My Pacific Northwest: Sharpe Park and Tommy Thompson Trail 3-8-20

Today we had double the usual fun! Our first destination was Sharpe Park on Fidalgo Island. I had volunteered with a WTA work party on Friday to work on a section of the trail system here, and really loved the park. I wanted to show Dave what we had worked on, so we loaded up the adventure dogs and off we went.

This trail system has woods, stream, wetlands, and views of the sea! I expect bald eagles. hang out here, but I didn't see them in this particular spot either day. We took Porpoise Way to Madrona Trail where we had been working and it was totally amazing how much more work had been done since Friday.

Cool mosses

Then we caught the Sunburst Trail which goes along the hillside above the sea (with only peek-a-boo views now and then). There was one nice overlooking, but we only stayed a moment and carried on to catch the Sares Head Trail. Sares Head is a lovely overlook of the Salish Sea and San Juan Islands.

When we got back to the parking lot we were just .3 mi shy of my 2 miles to count it as a hike, so I jogged the dogs back down the hill to a picnic table and back to finish out my distance. Apple Watch stats for this hike: 2.07 miles, 431 ft of elevation gain. There are other trails you can take (and actually we did take a spur trail along the pond a ways too).

After wrapping up this little hike, we went to a place neither of us has been - the Tommy Thompson Trail at the Fidalgo Bay Aquatic Reserve. Yes, we could hear traffic and see refineries, but the trail is a lovely paved walk (we only did the last mile of it - so 2 out and back) that goes out over the water. We parked at the Fidalgo Bay Resort and walked past a little pond where we saw a lovely pair of green winged teals along with some mallards.