Stellar weather, perfect day

Tree and fern on Fragrance Lake trail

Today Melanie and I went on one of our favorite hikes, rain or shine: the trail to Fragrance Lake with a side trip to the Two Dollar trail, around the lake and back down the logging road that gives us a nice almost-seven-mile hike with 1,400 feet elevation gain and loss. A perfect day for it, too!

Mushroom emerging from the soil

We saw this mushroom on our way to the viewpoint. I thought at first it is an amanita, but I think they are red with white spots. Not that I had any intention of trying to eat it. It's awfully pretty, whatever it is. As wet as it has been lately, I'm surprised we are not seeing more mushrooms.

Viewpoint showing Samish Bay

You can see from this picture what a beautiful day it was. We did need to wear our jackets and even our gloves for much of the day, as there was a light breeze and temperatures were quite mild.

Trillium turning pink

We saw quite a few trillium, and a number of them were old enough to have begun their color change, from white to pink to purple in some cases. We did stop to admire all of those we saw, knowing we will soon need to wait another year before we'll see them in our local environment. If we are lucky, we might see some in the High Country, but it's still snowing hard up there, and we don't really know when we might be able to travel to some of our favorite hikes. So we'll enjoy them while we can, down here at sea level.

Smiling fungus

We saw this enormous fungus on a tree just off the trail. I climbed up to see it from eye level, and it looks almost as if it has melted or something. It felt cool and a little damp to the touch.

Fragrance Lake

Before long, we were at the lake, which is surrounded by incredible amounts of greenery at this time of year. And the sunshine was abundant as we made our way around the lake and down the Two Dollar trail a ways to our lunch spot. Melanie treated me to two of her amazing buckwheat cookies.

Perfection

This lovely trillium is still white, and looking almost perfect to my eyes. It's a beauty, don't you think? This was just before we turned off the main trail and there it was, waiting for us to admire it and appreciate its magnificence.

Ferns unfurling

Everywhere we looked there was new growth and new fern leaves emerging from their tight coils. I think these are sword ferns, but I might be wrong. Several different varieties of ferns looks similar to one another. They sparkled in the sun, happy to feel the sun on them (they didn't say so, but I bet they like it). 

Another wonderful day, one of those where I can feel the day's exertion in my legs and the kiss of the sun making my cheeks rosier than usual. However, I would not exchange even a minute of today's adventure for something else. It was sublime! Maybe summer is really here.

:-)