Lower Salal trail

North Lost Lake trail on way to Lower Salal trail

Well, just to show that you can never anticipate what a day in the forest will look like, we stayed close to home today, rather than heading up to the wilderness as we had planned earlier. Why, you ask? I'll explain later. It turned out to be a beautiful day, if a little on the cool side, when we met at our usual Chuckanut trailhead. I had my friends Melanie and Dianne, and the wonderful dog Joe, to share the day with me.

Smiling Joe

We decided to hike up the North Lost Lake trail to the Lower Salal trail, which is a very pretty up-and-down delightful trail.

North Lost Lake trail

The Lost Lake trail meanders upwards at an easy angle, which is good because we knew we would be coming back on the Hemlock trail (which is a little steeper) after navigating the Lower Salal and part of the regular Salal.

Beginning the Lower Salal trail

You can see how this trail narrows to a single person track, after having been on the wide trail, and I am beginning to think this Lower Salal has become my favorite low-country trail. It's easy to get to and well marked and maintained.

Me and Joe

Melanie took this picture of the two of us, just as we were leaving the Lower Salal to join the next trail. We are both posing, as you can see. I am holding my breath so my belly wouldn't hang out over my pants, but I think it makes me look just a little silly. Joe looks natural, though.

Sun-dappled and delightful

Then we headed back to the cars, after a almost six-mile walk and wonderful company. We ended up passing perhaps a dozen people on the return trip, and everyone except one couple were masked. Our county is beginning to get the virus under control, since everyone is taking it seriously.

Now, about why we didn't go on a longer hike. My dear husband had a mild stroke on Sunday and spent the next two days and nights in the hospital. He is able to get around moderately well, but I knew that I didn't want to be gone all day, which would have happened if we had added another three hours just for travel. Hopefully we'll make it up there one of these days, but today was not the right time. I really needed to get out, and since I've been able to take my usual Thursday "forest bath," my spirits have risen and I can take whatever comes my way for the rest of the day.
:-)