Not what we expected

Chris, Peggy, Lisa, Mike, Ward, Linda, Kirk, Al, Rich

The weather forecast for today was another wet one, with lots of wind. We were under a high wind warning in our area, so we figured it would be one of those days with sideways rain, huddled miserably in our rain gear. And still, eleven Trailblazers showed up anyway! I took the above picture in the parking lot. Steve was still getting his gear on when I snapped this picture to show us in our own version of how best to stay dry. Mikey and Rich left their umbrellas behind, since with the wind they don't work very well.

The old logging road part of our hike

The trail on the south side of Stewart Mountain that we call "Cub Creek" covers both old logging roads and trails through the woods. As we began our hike, all ready for the heavy rain, it began to diminish, and by the time we had gone less than a mile, it stopped. Completely. Although the wind would whistle through the trees as we hiked, most of the time it didn't make it to us. And for the rest of the hike, we were dry as a bone.

View of sunny Bellingham

We had an occasional ray of sunshine, but as you can see in this picture, mostly we had low clouds above us, while Bellingham enjoyed lots of sunshine (and wind, too I learned later). As we trekked upwards, covering more than 3,000 feet up and down, we would get an occasional gust of wind that made us realize that the high wind warning wasn't kidding: at one point, Peggy's glasses were blown right off her face.

Heading back down in the fog

After we had a rather hasty lunch, we noticed that every time the wind would die down, fog would begin to fill in. We last did this hike in April of 2013, and it was sunny and bright, as you can see here. I didn't get very many pictures today, since I didn't bring my camera and relied on my cellphone for pictures. I could easily have brought even my new iPad Air if I had known how dry it would have been today, I am glad I didn't have to worry about my new toy, though. My cellphone is protected in an Otterbox, which makes it easy for me to take pictures with it.

Maple leaves among the greenery

All in all, it was a MUCH better day than we expected, and that's a good thing. There is a reason that I always go out on a day when we expect rain and wind, because it doesn't always happen. Of course, I've also come home soaking wet, everything I own dripping. But there's always a nice hot shower, a glass of wine, and my partner to come home to, so even then it's good. But not as good as today. Walking just under nine miles with good friends and coming home dry. Oh, and as soon as we reached our cars and started back, the rain began again. Our timing was impeccable!
:-)