Another visit to Church

Al, Rick and Haven  amongst the fall colors

Fourteen Senior Trailblazers set off this morning for Church Mountain, since we thought the Mt. Baker Highway was closed to our original destination. We did find out that the road had reopened, but we decided instead to go ahead and visit Church Mountain once again, the third time this year. It's definitely fall up there.

Mt. Shuksan and mountain ash in foreground

The first few miles of this hike are in the trees, but then we open up into the meadow, where we had views of the surrounding mountains. The meadow was as far as we got on our first visit this season, because of rain, and the second time we went all the way to the top without any view because of clouds and fog. Today, however, it was sunny and glorious, views all around.

Mt. Baker with fall colors in abundance

Once we started to climb towards the summit of the hike, we separated into those who would go to the top and those who would go part-way. But eventually, twelve went all the way, while Al and I stopped short of the entire hike.

More mountains, more color

Al and I sat about a half mile from the summit, happy to enjoy the solitude and the beauty to be seen everywhere. You see all those red bushes? Well, they are only really red when backlit. The rest of the time they are a sort of purple, and they are blueberry bushes, abundantly covered with blueberries. How many can you see in this picture?

Blueberry bushes 

We did enjoy many handfuls of these beauties, and most were sweet and delicious, with only a few past their best days but still good. Al and I had a nice lunch while the others enjoyed theirs on the summit, which I know well and was glad to skip today. Then before too long, the others began their descent to our location, and we started back down the long trail to our cars.

Melanie on her way back down

The entire day gave us as much exercise as we wanted. Those who went all the way to the top got close to 9 miles and almost 4,000 feet (1,200+ meters), and Al and I figured we got 3,300 feet and almost eight miles. Enough for me today, for sure. On the way back down, I captured more pictures of my favorite mountains.

Just a beautiful day

It was simply a wonderful day, just what I needed after feeling irritable from having watched too much of the news. And tomorrow I get a much-needed massage and will enjoy a wonderful day, filled with smiles and happy thoughts.
:-)