Once more with feeling

Fragrance Lake trail today

I know it's only been a few weeks (three in fact) since we last hiked up the Fragrance Lake trail, but we really couldn't think of anywhere else we'd rather be on a sunny and cold January day. So, we started at the usual trailhead and hiked up well over 1,500 feet before we got to the lake.

Viewpoint over Samish Bay

And, as usual, we made the side trip to look out over the Bay. You can see. there are still plenty of clouds, but they did clear out before we finished the day's excursion. Since we do this hike often, it's not always easy to find new venues for interesting pictures, but I did find a few.

Fragrance Lake

I snapped this picture of the lake from the far side, and you can see the beaches where I usually take my lake photos over there. It was a quiet scene. What you can't see is how cold we both felt every time we stopped for any length of time. But we decided to head for our favorite lunch spot anyway.

Tree and rock

Although I've shown you this before, it never fails to amaze me when I see a massive tree emerging from a rock like this. The tree is still growing, so it must be able to continue to find nourishment from the soil around the rock. And I find it to be rather beautiful, too. Some of the roots didn't do so well, but apparently enough did to keep it alive.

Mel and me at our lunch spot

We made our way up to this spot, which we like to think of as "our" place, and we enjoyed our lunches with a very special dessert. I was hoping for this.

Four cookies

Yes, Melanie baked yesterday, so she brought along four of these chocolate chip delights for us to appreciate. I sure did snarf my two cookies down quickly, and she said she was sorry she didn't bring more. But as it was, I was plenty full afterwards, and I'm glad she stopped at two apiece.

Waterfall

Then, we returned to the trailhead via the logging road, rather than replacing our steps on the trail. We passed by the waterfall, which has much less water in it than three weeks ago. But it is still very beautiful to look at.  By the time we were around a mile from the trailhead, the sun was out and shining in full force. It was a very lovely day, we we covered around 6.2 miles by then, and now I am home, happy to have enjoyed another wonderful day with my pal Melanie!

:-)