A wet but pretty great hike today

Foggy at times

Thirteen Senior Trailblazers met to decide what to do on a day when the weather was forecast to be overcast and wet at times. Instead of driving 70 miles south for our scheduled hike, we decided to stay close to home where, as Al opined, we had perfectly good rain here in Bellingham to walk in without a long drive. It was raining lightly when we left at 8:00am for the North Chuckanut trailhead, but by the time we started, the rain had stopped. As you can see, it was plenty misty but not actively raining at the moment.

Slugfest

Someone pointed out this plant that had no fewer than six slugs having breakfast. I captured two of them in the picture, but Barb was the one who called it a "slugfest," so I simply had to put a picture up so I could use the phrase. Just too good not to use it.

View from Raptor Ridge

Our plan was to make it up to Raptor Ridge, about a four-mile hike, and we fully expected to be walking in the rain by this time, and although it was still threatening, we were still dry. We even had an unexpected view, as you can see here. It was windy, and since most of us were sweaty from our exertions, we discussed turning around and taking a leisurely (and slightly longer) way back to the cars.

Carol on Raptor Ridge

I got this nice picture of Carol while we were on the ridge, and somewhere right about this time we felt our first raindrops. Maybe they will stop, we hoped, but they became more numerous not long after. It was warm, so nobody hurried to get on their rain gear, as we knew we'd be too warm before long.

Fungi condominium

Several of us took pictures of this pretty fungi on an old log. We live in a beautiful part of the country, and I felt very happy and fortunate as we hiked, even while wearing my rain gear. For a change, I tried my red poncho because it allows for some air movement, and it wasn't too bad at all.

Licorice ferns growing out of trees

By the time we came to a junction, we decided not to take the longer way back, but instead return to the cars and head to the local grocery store, Haggen's, that has a lunchroom and eat our lunch there. So that's just what we did. And just as we reached the cars and climbed in, the heavens opened with a deluge! We were amazed at our incredible timing and happy to be inside and not having been caught in that downpour.

Our lunch spot for the day

Not everybody stayed for lunch, but those of us who did enjoyed it in a nice warm dry location. Barb took this picture and sent it to me, which is why I'm in it. That's Al's head behind me. All in all, it was a truly lovely day, not too long (under eight miles and just under 2,000 elevation gain and loss), and we mostly stayed dry in our rain gear. That wouldn't have been the case if we had remained out there much longer, so once again the weather gods seem to be looking out for us!
:-)