Going rogue again

Helen, one of the Rogue-Ettes

 Today's ferry trip and hikes on Lummi Island ended up with an amazing number of people wanting to go. We were still seeing people show up at the Senior Center when others were heading off to the ferry. One of the old timers, Joe, suggested that anybody who might want to join a smaller group on a short hike around town could join him. I did, and Helen (pictured above) also went, along with three people I hadn't met before: Jerry, Mary, and Jennifer.  We left the others to their own devices while we drove to the Two Dollar trailhead to make a trip to Fragrance Lake and around.

View of Samish Bay from the Two Dollar Trail

It was a gorgeous, glorious day, with the six of us making small talk and leaving the stress of politics behind. I myself was glad to be with a smaller group, and having had the fun of charting a different course, I couldn't be happier with the way the day turned out. 

We saw these little leaves everywhere

At first, we thought this might be an anomaly, but all the way up to the lake, we saw plenty of salal leaves smiling at us, like this one. We speculated that there might have been a class of students who decided to have some fun and give their fellow hikers something to puzzle over. We saw literally hundreds of them.

Fragrance Lake

We finally made it to the lake, which was serene and delightful. After we walked around the lake, we then headed partway down the circumference of the lake to find a nice place to stop for lunch. It turned out to be close to this spot, where we speculated about whether anybody might actually try to walk out on this log. Nobody did.

Our lunch spot

Jerry, standing, and Mary, sitting next to me, joined the rest of us for a quick early lunch. You might notice that one of those salal leaves is on my left leg, thanks to Helen. And I have yet another new hat, out for its maiden voyage. It's cool and has a definite "Handmaid's Tale" vibe. I'll be getting plenty of use out of it this summer, I hope.

Mushrooms on the trail

It was interesting to see that there were mushrooms growing, even though we've had little rain lately. I love to see our beautiful countryside, especially when much of the country is baking while we are enjoying delightful cool breezes and temperate weather. There is warmer weather on the horizon, but compared to everyone else, I'm happy to have this.

Lots of green, lovely hikers, some Ocean Spray

I asked for one final picture before we returned to the cars and ended our hike. We went around five easy miles, climbed around 900 feet, and therefore got a fun hike with an early finish. I suspect that the other group is still out there, and I do hope they have a great day, but I'm thrilled that I went rogue with these guys.

:-)