Old Sauk River Trail 4-14-12

Needing a decent but shortish hike to break in my new hiking boots, Dave, Adventure Dog and I headed for the old reliable Old Sauk River trail.  It was just as lovely as always and despite a sunny weekend, it was just as quiet as usual.  The mountains on the way were gorgeous.

I was delighted to see my first trillium of the spring blooming!  Other flowers were making an appearance as well.

The river was clear and inviting, but still just a bit too cold to put our feet in.  Dave and Cedar got pretty close though.

These stripey fungi were very cool looking.

Also really interesting was this pair of common merganser.  The male is white with a blackish head and red beak and the female is gray with a rust brown head with a crest.

Craft Island 4-2-12

Wow!  I didn't realize how long it had been since I updated my blog!  Well a couple weekends ago, Dave and I took Cedar and Junior the dogs back out to the wildlife area near Craft Island and actually got to the top of it for a nice picnic lunch.  On the way there, we passed these huge flocks of snow geese landing and then taking off again.  Beautiful!

This time it was Junior that jumped into the irrigation ditch instead of Cedar.  Heh heh.  The mud isn't nearly as impressive on a tall dog though.  : )

The grasses here are all cut through with little canals you have to go along or cross.  It's very muddy.

Once at the top we enjoyed a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape, wading herons and gulls, and the little island itself which was quite pretty on this sunshiny day.

It was after this excursion we actually discovered the island was called Craft Island, and that the logs that are all piled up there are because it is an estuary of the Skagit River.  I wouldn't want to be there during flood warning times! 

Lime Kiln Trail 3-25-12

Cedar and I made a quick trip to the Lime Kiln trail on Sunday last weekend and enjoyed a warm day.  Some little slithery friends of ours were up and about... a sure sign of spring!
First we saw one.

Then another.

Then a whole bunch more!

Another sure sign of spring are the skunk cabbage blooms.

The Stilliguamish River was lovely and green as usual.  Lower than I thought it would be, but that left a nice rocky beach to have lunch on.

The trail was just as fun as usual.

There was a new landslide on it though! 

And we enjoyed looking at the rusty artifacts as well as the Lime Kiln itself.