Ebey's Landing 11-23-2019

Although it might have been nice to get a little more sleep, when the dogs got me up at 5:30am I decided to get a head start on the day.  We drove through the dark toward the Mukilteo Ferry to catch a ride to Whidbey Island.  When I parked in the Cemetery Overlook parking lot, it was only about 7:30 and the sky was tinged with orange where the sunrise could peek through the clouds.

We could see and hear Canada geese flying over the farmland.

The wind was blowing, harder as we neared the bluff, and quite cold so I put on a hat and got a coat on Luna.  The sky was gorgeous, the salty wind was exhilarating and the sea was singing its percussion song on the shore below us.  A ferry was even crossing through the cloudy sunrise.

I didn't think anything could be better.  Then I noticed a redtail hawk soaring BELOW me!  What a unique view!  It floated on the strong wind as if it wasn't blowing at all and then would catch the air currents and swoop low over the water.  I couldn't wipe the grin off my face - this was amazing!

Then - I was looking down on a great bald eagle!!!  Despite its huge size it road the air currents below me nimbly and gracefully!  WOW!!!  I had a lot of trouble with getting my camera to focus on it, but a couple turned out, and then it flew off into the sunrise sky.  I can't even say how happy and overwhelmed with natural beauty I was.  It's not often I get such a bird's eye view of the birds - especially the great hunters of the sky.

We walked along the bluff, listening to that strong wind howling through the tough gnarled firs, and noticing with surprise that there were even some flowers still blooming along the bluff.  No matter which way I looked, everything was beautiful.

I checked on the dogs now and then to make sure they were warm enough - Luna seemed fine with her fleece shirt, and Cedar runs pretty warm anyway and hates clothes, so his fleece stayed in my pack.

I could see there was no one behind me on the bluff trail, and no one below me on the beach, so when I got down to a safe elevation, I let the mutts off their strings.  They raced up and down the trail.  The cold wind seemed to turn Cedar into a puppy again and he frisked and ran off and on for the rest of our beach walk.

But first they got leftover steak bits.  : )  I even got Cedar to pose nicely for one. No treat, no nice pose.

We were having so much fun that I couldn't help but play also - picking up rocks, running after the dogs, and trying to whip with a bull kelp.  Not super surprisingly I managed to whack myself in the head and the kelp promptly broke in half.  I didn't try that again, haha.  I'll just say the kelp was rotten, not my kelp whipping skills.

I could see merganser and bufflehead in the waves, but couldn't get a good photo.  I found a couple old floats that had washed up, covered with sea creatures - anemones all over the rope.

What a great adventure!  Get out there and have one!

Mt Dickerman 10-27-2019

My last trip up Mt Dickerman was misty and cloudy, though lovely.  Today I knew that it was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day and all the peaks would be frosted with snow.  After this it will get too snowy for my comfort level in solo hiking to summit, so today was the day!

Apple Watch stats: 9.8 miles RT, 3904 ft elevation gain

The start of this hike is a really pretty, winding up the slope through the forest.  I saw Douglas squirrels, a chipmunk, woodpeckers and this really cute brown creeper.  I have never been able to get a good picture of one of these little guys until now.  They really don't care about gravity at all - hopping around under branches and up and down tree trunks.

There were still a few late coral mushrooms along the slopes.

There is a particularly pretty waterfall along the trail, and it was lined with the most beautiful nodules of ice, clumps of icicles, and frozen water droplets. The beauty of it doesn't show up well in these photos.

Farther up I heard a bird call and a cute gray jay came down into a nearby tree.  It hopped closer, and looked at me hopefully.  So let's just say I was examining my trail mix with my camera on, when astoundingly it landed on my hand and selected a cashew.

I was already tired from yesterday's hike up to Lake 22, so my thighs were really burning about half way up.  It sure was worth the effort though!  Once I reached the summit it was a 360 panorama of stunning snow covered peaks as far as the eye could see. 

Get out there and enjoy our world!

North Lake 09-15-2019

Another new hike for me!  This hike is all about water anyway with two lakes, a nice sized tarn and many smaller pools along the way - but today was POURING down rain.  It still only comes in 2nd place on my wettest hikes ever though.  Tubal Cain Mine is still in the lead for that dubious award.

Apple Watch stats:  7.39 miles RT, 2903 ft of elevation gain.  The actual trail is likely just a touch over 7, but I did a tiny bit of backtracking when I hiked past a turn. 

This trail starts out meandering through some lovely woods to Independence Lake at about 3/4 mile in.  This is by far the most popular destination on this trail, and I had hiked this a couple weeks previously with Dave and the adventure dogs.  Today though, with the rain, there was only one car at the trailhead and I met a man and his two small children hiking out from where they had camped overnight at Independence - and no one else.  The rest of my hike I had the wilderness in all its gloriousness all to myself!  Muahahahaha!!!  ALL MINE!

Water streamed off of every surface - every fir needle, every leaf, every stone dripped and rushed and flowed with it.  The trail was mostly a stream itself and I often found myself hiking up and down small temporary waterfalls. 

The actual waterfalls along the trail were amazing.  They roared and frothed and really celebrated the start of a wet northwest fall.

Around 2 - 2 1/2 miles in there is a left you need to take.  It goes up a rocky slope that doesn't look anything like a trail.  If you go straight though, the trail is super clear.  This leads to what I'm guessing is the 2nd most popular destination along this trail - a lovely deep tarn.  The trail comes out on the rocky banks of it and it looks like a great place to picnic or swim on a warmer day.  I had recently taken a map reading class, so I not only brought my map - I actually looked at it for a change!  I could see that I should not be right at the edge of this tarn, but up the slope a ways cutting upward.  I remembered seeing a cairn back by the non-traily looking rocky slope, so I backtracked to there and from that direction the trail was a bit clearer.  It's rarely easy to find a trail on rock though, and the rain covering everything made it harder to discern.

On the rocky shore of a pretty lake I wasn't supposed to end up on the edge of

Up the slope above North Lake, it again got pretty rocky and the trail was difficult to follow.  In addition, I don't think this section of the trail gets used as much so it was really overgrown.

Overgrown trail

The lake was a long ways down!  I thought about staying up above and enjoying the view, rather than risking a slip/fall getting down to it in the wet, but I was SO CLOSE.  So I got there and was glad I did.

North Lake itself was beautiful.  The far side was a slope with trees, but the trail meets up with the lake in a jumble of huge gorgeous boulders and to my left there were sheer granite slabs, shining in the rain.  I ate a quick lunch using a boulder as a wind block and then headed back up that hill. 

There were mushrooms everywhere from a wet summer and the fresh rain. 

One big bolete was bigger than my head, so I scuttled under the brush to get a picture next to it for size (since I didn't want to pick it for no reason). 

Another mushroom had been apparently growing next to a small stream, and the rainwater had flooded it. 

There were quite a few bears head fungi which is a choice edible.  I took a larger but less pretty one home and added it to a nice seafood chowder later.  Yum!

Don't wait for good weather - get out there and adventure!