Oyster Dome 2012

Steve, me, Amy, Karen (Mike was out exploring) on Oyster Dome

What a day we had! Although there were only five of us on the Senior Trailblazers hike today, we couldn't have asked for a better day. No wind, sunshine, a hard day's work, and good company. Al was out of town, the Ferndale group didn't show, but the day could not have been more pleasant. Although there was a 30% chance of rain, when I looked outside this morning, the blue skies gave me hope for a nice day. Steve was our day's leader. He made sure we were happy with our intended schedule and we took off in Mike's car, since we could all fit.

Spring is out in full force! Look at the ferns, the green plants all leafing out, the sun shining through. This hike starts up quite steeply from Chuckanut Drive. Since Steve kept going much faster than I was comfortable with, I finally ended up setting the pace for all of us (Al usually does this). It was disconcerting sometimes to see nobody in front of me, but we all knew the way and Steve kept making sure at each possible juncture that we all stayed in agreement. The trail as we approach the dome is nothing to be sneezed at:

The trail goes straight up and gets muddier and rockier as we climbed. Since I was now in the lead, we had to slow considerably, as I grunted and groaned my way up this terrain. In past years it's been icy and cold, but today it was just... tough going at times. Here's my description of last year's fall hike. Anyway, we made it to the Dome and decided to have a quick snack, enjoy the view and sit in the sunshine. It was a bit early for a lunch break, so we decided to have lunch at Lilly Lake. (We don't go back down the same way we came up, since it's more treacherous to go back down this stuff.)

The view of Samish Bay was simply spectacular. By the time we got there, it was High Tide, the sky was incredibly beautiful, and we basked in the sunshine until we decided to head to Lilly Lake. On the way, we saw lots of skunk cabbage making its first appearance of the year. (If you look at last year's hike to Oyster Dome in late April, you can see that skunk cabbage was in lots of snow.) It's a different experience this year. Take a look at today's skunk cabbage:

This was taken just before we reached Lilly Lake. There is a shortcut back to the trailhead, called "Max's Shortcut," which we almost took, before Steve asked if we wanted to go to Lizard Lake before heading back. We looked to Mike, who knows the area well. We asked him how much distance it would add to our overall mileage, and he said, "Well, it's probably about a half mile or so, round trip." We decided to go ahead and add an out-and-back to Lizard Lake before heading out onto the shortcut, but guess what? That "or so" ended up to be another almost two miles! By the time we got back down to the car, we had traveled more than 11 miles, and up and down more than 2,500 feet of elevation. A very full day, I'd say.

Some of you have asked me previously why it's called "Oyster Dome." Well, this picture tells you why: those squares out in the bay are an oyster farm, which you can see from the Dome. I looked it up online, and here's a link to Taylor Farm's Samish Bay shellfish. That's what you're looking at. It turns out that oyster farming is actually good for the environment, not harmful. I enjoyed learning about what I was seeing out there, as well as ending a very full and satisfying day. I hope you enjoyed it a little bit, too!
:-)