for the fresh air and scenery.  My youngest son came with for this trip.

Salmon spawn in Piper’s Creek which runs through the gulch there, and in fact yesterday there had been a celebration in their honor.  Hopefully they showed up for their celebration, because we didn’t see any today.  We also didn’t see any bald eagles, but it was still worth the trip. 

We ended up walking some of the South Bluff Trail, beautiful trees although the recent storm had brought quite a few down across the trail. 

From there we walked onto the beach, via a tiny bridge over the railroad track.  The tide was high, but I love walking on any beach any time, so I was happy with the bit of sand, some shiny smooth rocks and various holey twisted driftwood stumps. 

 Leaving the beach, we meandered up past a playground up the north bank, and then back down that bank to Piper’s Creek, looking for salmon again, and back to the car, maybe 2 miles total.

Heather Lake Revisited

I got both my boys to "volunteer" to go with on this hike!  Actually they were both excited about it until this morning.  It was a bit early for a weekend morning, and a thick layer of clouds had settled on the Puget Sound area like a cold wet blanket.  I chose this hike since I had been on it before and figured it was long enough to be a good workout, but short enough not to be too much for non-hikers at 4.6 mi round trip. 

As it turned out, with their long easy strides, they were singing and chatting through the dark wet woods as if they were hanging out on the couch, and I was red-faced and puffing back behind them.  This trail was a lot steeper than I had remembered.  I thought it was a challenge because it had been my 1st longish hike in awhile, but comparing it to Lake 22, the elevation gain is much less forgiving on this trail and there are a lot of steps. 
This one still has the nice water crossings, but not as many. 

There are some very large trees on this trail, but another difference between this one and Lake 22 is that the huge old growth trees are mostly still standing on that trail, whereas this one has a number of gigantic stumps.
The fog never did lift, and we had the trail pretty much to ourselves.  I was happy to see that there was snow up at the lake level still, but not as much as Lake 22. 

The biggest challenge was finding a dry place to sit and eat for lunch.  We ended up going almost all the way around before we found a rock that didn't have 2 inches of snow on top and wasn't too tall and jagged for a bench.  They scrambled up some on the way though, and Cedar joined them.

It was a wonderful trip, and a lot chattier and funnier than I am used to.  There were races, challenges, slush balls, and some pushing into the mud. 

I hope they join me for more hikes in the future.  I know that when I can keep up with them, I'll be OK for climbing Mt Rainier for sure. 
It wasn't easy getting teenage boys to get up early and head out into the gloomy mist.  Mine were pretty good about it, but it did cost me a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Lake 22 - Mountain Loop Hwy

When I woke this morning wrapped in my warm fleece sheets and with the beginnings of a migraine coming on, I wasn't sure I was really up to a hike.  I had to get up anyway though to take my son to school so I dosed up on coffee and ibuprofen and decided to give it a try.  Good decision!

This may be one of my new favorite trails.  I got there around 9:30 and I was the first car in the lot. Cedar and I had the trail mostly to ourselves the entire time.  It was raining when we got there and the temperature was in the 40's.  Cedar wore his new hiking coat, lined with fleece and waterproof, snowproof, mudproof, etc.  He didn't look very happy when I put it on, but it was obvious that he was a happier warmer dog on this hike than he had been on some of our other outings in the rain.

Just a few minutes into this hike and there was a stream not only crossing the trail, but flowing a few feet down it before veering off.  The stream bed and the trail were the same thing.  I was enchanted.  This turned out to be something that occurred so frequently on this trail that at one point Cedar started to walk up a creek, just assuming that because it had water flowing over it, it must be the trail. It was so fun to be walking through all these streams, burbling jubilantly down the hill to join up with the Pilchuck River. 

One of the only bridges was across the largest stream, a very strong and frothing Creek 22.

 There were numerous falls along Creek 22, but most were hidden from view and where the trail neared it, it was treacherously steep and slippery so I couldn't really get closer.  The sound of the water roaring through the woods was a nice audio track for my walk.

The trail climbs fairly gradually through the forest and then up some switchbacks through a slide area.  We kept a pretty good pace and I didn't notice the climb much until I found I was stumbling over some of the loose stones because my legs didn't want to pick my feet up anymore. We slowed a little, but it flattened out a bit after that anyway. 

As we got up into the upper slide area, I started seeing some tiny pockets of slush leftover from the season's first snowfall.  I didn't think I would see any, because the snow level had gone up to 5000 ft and I think this lake is at around 2500.  The patches got larger and this was Cedar's first snow.  He bit it, rolled in it, dug it up and got all frisky.  It was really cute to see.  It made me happy too, because I was hoping that there would be some at the lake, and now I was sure there would be.

When we came out of the woods at the lake I was wowed.  The lake is right up against these cliffs that rose up into the clouds, and everything was mostly covered with snow, which reflected perfectly in the lake- a black and white world of majestic beauty. 

The trail looped around the lake and it was pretty much covered with slushy snow.  As I neared the cliff side, it loomed up so steeply that there were moments that it appeared to lean over the lake.  A few waterfalls cascaded off of high places, seeming to turn into mist and never make it all the way down.

At the far side of the lake was a chunk of ice and snow that had obviously not melted off in at least a year.  It was like a miniature glacier.

About 3/4 of the way around the lake I heard a noise like someone dumping a wheelbarrow full of gravel and looked up just in time to see a small avalanche of little rocks and snow fall down.  I think this is likely a dangerous area to be when there is enough snowpack to have mess-you-up size avalanches.

Back down the trail into the woods and the sun had come out and lit up all the hanging moss, glittered on all the rain drops that clung to the trees, and in some areas beautiful views of the valley had opened up.  This was an excellent day off.  : )

Meadowdale Beach Trail- Edmonds

If you're thinking you want to hike but don't want to drive for hours, or the winter weather has made getting up into the hills treacherous, there are also a lot of hikes closer in.  One of my favorites is the Meadowdale Beach Trail.  I have been on it numerous times, but needed a quick-ish close in hike for this weekend so I could get back in time for football so I went yesterday morning again. It was a beautiful day for fall leaves and autumn sunbeams cutting through the tree canopy. In the summer, this trail is a nice spot to find both blackberries and huckleberries.  It is a busy trail, so even when it is raining it's rare to have it to yourself, but I think that is pretty common for urban area trails.  The undergrowth is taller than I am in some spots and the sword ferns are huge.  Other ferns grow on the trees, and some are furry with them.

This trail goes through some pretty forest, and then winds along Lunds Creek to the beach.  Tiny tributaries cross the trail in a few spots, and though the creek is shallow, I have seen large salmon attempting to swim upstream to spawn.

Round trip, the trail is 2 1/2 miles to the beach and back up to the parking lot.  The first 1/2 mile is downhill, so bear in mind you'll be coming up that for the last 1/2 mile.  The steepest part has steps cut in.  There are benches and even a set of pull-up bars along the trail for resting or adding some extra exercise to your work-out.  Be aware that unless it is extremely dry out, there are muddy/slippery spots on this trail, although it is very well maintained.  At the bottom where it flattens out, you may notice that English ivy is a problem up the slope north of the trail.  Quite a lot of it was taken out by a work group, and hopefully they will be back for the rest.  If I find out when I'd be happy to join them.  A peace pole has also been erected along the end of the trail.

Just before the beach, you go through an underpass which passes below the train track.  This is the same underpass that Lunds Creek uses, and though it tends to flow beneath the boardwalk, it doesn't always stay put and sometimes joins the foot traffic above after heavy rains. 

You come out onto a nice sandy beach with driftwood logs, and a great view of the Sound.  I have seen seals and sealions out there, and yesterday saw two bald eagles flying overhead. 
Get out there!  : ) 

Iron Goat Trail- October Fall Colors Hike

This hike I did with the Sierra Club and had never been on it before.  It was a bleak and rainy October day, so most people found they suddenly had other plans, and it was only 3 of us plus Cedar that went out that day.  The fall colors were pretty, but the leader said that usually they are a blaze of orange, and that this apparently wasn't the best of years for color.  The snow was visible at just above our elevation on the neighboring hillsides, a visible herald of winter's arrival. 

This trail is very well maintained and follows a couple old railroad tracks.  You start out on the lower one, which was built later, from my understanding, after the upper one was taken out by a slide.  There are various signs along the trail explaining how things were when the railroad was being built, and it is a very nice historical point of interest as well as being a fun trail. 
The lower part of the trail is relatively flat and if you hike from East to West, the slight incline and switchbacks to the upper trail are very forgiving and easy.  It is cut through with many very pretty small streams, and although some are wet crossings, most have tunnels under the trail, or the trail crosses on a bridge. 

It is really interesting to see so many signs of human activity being reclaimed by nature.  Great concrete walls to hold back slides with streams pouring over them in long misty falls, dark tunnels that have filled in with the collapsed rotten timber lining and rock falls, sheets of metal and old metal buckets rusting into the landscape. 

There are a few tunnels that are safe and you can walk through short distances, but most are quite dangerous and unstable, so heed the warning signs. I don't much care for rules, but when they make sense, I try to follow them. : )

The upper grade climbed so gradually that I hardly noticed, but then when we were going back down to the car there is a series of steep very short switchbacks going down a slope that is quite steep.  Important not to cut corners on this, so that it doesn't wash out, and also if you have bad knees, it might be best to stick with the lower grade or when you get to that point, turn around and go back the way you came... longer, but better to stay safe. 
It was approximately a 5 mile loop and it was a pretty good hike, despite not feeling overly exerted at any point.  This is one I'll definitely go back to.  For a more challenging hike, I might start out going up the steeper slope and work the loop the other way.

Mmmmmmm, Mushrooms!

Last month for a couple weekends in a row, I went mushrooming with a friend of mine.  His mom had taken him mushroom picking when he was younger, and I had gone with my dad. It had been a long time, but mostly we remembered what we were looking for.  So between a call to my Dad, and a guidebook, The Audobon Society's Guide to North American Mushrooms, we were ready to find the elusive chantrelle.
Actually we ended up getting soaking wet in the rainy cold woods (but who's complaining when the woods are that beautiful?) and seeing some nice scenery.  One of the wierd things was this row of trees right in the middle of this forested area that had all decided against continuing forest life together and uprooted themselves.  Haha.  I'm not sure what did this, although my best guess is shallow entwined roots combined with wind. 

We found MANY mushrooms, of various sizes, colors and shapes, but there are too many that look alike and are dangerous for me to be comfortable with trying to positively ID most of them. 
There were red:

Pink:

Purple:

Weird:

I also found a new family of mushroom that I enjoy.  The coral mushroom family is pretty forgiving, although they look odd, there are only a couple kinds that are poisonous and neither deadly, so I felt pretty safe in trying them.  My rule though, is when in doubt, throw it out.   The last time we went we only got corals, and I made a delicious havarti and coral mushroom omelet for supper that night.  It was quite rich and I very much look forward to next year's fungi even if it's "just corals" again.

The second time out we hit the golden jackpot.  My Dad, incidentally, also reminded me that chantrelles are like gold... if you find some you never tell anyone where, so I will just let you know we were in the state of Washington.  ; )  How's that for narrowing it down?  My friend cooked up some excellent steaks and sauteed these to put over them.  Magnificent!

Our harvest: