Lost Lake and glorious views

Group shot from Burnout Point

You only get days like this one on certain days in the fall, and they are usually sprinkled between rainy and cloudy days. Today, sixteen Senior Trailblazers were treated to one of the most beautiful, glorious days I've experienced in over a decade with this group. We woke to our first hard freeze of the year, but with clear skies and not a breath of wind. Heading up the trail from the Larrabee State Park's parking lot (used to be called Clayton Beach), we walked on the old logging road until we got to the South Lost Lake trail.

Waterfall is there

Last time we walked by this spot, it was dry. No water at all, and now it's back. It rained hard last week and this perfect day between storms gave us another look at this now-running waterfall. You can see all the leaves in the foreground that have fallen already. It's definitely fall.

The view of Samish Bay 

We took a side trip to see the view from Burnout Point, which would add a bit of distance to today's long-ish hike, but as you can see, it was worth it. Beautiful! This is where the group shot (above) was taken. But then several of the hikers decided it would be worthwhile to walk a bit farther to see Mt. Baker and the Sisters, and I began to whine that it would make the hike too long for me. I was outvoted, and this is what we saw.

Mt. Baker and the Sisters

I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this view on a glorious day. The mountains are showing off a new coat of fresh snow, the sky is brilliant, and there wasn't even a hint of a breeze as we basked in the glory. It was hard to get going again, since nobody wanted to leave the view.

Hanging out

We took the time to have a little snack and just feel the perfection of the day. I felt as if it was soothing my spirit and causing joy to well up unbidden. Since we were already here, we took a short cut down to Lost Lake, where we would have our lunch. We reached our usual lunch spot just a bit after noon.

Lunch at Lost Lake

Aahhhh.... we spread out and enjoyed a wonderful lunch break in the perfect weather. I have been here when it was cold, windy, and rainy. Today, it was none of those things, but instead it was just magical. Of course Richard snuck off by himself and went swimming in the lake while we ate, but he joined us soon after.

Lost Lake

I have seen this lake when it was frozen over, and I might again this coming winter. But today, other than frost-covered leaves where the sun doesn't reach, there was little evidence of the coming winter.

Still some remaining leaves on the trees

As we made our way back to our starting point, we were treated to several scenes like this: sunlight coming through yellow leaves that will not be hanging on much longer. But today, they still light up the forest. We ended up covering about 10.5 miles and 2,500 feet up and down. A serious hike with many of my very best friends, with a leader (Melanie) who kept everybody in sight and added so much to our simply wonderful day. I'm so glad I was there.
:-)