What a fine, crazy hike

Eleven of the SIXTEEN who showed up this morning

When I arrived at the Senior Center up on a rainy, dark day for our Thursday hike, I sure didn't expect to see a crowd. One by one, Senior Trailblazers showed up on a day that was not only rainy, but was expected to stay that way for hours. As some of the others were getting ready, I captured this picture, with Al, Rich, Barb, Jim, and me missing. Does it look rainy? it was!

Misty forest

We decided to park at the North Chuckanut trailhead and hike up to Pine and Cedar Lakes. When Al suggested that we might take a short side trip up to Raptor Ridge, I thought to myself that it would add a little distance, but after all, we were out to get exercise, so why not? As we hiked, the rain did come and go, and some of us were even willing to take our raincoats off to stay a little bit cooler.

Raptor Ridge when we arrived

By the time we got to Raptor Ridge, to our surprise the rain had pretty much stopped, and the clouds parted to give us the tiniest bit of a view!

Looking out at the view from the ridge

Although it came and went, for a brief moment we even had sunshine illuminate the ridge, but it was very short-lived. No matter, it wasn't raining, it wasn't really cold, and we had all our friends to visit with. We headed from here to Pine Lake for a lunch stop. We saw this pretty fungi (or as one hiker said, a fun guy.)

Some pretty fungi

We finally made our way to Pine Lake for lunch right around noon. By this time, the rain had let up pretty much, and as we sat down to enjoy ourselves, we got a real treat: sunshine!

Pine Lake

The sun came out to light up the trees and the lake as we sat down on the soggy ground for a nice repast. We'd hike more than five miles and some of us were more than ready for lunch,

Making ourselves comfortable

Finally we decided it was time to start our return journey and leave our wonderful surroundings for another day. We had traveled over this boardwalk to get to our lunch spot, and now it was time to navigate these slippery boards again.

Proceed with caution

Since these boards were wet, we had to carefully pick our way back to the trail so we could return. Fortunately everybody was able to stay dry as we began the journey back to the cars. We decided to go straight back with no side trips, since we knew we would cover more than ten miles and more than 2,000 feet anyway.

Yellow leaves and the trail

Finally we got back to the cars, and we realized that we had been given a wonderful day with plenty of exercise, and a mostly dry afternoon. Everybody was feeling pretty good, and as we drove back to the Senior Center, guess what? It began to rain again! Somebody up there likes us, that's what we decided. Another wonderful day with some of the best people! What's not to like?
:-)