A hike to remember

Ow! My knee!

Fourteen Senior Trailblazers met on a fabulous sunny day to drive the 45 minutes down to the trailhead on Fidalgo Island to hike on the Anacortes Community Forest Lands to both Sugarloaf and Mt. Erie. Some of the hikers got to cover around seven or eight miles, but not all of us.

Chris' new removable cast

First, the back story. Chris is thrilled with her new removable cast and managed admirably to navigate the ups and downs of this rabbit warren of trails that starts at Heart Lake and takes us first to Sugarloaf and then to the top of Mt. Erie.

Fawn lily

We saw fawn lilies in several places. We know that's what they are because of their purple and green leaves. They are lovely and only bloom for a short period, so I had to capture this one as best I could. Then we headed for the first of our destinations, Sugarloaf. The view is pretty spectacular, to say the least.

Linda gazing out at the view

Since it was after 11:00 by the time we got here, we stopped to have a quick snack before setting off for Mt. Erie. On the way back down, I had an event with my knee. A sore spot became an excruciating show stopper. Although I don't know yet what broke, something did. It started last week on the steep downhill but today it finally made it impossible for me to continue. That's somewhat of a problem when you're out there.

Making my way carefully to the road, with help

Although I could still walk, I couldn't bend my right knee much at all without pain, so everybody pitched in to get me to the road. (There's a road to the top of Mt. Erie, but we take the trails. Usually.) Once we got to the road, Steve said he would jog to the parking lot and get his car, and he and I (and Jacqueline, who stayed with me) would meet the others who would hike to the top while he came to get us and drive us to the top to join the others.

The trail where we waited for Steve

The two of us settled in and had our lunch while we waited for Steve. Plenty of cars went by, but no Steve. Although cellphone connection was spotty, Al managed to get through and found that we were still waiting, and then... here he comes. He had made a wrong turn to the parking lot and ended up going more than twice the distance he should have, and he jogged the entire way! A dog saw him and decided to make it even more difficult for him by taking a bite out of his leg. He kept going, picked us up, and by the time we were all joined together at the top of Mt. Erie, we redistributed the cars and started back down.

A Trailblazer conversation on top of Mt. Erie

Since Steve, Jacqueline and I had only just arrived, this is the only view I got from the top of Mt. Erie, but the others had been waiting for us for awhile, not knowing that Steve had been jogging for what was around seven miles to get to us when he did! The hikers headed back down to the cars, while Carol, Steve, Jacqueline and I got in Steve's car and made a beeline to the Senior Center. While driving, we imagined how we could make a movie out of today's adventure. We wouldn't have to exaggerate much to make it a good story, would we? (A case of rabies from the dog bite, the two waiting for him having contracted the Zika virus from mosquitos, and a car crash on the way home, maybe?)

Once we had cell coverage, I called my doctor and was able to snag an after-hours appointment tonight at 7:00pm, when someone can take a look at my knee. I suspect I will be missing some hikes, because although I can walk, it's only slowly and with care, and stairs are a serious problem. Any downhill causes pain. But we'll see what he says. In any event, it was definitely a hike to remember.
:-)