Oyster Dome

Two things have happened since my last post: today's Senior Trailblazers hike up to Oyster Dome (my first time), and my birthday yesterday. Today, Oyster Dome, and maybe tomorrow my birthday, which deserves a post all to itself, it was such a wonderful day.

I woke to fog this morning, but the weather satellite pictures gave me hope that maybe today would be a good one, and sure enough, it was! Although I drove to the Senior Center in the dark (because of the fog), I saw that blue sky was a possibility for today. Fourteen of us showed up for a hike labeled "hard" on the first Thursday in December! It was hard, I agree, almost nine miles and 2,200 feet of elevation change. We carpooled and drove down Chuckanut Drive into Skagit County and parked right off the road. The trail starts out steep right at the beginning, but we reached the above view of Samish Bay, showing that we were quite a bit above the fog and clouds. That's Lummi Island sticking up.

After almost two miles at what seemed really steeply uphill, we reached this junction. It shows that we had come 1.8 miles from the highway and had to navigate another half mile to reach the Oyster Dome trail. We actually ended up going all the way to Lily Lake, which you can see is another 1.9 miles up this trail. But first, we had lunch at Oyster Dome.

The view of Samish Bay was stupendous. I heard stories of previous hikes up to Oyster Dome that were so windy and cold it caused my intrepid Trailblazers to stay well away from this rock face. In the foreground waters, you can see Samish Flats, with a long skinny peninsula in the middle of the picture. I don't remember its name, but I know when we first moved here, we drove all the way out there.

As you might be able to ascertain from this picture, we were not exactly warm and toasty basking in the sun during our lunch, but instead tried to keep from getting way too cold. A light breeze stole any warmth away from the sunshine, which played in and out of the clouds. We didn't stay too long, but headed from here down to Lily Lake and a nice loop hike so we didn't have to go back down the very steep and treacherous trail to the Dome. The loop adds more than two miles to the hike, but nobody was complaining, after grunting and groaning up to here. Our return trip took us to a great view of the Samish Flats, here in the background behind some of our group. (The rest of us were taking advantage of the local facilities, a conveniently placed outdoor latrine, a two-seater!)

My telephoto lens makes the Flats look much closer than they actually are, but you can easily pick out Mikey Poppins in the foreground with his shorts and unused umbrella. I know he has a following amongst my readers, so I did need to show you that he, while the rest of us bundled up, was dressed appropriately for himself: warm hat, gloves, shorts, and boots. Everything else is out there to the wind. One day you will see him with long pants, but don't hold your breath!

All in all, it was a wonderful day, but I must say that I could not have done this hike without my trekking poles, which saved my knees on the painful descent. My knees don't feel like they would appreciate doing this again today, but I learned that in the not-so-distant past, Mike went up and down this trek THREE TIMES in one day! He's a little older and wiser now, but I can tell you that, for me, once was enough!
:-)