Rock and ice

Ice on Rock Trail

Today twelve Senior Trailblazers set out on an overcast but relatively balmy day (35F) to make a loop hike from Gates Overlook down the Rock Trail, over to Lost Lake the long way, and then hike back up the Rock Trail.  Or, as Al likes to call these excursions that start and end on the same trail but make a loop in the middle, a "lollipop" hike. The ice is all there because of the recent extremely cold weather we had, and although the temperature is above freezing (barely), the ice is mostly still there.

Icicles have fallen from above that we are walking on

I know this picture is out of focus, but I just had to show you how much the ice had already fallen in certain places on the trail. I didn't want to stop long enough right there to worry about anything except moving out of harm's way. We crunched our way quickly across the places where we might have ice still coming down on us.

Ward, Peggy, Linda, Carol, Doug, Al, Lisa, Kirk, Rich, Steve, Mel

Once we got to the high point of today's hike, which has a view because of it being a clearcut area, I asked for a picture of everybody. There is actually a view behind them, but I think my colorful fellow hikers look pretty good, too. And we could see our lunch destination from up there.

Lost Lake

There it is, Lost Lake, down below us a bit. You can see a stump in the foreground that was once a tree cleared by loggers. It's been a few years, and they did plant some evergreens here and there, so that some day they will be able to do it again. I've not grown exactly accustomed to the harvest of these trees, but I am not as dismayed by it as I was when I first moved here. And it does give unobstructed views.

Golden Ears in Canada

I think I could see that there were places over there in Canada where the sun might be shining. We didn't ever have any, and other than a few stray rain showers, it was quite pleasant all day long. It was time to make our way down to Lost Lake for lunch.

Linda, Ward, Mel, Steve, Carol, Peggy, me, Rich, Al, Doug, Kirk

Before I allowed the group to settle down for lunch, I asked for yet another picture, which turned out quite nice of everybody. Lisa took this one, so I am in it. She did a great job of getting everyone in the frame, with Lost Lake behind us.

A view of the lake while we enjoyed our lunch

Once you stop after hiking for awhile, you tend to get rather cold, so we bundled up and sat in relative comfort as we had lunch. It's really a beautiful place, one of my favorite around-town hikes, as long as it's not raining. As I said, we had a few raindrops, but for Pacific Northwesterners, it was nothing.

Magnificent icicle

This picture of an enormous icicle was taken on our return trip up the Rock Trail and back to the cars. If you didn't have a person in the picture, you wouldn't have any way to tell how large it is. You can see that some pieces have fallen off below it, so again we hustled fast to get out of the way of any possible falling ice. It was a really nice day, and it would have been perfect if I hadn't managed to fall on some slippery rocks just as we gained a view of the cars! I will have a bruise, but otherwise the only thing that was damaged was my pride. We know it goes before a fall, right?
:-)