Mt. Erie and Sugarloaf 2019

Our group today (plus me behind the camera)

What a beautiful day we had! Fourteen Senior Trailblazers started today's hike at Heart Lake, going on the Anacortes Community Forest Land (ACFL) dense warren of trails to make our way to both Sugarloaf and Mt. Erie.

The ACFL trails

We began at Heart Lake in the upper left corner (pardon the glare on the map, it was intensely sunny most of the day) and followed Al as he led us through the maze. Without his help, it would have been impossible for most of us to figure out the trails. As it was, we still had to do a bit of backtracking now and then.

Lightened trees in the forest

Sometimes we had wide trails like the one above, and other times they were normal single-file trails through dense forest. The picture of the group is taken at what is called the Little Round Top, which Al called our first summit of the day. And then we got to Sugarloaf, our second summit.

Sugarloaf summit

This beautiful area gives us our first view of the water and mountains in the distance. You can see we had a few clouds, which cleared as the day went on, and we took a few moments here to have a snack before descending on our way to Mt. Erie.

Olympics across the water

We had few hikers who had never been here before. I'm so glad they were treated to such great views, along with us old-timers who have been here when there was no view at all.

Almost to the summit of Mt. Erie

And then we had to descend before starting up the trail to the summit of Mt. Erie. This summit can be reached by car, and every once in awhile we could see the road, but we took the trails and were glad to have the wonderful forest as an alternate way to reach the summit.

View from summit of Mt. Erie

Wow! It was a gorgeous day, with magnificent views to enjoy while we had our lunch. Mt. Erie is almost 1,300 feet high, and from Heart Lake we ascended around 1,000 feet, but there is much up and down throughout the day's hike and all in all, we climbed and descended around 2,000 feet in total.

Artsy shot from the top

We enjoyed the day, filled with sunshine and adventure, as well as what I found to be the first buds I've seen yet this year. The bushes will soon be in full bloom, and we did see some Indian plum beginning to bloom, but for now it is still very early for much spring greenery.

Tiny green buds in the sunlight

We hiked around eight miles in total, and although there was a bit of confusion when two hikers fell behind for a few minutes, once we found each other, we all made it back to the cars with a wonderful day to remember for a long time. I again feel incredibly grateful not only for the place I live, but for the company I get to keep! May I continue to enjoy these hikes for a long time to come. Happy spring!
:-)