To the Boardwalk at Pine Lake

North Chuckanut trail

Now I know how tough we Senior Trailblazers are: we learned that Al, our leader, would not be joining us today, since he's down with a cold. At 6:30am, I looked outside to see that the rain had become a deluge, and I also learned that more than an inch fell during the night. Sigh. I drove to the Senior Center and parked in the empty parking lot, figuring I might be the only one to show up. But no, within a few minutes, ten of us had gathered in the rain to decide what to do.

Our original destination is difficult to follow, since there are no signs and lots of detours. We decided to go to the Pine Lake trailhead and see what happened. Steve, our leader for the day, wanted to start from the North Chuckanut Trailhead, which was not our usual starting point. It's beautiful, and I really like it!

Carol, Peggy, Diane, Linda, Kirk, Mike, Fred, Ward

Steve is out of the frame, as he is giving us some background about the trail, and I, of course, am behind the camera. It's just sprinkling lightly by this time, and I had even removed my raincoat. I was in the front of the group, as it was my job to set the pace, since Steve walks too fast, and I hike at about the same pace as Al does. We made our way to Pine Lake's boardwalk.

It's slippery and you sure wouldn't want to fall in!

It's raised up to allow you to walk carefully to a nice lunch spot, although it doesn't go all the way around the lake. It was a little early, but we decided to have a nice lunch here before heading back. The rain had started to increase a little bit; you could see raindrops on the lake.

Pine Lake in the mist

We didn't linger very long at lunch, since even though we were protected from the rain while having lunch under the trees, before long those same trees began to drip on us. We donned our rain gear and began our descent back to the cars.

Battening down the hatches for the return trip

We started back, all ready for the rain. But of course, since we had prepared for it, before very long it had almost stopped, and we even saw... sun breaks! Yes, the day had improved immeasurably from its dubious beginnings. And we must have seen several hundred trillium flowers in bloom. It was an amazing display.

One of the many groups of trillium in bloom

We all commented on the fact that we were in this area at just the right time, to see so many trillium flowering all at once. And you might also be able to see the faint hint of sunlight on these very wet leaves. We had covered nine-and-a-half miles and around 1,900 feet of elevation gain and loss by the time we returned to the cars. And not to mention there was sunshine filtered through the trees, right as we finished. We all agreed it was a really good day, and nobody minded a little sprinkle now and then.
:-)