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.

Out on the trail over the water we saw buffleheads, grebes, golden eye and loons among others.

We didn't get rained on, got some great exercise and got to check out some new places - so a great day all around.

Camano Island State Park 03/31-04/-01/2018

This adventure was the maiden voyage of my new camper trailer.  This way I can get out even in the rain, be more comfortable at night, and stay longer hopefully!  The destination was Camano Island State Park, and neither Dave nor I had been there before.  It was Easter weekend, and wasn't supposed to be particularly warm or sunny, so we had a great campsite over looking the waterway between Camano Island and Whidbey Island.  

The view from campsite #9

Cedar and Luna hanging out by the trailer

Luna peeking out the window - Cedar in the background on the bed

I wondered about this tiny island - it is called Baby Island.  Perfect.

The park is on a hillside forested with fir, maple, hemlock and madrona.  It's also a network of trails, which was a lot of fun to explore.  Even the evening we got there, we had Cedar and Luna all over the place, and saw the full moon light the silver sea with a path of gold.

Madrona clinging to the bluff heights

The full moon was not this fuzzy really - it was so beautiful.

There were birds - bushtits, spotted towhees, white crowed sparrows, robins and eagles.  Even if you couldn't see eagles all the time, you could hear them throughout the day.  

Saturday morning, I took my adventure dogs down to the beach.  We saw a loon, and goldeneyes paired up and hunting in the shallows, as well as some immature bald eagles.  The waves were hardly a ripple against the shore of smoothed riverstone-like rocks.  

A pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes

A pair of Common Goldeneyes

This goldeneye is chowing down on a little crab

Immature bald eagle

Seagulls on a calm gray morning

Luna wading with enthusiasm

My canine adventure crew

Cedar prefers sunbathing over wading

A crow photobombed this picture of Luna

We took another hike back down later with Dave and it was sunny enough for us to get overheated as we walked.  Amazing!  I was not expecting such wonderful warm weather.  We went down a third time when my mother-in-law and brother-in-law came by for a picnic, although we hitched a ride with them back up the hill that time.  We ate overlooking the sea and saw a gray whale!  

A whale tail

Boat for scale

Sunday was drizzly and breezy, but we saw two more gray whales, and I took another hike down to the beach and back with Cedar and Luna.  It felt great to be hiking around so much, but in typical camping fashion I feel we had enough snacks to negate the efforts haha. 

I thought this driftwood looked like a pale lady looking out to sea

I highly recommend Camano Island State Park.  Not every campsite has a water view, but most have some separation from the campsites next to them, it is very clean and organized, and has showers as well... there is the beach, a boat launch, trails all over and for trailers - a dump station.  It was a perfect place for my first RVing experience, and so very peaceful.  I hope to come back again!