Thursday, November 1, 2012

Oyster Dome

It wasn't looking like today would be a very good day for our Senior Trailblazer's hike, since it had been raining, sometimes very hard, for the past two days. Nevertheless, eight of us met at the Senior Center for our first trip back in the Chuckanuts, the area close to home. This makes our drive much shorter, which is an advantage. We drove to the trailhead off of Highway 11, which starts steeply upward. It had stopped raining by the time we began, and lo and behold, our day was almost without additional precipitation.
Our first view of Samish Bay shows that the clouds were beginning to break, and we were optimistic that we might actually have some good views from the Dome. That's Lummi Island out there wearing a "hat" of clouds. But it had rained for so long before we set out today that the humidity and light precipitation brought misty views. By the time we reached Oyster Dome itself, I grabbed a quick shot before it completely closed in.
Just so you can see what we missed seeing today, in mid-April of this year we went up on a sunny day for this same hike, and the views are available here. We didn't have any such luck today. Since it was not yet noon, we decided to trek to Lily Lake for lunch before stopping. There was a light breeze, and all the humidity in the air made us feel cold after just a few minutes.
Our lunch spot: you can see we are now bundled up, with the breeze and having hunkered down to have a quick lunch. I was reminded of all the times we don everything we bring along with us to keep ourselves warm when we stop to eat. It's our winter lunchtime dance. We didn't stay long before we got up to continue our hike. We passed through lots of places where big-leaf maples were dropping their leaves and making a carpet of them.
Many of my pictures today are not sharp, because the light was so low and I didn't want to use the flash. I know that the flash makes these pictures much less interesting, but I can't hold the camera still enough to take good pictures. This was the best shot I got of those big leaves as we walked.
Toward the end of this trek, we come to an overlook of Samish Flats. This new parking lot is not easy to find, but you can drive to it if you can figure out how to get here. You can also see that the clouds didn't leave us after all, and we are still wearing our hats and coats to keep warm. But this is not to say we were not all very happy to have been out in the Chuckanuts today, for several reasons: (1) it didn't rain; (2) the company was great; (3) we walked somewhere around nine miles and had a fantastic workout; and (4) nobody got hurt or lost anything of value!
When we got back to the cars, Al realized that when he had put on his hiking boots in the morning, he left his tennis shoes by his car, neglecting to put them inside. And there they still were, waiting for him when we returned! A good omen, and we were all smiles when we drove off. Another great day!
:-)

25 comments:

  1. i like your list of why it was a good day - especially the last one. :)

    that fog moving in is a cool shot. :)

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  2. What a beautiful walk. Nine miles. Wow.

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  3. Lummi island's hat of clouds is very pretty to me. Clouds make for some of the pretties photo opts.
    The size of those maple leaves is incredible, and I think the photo you took is just wonderful.
    To see that Al's shoes were still beside the car brought a smile to me, Jan. It would be lovely to think that would happen anywhere and at any time (the fact that the shoes were undisturbed)...but alas, I'm afraid it isn't so.
    You live in a beautiful part of the country, my friend. Continued joys as you hike and enjoy good times with your friends. Stay safe and happy.
    Love,
    Jackie

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  4. glad the shoes were still there waiting on him...that is a bit of a surprise...smiles...sorry the visibility was not great of the done but looks like you had plenty other things to look at...all those wonderful trees....not as much fern as last time...

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  5. You're a good example of hiking rain or shine. It takes some dedicated people to hike in these conditions.
    Like the story about the shoes. You'll raze him for a while!

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  6. What a great ending! Loved the tennis shoes waiting by the car story.

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  7. I am so grateful to hike vicariously with you - and the Senior Trailblazers too. Many, many thanks. Mind you, it is a shame that my vicarious workout is not having any effect on my body.

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  8. Wow...now THAT'S a walk in the woods! What a gloriously beautiful place.

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  9. Huge beautiful leaves! Another pretty good hike..I bet those shoes were damp..:)

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  10. I love the names of the places where you hike. Chuckanut--how poetic. I am starting to recognize them from your previous hikes. I would love one of those big leaves to press in a book and dry so I could frame it to hang it on a wall. Leaves are so pretty.

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  11. Love that hat of clouds! And those maple leaves...beautiful.

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  12. Looks like another beautiful but chilly hike! I really admire you guys for going out so regularly to brave the elements... it takes a lot more courage to do it in your neck of the woods than in mine!
    I guess you guys will have to stick closer to home for a bit now with it being dark earlier because of the season and the change in clocks?

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  13. No matter that the light wasn't great...your pictures were awesome as usual. So glad the tennis shoes were where they were left!

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  14. The very low cloud right in the middle of Samish Bay is quite intriguing DJan. I do remember some of this area from reading other posts - always each interesting read, a wee different in writing, photos and weather, still give a great read to me. I am surprised and smiled when I read that Al's shoes were waiting for him. Great Post.

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  15. It's great you all had a good time, despite the cold. I see Taiwan listed on your side bar. Yup, typing a little something in Taiwan. We leave for India in 2 hours. Will try to keep up with everyone's blog.

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  16. I am amazed at the size of those leaves. They do make a lovely carpet for the trail. Glad to hear you didn't get rained on, we had our first rain free day this week too.
    The shoes still waiting in the same place Al left them is a good omen.

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  17. Those giant maple leaves are really spectacular. My recollection of hiking the Olympic Park many years ago was how BIG all the plants were compare to our scrawny specimens...:)

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  18. Yes, it was a good day!!! Such beauty in your hikes. I especially like fog --it's a favorite of all weather phenomenons for me. The silence, the beauty, the hidden mysteries.....and your photos DJan...beautiful. The Autumn leaves on the trail...and more.

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  19. Dear DJan, I was surprised to see your posting here because I thought you were on jury duty. But one of your hiking postings is always welcomed. And I liked the photographs without the flash. Very evocative with the faint feeling of mist through and in and about everything. Peace.

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  20. Such a beautiful hike, nine miles, incredible !
    I'm smiling still after reading your tennis shoe story :)
    ~Jo

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  21. Some pretty pics, as always. I love the carpet of maple leaves. And I smiled to see the shoes waiting patiently for his return.

    I'm sure you have become pretty familiar with your camera's settings by now but with what you said about low light photos in mind, I thought I'd suggest this just in case. You can get away with a faster shutter speed if you increase your ISO a few notches. Don't go too high if you don't want "noise" in the image but a higher ISO will allow you to get away with a higher shutter speed and less worry of holding the camera steady. I hope you don't mind my saying so. Like I said, it's just in case it hadn't crossed your low light radar. :)

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  22. Amazing. I was just showing my husband some of these to show him how impressive you all are. I know what you mean about not being able to capture the photo you want, but you did a good job with the leaves. I was out of town recently and had the opportunity to take lots of fall pictures. As happy as I am with some of them, they still didn't fully capture the beauty I saw.

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  23. Thanks goodness he didn't lose his shoes. Art will be doing a long hike on Molokai next week. I'm glad he's got new hiking shoes. It's so important to have good shoes.

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  24. I think I spy a Forester in that one picture. Great vehicle for this kind of terrain.

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