Oyster Dome in reverse

Ellen dressed warmly, and Mikey dressed in his regular outfit

Today nine Senior Trailblazers showed up on another rainy day, with no idea where we might go for our Thursday hike. Obviously the original destination in the wilderness was not going to work out, since even though it was forecast to be rainy in town, it was forecast to be more so in the High Country. We finally decided to head up to Oyster Dome, a regular winter hike, but this time do it in the opposite direction from usual, since it's a nice nine-mile loop.

Samish Bay Overlook

Usually we arrive at Samish Overlook towards the end of our hike, but this time it was early. As you can see, we didn't have wonderful weather, but it was only windy when we were in open areas like this one; the rest of the time we were in the trees snd sheltered. Plus we didn't have much of the "r" word, just the occasional mist.

Linda with a giant maple leaf

At this time of year, the trail is covered with golden leaves everywhere, and the giant maple trees shed these amazingly beautiful ones. We have to tread on them, but they didn't seem to mind. Sometimes we thought we might need to don our raincoats, but we only used them for warmth when it got windy.

Leafy carpet

By the time we reached Oyster Dome, it was a few minutes past noon. The view from the Dome is always nice, but although it looked quite lovely, it was too cold to stop, so once we admired the view, we went back down to a place out of the wind.

View of Samish Bay from Oyster Dome

Once we had our lunch, it was time to start the final push back to the cars. There is only one section of the trail that we cover twice, so it was fun to see the Oyster Dome trail from the other direction than we usually take. It almost seemed like a new trail.

Mushrooms growing in an old tree stump

These mushrooms are growing all around this old tree stump, and inside it as well. We admired it for a few minutes before resuming our descent. I am sorry that the picture doesn't do it justice. Some of those little mushrooms really did look almost lime green.

Looking up at the canopy above us

At one point, I looked up to see the beautiful canopy of trees that we walked under today. And as I said, we never had much precipitation to cause us concern. We covered around nine miles and almost 2,000 feet of elevation, and after not knowing what to expect, we were all pleasantly surprised by the fine day we had. Returning to town, I noticed large puddles, making me think we were again protected from the rain by our guardian angels. And choosing just the right trail for the day!

:-)