Lakes and Dams 10-29 and Run Scared 5k 10-30

Dave and I went to enjoy the fall colors in the hills in an area I had not seen too much of.  The tiny town of Concrete bears further exploration, with a picturesque bridge and a lovely little main street I had never seen.  The hills around it had dams, lakes, lovely fall color and some other interesting things including a system for taking salmon above the dam that involves trapping and trucking them, and tiny huts with benches in for possibly measuring the level of ground water above/next to the dam.

There was a cool old building also, covered with graffiti, moss and odd stalagtites.  It was mostly bolted up with metal blocking access to the inside and the roof.  Peaking in was tantalizing though.  It looked like a big kid playground. 

At this dammed lake, the clouds moved enough that we were afforded a lovely glimpse of Mt Baker.

The next day, I got my boys up early and Bradley, Justus and I all ran a 5k at Seattle's Seward Park.  It was a lot of fun, and it was great to be running with them.  They made it seem effortless and I was so worried I wouldn't keep up, that it distracted me from noticing how long we were running.  The costumes were distracting too.  There were some really funny ones.  We are #679, 680 and 681 (I'm the tiger).

Ice Caves and Surrounding Area 10-23-11

I've been distracted, so it's catch up time!  I finally made it to the Ice Caves.  What a gorgeous place.  I had not been because the mileage was so short and wanted to go on longer hikes for training or to fill up more of a day.  This was a 1st date hike though, so was perfect.  Dave had been before, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day in the northwest.  Although it's possible it was pouring and I just didn't notice LOL. 

You can't go in or on the caves- they are very dangerous, with melting ice being unstable and varying degrees of thickness.  People have been killed going in and having chunks of ice fall on them.  You can get right up in the doorway though.  If you look back in there you can see that they are not just straight single caves, but kind of a network of large channels the water has melted out.  Drips come down from every bump in the ice ceiling and there are holes the sun can shine through.

The fall color that day was splendid, glowing yellows and oranges against the pewter rock and wispy clouds.

There was an interesting crevice that looked like the entire hill had been cleaved in two and a small stream churned its way down, deepening the crack.

After looking around the ice caves, we drove around some dirt roads in the area and looked around.  Dave knew where to find some cool rocks that have leaf imprints between the layers.  There is a large piece there that I got a picture of.

There were a couple of beautiful lakes as well.

On the way to see the lakes, we found this tree that looked like an ent.

And also a lovely specimen of Amanita Muscaria.  Not a nice mushroom.

What's in this log?  It's Dave!

Lime Kiln Trail, 10-22-11

Even on a rainy misty day, get out there and let the drippy green dark northwest woods enchant you!  Adventure Dog and I felt like we were scuba diving for much of our hike, but it was a really fun day out! We did the Lime Kiln trail for the billionth time, and it was lovely.  It wasn’t all overgrown like when I took my Mom on it, and the abundant maples were dropping big gold and brown leaves all over.  The trail was carpeted with a variety of fall leaves.

The Lime Kiln trail was actually featured as the WTA’s trail of the week, so it was pretty busy despite the rain.  One of the things that led them to feature it is the abundance of fungi.  I had a great time noticing all the mushrooms.  Here are a few (not including the 5 chantrelles I brought home for lunch!)

Orange peel fungus:

Coral of some type:

Possibly a hydnellum:

Probably a type of oyster mushroom:

This one was cool, growing on a sign:

Not sure what these are:

Nor this, and sorry it’s blurry, but I decided to include it here because I couldn’t even find something like it in the mushroom ID book:

The lime kiln and the various relics around there were lovely in the moss and decorated with autumn leaves.  Of course Cedar had to check out everything.  : )

I was surprised that the Stillaguamish was swollen and churning after the rain.  There were barely any rocks to have our lunch on. 

As I was eating, a heron of some sort flew slowly and tauntingly up the gray-green river with the fall leaves behind it.  I struggled for my camera without dropping my sandwich.  My case stuck in my pocket.  I swore softly.  The heron was now directly in front of me, flying in beautiful slow motion.  I ripped the camera out of its case… the heron was a bit up river… the camera turned on, and I lifted it… and the heron was gone. 

I hoped it would fly back down the river, and it did, but too high up for a great picture.  Then it landed right above my head in a tall tree!  So I got its silhouette anyway.  lol

It was after this that I discovered the chanterelles and I got so distracted greedily searching for more, that I nearly went around the loop twice.  An Asian man I had seen earlier though started laughing at me and made a twirling motion with his finger and said, “Go in circle.  Haha.” 

On the way back I stopped at a hive that I had moved under a log.  On the way in, it was laying all squished in the trail and as I looked at it and poked at it with my fingers, I was surprised that there were still wasps or hornets in it of some sort.  I told a couple boys that were going by to be careful of it because it still had residents and one started to run and said he was allergic to bees.  I used a couple sticks and moved it under the log.  The poor insects looked pretty soggy and not long for this world.  They didn’t look much better when I stopped again, but it was interesting to see the honeycomb.

Happy hiking!