Another day without rain

Steve, Carol, Roger, Chris, Rich

The weather was supposed to be rainy at least in the early afternoon, but eight Senior Trailblazers set out from the Senior Center to hike up the South Lookout Mountain trail anyway. We've done it a couple times before, always in May, so this is the earliest we have done this hike. It's not one of my favorites, because the seldom-used trails are very steep in places and rather challenging.

First signs of snow

We knew we would be climbing steeply throughout the hike, which starts near Cain Lake and then goes pretty much straight up (a total of 2,500 feet of elevation gain and loss) to the top of the mountain. And yes, there it was: the snow that probably fell last night while it was raining in Bellingham.

The light fog came and went

We climbed through dense forest until we reached the road that heads to the top of Lookout Mountain. As you can see, the snow was much deeper as we got ready to leave the safety of the trees.

Just before we came out of the trees

With the iffy forecast, we didn't think we would have a view at all, but instead, we had magnificent views of Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters. Down below us you can see Cain Lake where we began our climb.

The mountains, lakes, fog and trees galore

Wow! That is just one of the most beautiful sights, on a day when none of us expected any view at all. Not only was this unexpected (where was the rain?), but we were fairly confident that any rainfall was not imminent. After all, look at that sky!

A short hike to see what view we might have in the other direction

After a short climb along the road, this picture was taken looking 180 degrees from the last picture, when we were looking at the mountains. This view was overlooking Lake Samish and the interstate that travels between Bellingham and Seattle (I-5).

Lake Samish

We could hear the traffic, even at this altitude, and since it was now after noon, we decided to have lunch here, just out of the breeze. As we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed our lunch, the fog moved in all around us. Suddenly we had no view at all. As we gathered up our stuff after lunch and began our downward descent, none of these vistas were visible at all. Just dense fog.

But no rain. Covering just under eight miles and all that elevation gain and loss made me feel pretty darn tired as we reached the cars. Another wonderful day, and you will not be surprised to learn that, as we started back to Bellingham, the rain clouds opened up and simply poured! We were inside our warm and cozy cars, smiling to ourselves and congratulating one another at yet another day without rain!
:-)