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| Melanie on the trail |
We weren't at all sure whether any of our normal hiking trails would be accessible today without either snow or mud, or (worse case) both at once. We decided to head up the Lost Lake trailhead to Fragrance Lake, traveling on the trail on the way there, and on the service road back.
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| Fragrance Lake trail looks good here |
As you can see from these first pictures, early on the trail looked pretty good, with only a few muddy spots to navigate, and little to no snow. But that would change as we gained altitude and made our way upwards. We took the side trail to the viewpoint on the way.
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| Samish Bay and snow on Lummi Island |
Once we reached the viewpoint, the view was just incredible. That's Lummi Island closest to us, and it's not often that we see snow on it, in the high spots anyway. I'll bet they got hammered with the rest of us a week ago. At this point in our hike, it was still and calm, not a breath of wind.
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| Icy and snowy trail |
Less than a mile from the lake, we ran into a slick and snowy trail. Fortunately for me, Melanie had brought an extra set of grippers to use on the bottoms of our shoes. They worked really well, once they were able to be secured onto our boots; the ones I used struggled to escape and once popped off like an unhappy rubber band. But once on, they made a huge difference.
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| Fragrance Lake |
And then we were at the lake. The ice is receding from the shore; you can see that it was really cold here earlier this week during our deep freeze. Today the temperature was above freezing, but not by much. It had begun to snow at one point, and then the wind joined in.
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| Waterfall |
The trail taken back to the parking lot via the service road gives us another pretty waterfall to enjoy. The road was snowy at the top but quite nice further down. We managed to walk about 5.5 miles round trip, and other than snow on the trail, and a windy patch towards the end, it was a successful and quite lovely adventure. Thanks, Mel!
:-)
Brrr! I will hike via your camera lens.
ReplyDeleteThat waterfall is a pretty sight to see.
ReplyDeleteSamish Bay sure is a lovely photo! The moment I read of your grippers, I was taken back to my old apartment & working downtown--it was a precarious walk to my morning bus stop in the winter, my own ice grippers saved me from some real falls. Glad to read you're being careful out there DJan.
ReplyDeleteYou can always turn back if conditions become treacherous. If you don't go you don't have the opportunity to turn around!
ReplyDeleteYou had a great hike! I use Yak Trax and have a dedicated pair of snowboots for them as I hated taking them off and on, like you said like rubber bands:)
ReplyDeleteI am so glad Melanie had grippers for your boots! That trail looked pretty slippery at points. :)
ReplyDeleteAs I have just posted our trail was not very accessible and our walk was really brief.
ReplyDeleteLovely hike D J!
ReplyDeleteWow, part of that trail looked quite difficult. Glad Melanie had extra grippers. Like you, mine tend to not stay on. I would have needed them this week if I had wanted to get the mail. Today is warm up and melt down time. Kind of ready.
ReplyDeleteI love the reflection on Fragrance Lake, very pretty. Looks like a painting.
ReplyDeleteYou're reminding me that in the West the weather is not determined by latitude so much as by elevation. Anyway, good walk.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds wonderful, snow, ice, mud and all.
ReplyDeleteAnother nice hike!
ReplyDeleteThat's such a lovely hike, but I'm glad you had those grippers. I've never seen those.
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