Oyster Dome 2018

Melanie took the picture and sent it to me

Fourteen Senior Trailblazers showed up to hike up to Oyster Dome in the rain! I wasn't among them, since I woke with a sore throat a couple of days ago and have been fighting to keep myself from getting more indisposed with pills and potions. I'll be traveling to Florida on Monday, and I knew that a hard hike in the rain was probably not the best idea. I asked Melanie to send me some pictures, and was I surprised to see the number of people who came out to enjoy the wet and cool weather.

I was sorry to miss the hike, but I knew it was the right thing. I walked to the bus stop and went to the coffee shop instead and then attended an hour-long class, my usual 9:00am class that I don't ever get to take except on Tuesdays (T-Th) since I'm hiking on Thursdays. My guys were at the coffee shop, so I asked someone to take our picture.

What I did instead

Meanwhile, Chris was leading the group up the Oyster Dome trail, which has been recently renovated so that the steep trail and gnarly tree roots are no longer a factor. It's now actually quite pleasant, although steep. And all of us were so relieved to learn that the entire Blanchard Mountain forest block has been saved from logging! The whole article is here, but the important part is this:

Great news! The state legislature finally passed a Capital Budget on January 18, 2018, including full funding to save the core of Blanchard State Forest from logging. The iconic trails, forests and habitat around Oyster Dome, Lily Lake and Samish Overlook will now be preserved for future generations!

I asked Melanie if she had any stories about the day, what it was like, and she was happy to tell me that it rained most of the time; there were no views from the Dome, but one view of Samish Bay was fairly good.

Samish Bay from the overlook on the way up

 Once they reached the Dome, it was obviously not conducive to having even a short lunch, so after a quick look, they headed back down the way they had come.

Chris in full rain regalia

I know all these views intimately, having gone up and down the trails, old and new, many times. Although it's fun to see the pictures, given my fragile state, I'm glad I got to live it vicariously and stayed warm and dry instead. The illness I picked up seems isolated to my respiratory tract, and even though I felt in danger of losing my voice for awhile, I'm much better today.

So that's the news from the very wet Pacific Northwest Trailblazers! Although my friends will benefit from the exercise, six miles and 1800 feet up and down, I'll be (hopefully) all well before enduring a seventeen-hour-long travel day!
:-)