Lizard Lake and North Butte

Car windshield this morning

I knew it got cold last night, since after enduring an inch of rain in the past two days, it cleared off last night and got quite COLD. But when I went out to the car before sunrise and saw these ice crystals on the windshield, I was mesmerized by their beauty. The apartment lights shine through, illuminating them. This kind of ice is also pretty tough to scrape off, but I managed. Sixteen Trailblazers met at the Senior Center to drive south to Blanchard Mountain.

Map of our trail

We drove to the Upper Trailhead and hiked on the Lily-Lizard trail all the way to Lizard Lake campground. The lake is still frozen, but the vast majority of the trail is clear.

Sunlight dappling the frozen lake

We stopped here for a brief snack, before continuing on the British Army trail at the top of that map. We noticed that there is plenty of beaver activity (see the tree in the middle of the picture?) At the bottom of the tree, you can see lots of beaver tracks. That tree is not going to be standing long, I think.

Another well chewed tree

This one is bathed in sunlight and caught my eye. All the wood chips underneath are fresh, so this tree is also scheduled for the beaver lodge. We couldn't see it, so it is probably under the ice. They've been busy as, well, you know.

Some of our large group today (taken by Melanie)

We then continued on the British Army trail until just before it ended, turned around and retraced our steps until we got to the red line in the picture and took the Lily-Lake connector trail to North Butte. Since it was such a nice day, we knew we would have a wonderful view of Samish Bay as we ate our lunch.

Looking out towards the Olympics, the bay in view

I would have taken a few more pictures, but there were so many of us scattered around the rocks (with a rather daunting drop-off) that I contented myself with this one. A few high clouds obscured the sun where we were, but you can see many places where it was full sun.

Pretty waterfall

We saw lots of evidence of the recent rain, but it had also cleared most of the trail so only now and then did we have icy patches to cross over. I know that a couple of weeks ago, it was snowy everywhere in this area. After lunch at the Butte, we went back down to Lizard Lake and picked up the Alternate Incline trail.

Frank's sweatshirt

I also have to share with you Frank's sweatshirt, which he wore today, although yesterday was Pi Day. He said it was a birthday gift from a few years ago. It made me smile every time I looked at it.

By the time we had reached the BL-ML road, we had to walk the final mile on it, before reaching the cars. We had covered a little more than nine miles and 2,300 feet elevation gain and loss. And now I'm home, finished with my post, and am looking forward to the wine I earned.
:-)