Goose Rock 2012

Rosario Strait from West Beach, choppy sea at high tide

Eight Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center in a light rain and howling wind to drive south to Deception Pass State Park and hike up to Goose Rock, a fairly easy hike on a not-so-nice day. Since the weather forecast gave us a 100% chance of rain, we decided to take our chances and hope for at least some time out of the rain. Once again, we were fortunate indeed. Although it was still raining lightly and the wind blowing pretty hard when we arrived, it had moderated quite a lot in the hour it took for us to get to the West Beach parking lot near Cranberry Lake.

The well-marked trail around the perimeter of Goose Rock has lots of madrona trees (like the one with the odd bark on the right) and red currant plants in bloom. Still no rain and the temperature was pleasant, as long as we kept moving. As we ascended up to the summit, I saw this immature eagle (I'm pretty sure) lazily circling in the air above us.

We could hear bird sounds in the distance, and several times the unmistakeable call of an eagle, along with gulls, varied thrush, wrens, and others I couldn't identify. It was a very pleasant experience as we made our way to the top. Once there, the wind was fierce, so we donned our coats, which we had shed as we hiked in the shelter of the trees. I asked for a photo, with all of us bundled up in the cold. Almost all of us.

Steve, Al, Jim, Frank, Karen, Marjan

I asked Mike to stay out of the picture because he really does look like he was on a different hike! It was either two photos or let everybody think I had photoshopped him in. He's not like the rest of us; although he carries all the same gear, he rarely seems to need anything but a hat and gloves. In the summertime, he carries enough water to continually douse himself.

Mike on same hike. How does he do it?

I also asked Al to take a picture of me on the top of Goose Rock, showing me in my best imitation of the Angelina Jolie Oscar stance. I'm wearing my wonderful REI jacket that cost me an arm and a leg (but I still seem to have enough of each) and my new North Face pants, getting their first workout.

It was way too windy and uncomfortable for us to have our lunch here, so we decided to hike on back to the picnic shelter at North Beach. It is covered with a thatch roof with a great view of the ocean, but the breeze kept us from staying around for too long. And then... it began to rain. We only had about three-quarters of a mile back to the cars. Since the tide was going out, we thought we might walk along the beach, but the rain changed our plans. The trees protected us from the worst of the rain, and we still had a nice view of the beach. You can see it got soggy all of a sudden.

By the time we reached the cars, we had covered 6 and a half miles with about a thousand feet of elevation gain and loss. It wasn't one of our hard hikes (that's coming next week), but it was very pleasant and relatively dry. Once we pulled out of the parking lot, the rain began in earnest. We congratulated ourselves again for our good luck, and Al stated that he planned it that way (yeah, right). We were finished at an earlier time than usual, but it was a really good day, once again.
:-)