Oyster Dome 2014

The hike starts up steeply from Chuckanut Drive

Wow. Just wow, for this beautiful, wonderful day. Eleven Senior Trailblazers headed up from Chuckanut Drive to visit Oyster Dome on a day predicted to be "partly cloudy." That's just what it was. As my first day back in Bellingham, I couldn't have been more pleased to be with my hiking buddies in 50-degree weather. After the heat of southern California, it felt like I was in natural air conditioning.

Al having lunch and contemplating the view

Although it was only 11:30, once we ascended the steep terrain, we stopped at Oyster Dome to have lunch and bask a bit in the sunshine. Last December we were in serious rain when we did this hike. It wasn't a lot of fun, as you can see here. But today, although there were a few clouds and when the sun disappeared it got quite cold, nobody was complaining. We had already accomplished the hard climb, and we knew that we would be taking a loop hike and not having to descend down the steep and rather treacherous trail that got us to the Dome.

Lunch at Oyster Dome

We spread out and enjoyed the sunshine for a half hour or so before heading to Lily Lake and Max's Shortcut. When we left the Dome, we were all bundled up and stayed that way while we traveled in the trees, with sunshine dappling the path now and then.

Soaking up the sunshine at Lily Lake

By the time we sat down at Lily Lake, we were just beginning to warm up in the sunshine. It was a nice respite as we watched the local drama going on. An eagle was perched up on the top of an old tree snag, looking for lunch.

Eagle at Lily Lake

Yes, there he is, surveying the lake below him. Some ducks were in the lake having a great time, and we all knew that the eagle was thinking about perhaps swooping down and capturing one. He might have done that after we left, but I didn't want to stick around to see it. We started down Max's Shortcut to Samish Overlook.

Skunk cabbage as it looks today

We saw lots of skunk cabbage on the way. We could also smell them, and we discussed how different the smell presents to different noses. I find it to be rather refreshing, Al thinks it smells rather sweet, and a few others think it's hard to detect. I smelled it before I saw it. It's definitely at the odiferous stage; there are so many of them coming up at once.

Trifecta of trillium

The other sign that spring is definitely here are the beautiful trillium flowers. I saw this group of three and smiled to realize that this is the sign of spring that I look for in the wilderness. They are so beautiful and delight me to no end. Three leaves, three petals, and three of them!

Samish Flats

Finally, we reached Samish Overlook, which also is accessible by car and overlooks Samish Flats. It was such a beautiful day, and a magnificent view, we stopped and spent another half hour just hanging out in the sun, the third time today we took the time to do that. We covered almost nine miles and climbed around 3,000 feet up and down, but everybody was happy and tired by the end of the hike. Who could ask for a better day? Not me! Aaaahhh....
:-)