Whatcom Falls from Barkley

On the trail

Today marks the first day of our new Senior Trailblazers setup, with two hikes on Tuesdays and two on Thursdays, all of different degrees of difficulty and distance. Since today started with plenty of fog and little visibility, only two people decided to take the longer drive to Whistle Lake in Anacortes, while the rest of us (eighteen!) carpooled to the parking lot across the street from Barkley Village and began our fun five-mile-long+ excursion.

It was cloudy and a little foggy for most of the hike, but we had plenty of wide trails to walk along, giving us a chance to visit with many others, and eventually shed some of our warm gear. Even though it wasn't all that cold, it was quite damp and you can see that many of us were dressed for warmth. We hiked past Derby Pond on our way to the pavilion at Whatcom Falls Park, where we enjoyed a bit more socializing and a bite to eat.

A short visit to the pavilion

As you can see from this picture, even after quite a while outdoors, the fog had not lifted very much. But it was very pleasant, and I have to say that as a Pacific Northwesterner, it was nice not to have any rain today. Just fog. After a bit, we went on to gaze at the very full Whatcom Falls. I've seen this when it's barely a trickle, and when it's even more roaring than it was today.

An impressive sight

It was a little disappointing that we didn't have the brilliant blue sky we saw yesterday, but it didn't really matter. We had fun, got exercise, and some great camaraderie as well. And there's always next week.

On the bridge

That's our leader in the foreground, Cindy, who took us unfailingly along the path to give us a good workout, and many happy faces, showing that we had plenty of reasons to be happy that we decided to come out to play! We then returned to the cars via the way we had come, and made our way back to the Senior Center. Until next week, we'll be watching the weather and hoping for another good day.

:-)