I forgot how much I love Goat Mountain

Al in a field of glacier lilies

Twelve Senior Trailblazers headed up the Mount Baker Highway today to tackle Goat Mountain, one of our several-times-a-season hikes. I was worried about my knee's ability to take yet another uphill hike, after having twinges and some pain after last week's hike up Church Mountain. I decided to go ahead and give it a try, and I'm sure glad I did: I had forgotten how much I enjoy all the aspects of this particular hike.

Al at the overlook, with snow

Although the weather was overcast with a spit of rain every now and then, we hiked the three-and-a-half miles to the overlook, and found a little bit of new snow at the top. That's Sefrit Mountain in front of Al, with its summit hidden from view by the  clouds.

Owen, Rich, Chris, Joy, Dave, Greg, Dave, Roger, MIke, Al
Cindy (kneeling)

Here's the group before we sat down to have a quick lunch. There are two Daves in the picture, but I don't remember their last names. It was a rather large group, with many of the guys chatting the entire way up and down the mountain, so I kept towards the front of the line and stayed out of the conversations.

Finding a nice lunch spot

As you can see once we reached the top, the weather wasn't wonderful, but we put on extra clothes and hunkered down out of the wind. Now and then the sun came out and made us very warm indeed. Even though it was a bit on the weathery side, it was still delightful.

Roger admiring the view

We stayed for a fair amount of time on the top before beginning our return trip, because you don't want to rush away after having spent so much energy getting there, and plus with proper clothes, it was even comfortable. Although we never saw much of the mountains, it didn't matter.

Our trail in the forest

Once we had descended far enough to have returned to the woods, the sun began to peep out even more than before. I saw the trail and greenery lit up by the sun and had to take this picture. From here on down, we had more sun than clouds, and the temperature was simply perfect for hiking.

Maidenhair ferns in front

At one of the stream crossings, I saw my favorite ferns, maidenhair ferns or Adiantum. It's curious to wonder how they got their common name, but they sure are pretty to my eye. I always have to snap a picture when I see one.

Map of Goat Mountain trail

As we were leaving, I took a picture of the Forest Service map of the area. We followed the red dotted line up those switchbacks. Take a look at the elevation profile in the lower right to see why I was worried about my knee. But it did very well and I'm so pleased to be sitting here, happy to have climbed the mountain once again, with good friends and just a wee bit of rain!
:-)

The raspberry thief

Rob's sign in the garden

A couple of days ago, when our raspberries first began to ripen, my garden neighbor Rob (who gave me a bunch of raspberry branches earlier this year) found that someone had gone around and snatched his raspberries and managed to break off several main branches. Since I have my own berries, thanks to Rob, it wasn't me.

My raspberry patch

That said, I may have been partly responsible for some of his by the gate being gone. However, a man was spied with a glass that he was busy filling up with raspberries outside the fence, where the breakage occurred. Rob, upset, put up signs but when I spoke to him just now, he said he's going to take them down. It bothered him last night that he was making such a big deal over it, and it's just raspberries, after all. But he's not even had a chance to taste them yet, and many of them are already gone.

My garden is beginning to be harvested for kale and soon, broccoli. I know I would be very upset if someone were to come in and take MY garden stuff! Take a look at my broccoli, which won't be harvested for at least another week or so.

Pretty broccoli florets

I remember last year being surprised that once I harvested the florets, I kept getting new ones. This year I am planting something called "late broccoli" so that maybe we will be able to have it all year round! Well, that's the garden news from my little corner of the world.
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Cloudy and cool Saturday

John and Gene at Avellino's

I stopped by Avellino's for my regulation latte before heading out to join the ladies for our Saturday morning walk. These two crusty old guys were already there, enjoying their own coffee and using the free wifi. Gene will be leaving for Alaska to begin his fishing season next Tuesday. John and I will both miss him while he's gone, but when he comes back we will all get plenty of fresh Alaskan salmon.

Our walk this morning was lovely. We were all ready with raincoats, but it was cool, breezy and dry as we navigated the hilly walk in Northridge Park for somewhere around five miles or more. I wasn't feeling all that energetic so I mostly brought up the rear of the eleven of us. I could barely see Cindy (our leader), who was far ahead of me most of the time. Judith kept me company, though.

Now I'm home and resting up in my favorite chair and will soon return to my book that kept me up so late last night. My friend Judy bought it awhile back and lent it to me. If you'd like a good read, try Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. It's so well written that I couldn't put it down. Maybe that's part of why I was so tired this morning on the walk. I'll finish the book today.
:-)

Church Mountain revisited

Church Mountain trailhead

It was exactly four weeks ago that I went on my first excursion with the Senior Trailblazers after my knee problems, to Church Mountain. It was a sunny day and we had 18 of us head up the trail. Today it was a much more manageable eight, partly because the weather was dubious, with the forecast for rain to start around noon and continue for the rest of the day.

Sylvia and Dick

We had two Trailblazers who have never hiked up Church Mountain before. Dick has gone with us on previous hikes, but this was Sylvia's first adventure with the Trailblazers. They are both strong hikers and I do hope they continue to grace us with their presence in the fiture.

Our trail to the meadow

As we trudged to the meadow, the weather stayed perfect for hiking, cool and mostly cloudy, with the occasional sunbreak as you can see above. Our first view is usually from this vantage point, but when I got there, clouds and fog obscured it all.

The meadow today

And then we emerged from the forest into the meadow. Four weeks ago, this entire meadow was under snow. We thought that it might be possible for us to reach the summit today, looking at the lack of snow as well as the lack of rain.

Stream crossing

But when we reached the stream, although most of the snow was gone, it was difficult to cross. We walked up and down it and some were successful in getting to the other side, but others didn't want to even try (I was one of them). The place where we had our lunch four weeks ago is the ridge at the tree line in the above picture.

Marsh marigolds and the stream behind

I captured this while I was busy trying to find a way across the stream. Finally, I gave up and those who had crossed over decided to come back and join us at our "summit" for the day, a small nearby hill. We found a fairly dry place for lunch, as we had an on-again off-again light rain by this time.

Our lunch spot

We didn't spend a great deal of time at this lunch spot, but enough for us to have a quick repast and then start back down the way we had come. We saw some deer tracks as well as what looked a lot like raccoon tracks in the snow. You can see there is still quite a bit of snow on our way up to the summit. This gives us an opportunity to try once more this summer to make it all the way up to the top.

Map, taken at the trailhead

In this map, you can see the paved road we followed to the trailhead, and then we meandered up the red dotted line to the stream. We hiked somewhere under seven miles and up around 2,700 feet before we stopped for lunch. Next time I hope we can make it all the way, but for today it was simply perfect.

Carol and valerian flowers

I asked Carol to stop for a minute so I could get a picture of her and the abundant valerian that has started to bloom on the side of the trail. Still no real rain, just a light mist, as we headed back down to the cars. The rain picked up a little just before then, but for us it was nothing, really. We piled into our two cars and went down to Graham's for our regulation ice cream, even though it wasn't hot.

Now I am home, happy to have had such a wonderful day, when I was unsure of the wisdom of a hike in the High Country as the weather was dubious. I was again reminded that you can never ever predict the outcome of a day in the wilderness by anything other than being there anyway.
:-)

Odds and ends

John and Bernie at Avellino's

At the Farmers' Market on Saturday, I bought this Bernie Sanders cookie so that I could present it to John on Monday. John is an avid Bernie supporter and I knew that he would appreciate it. Sure enough: he won't even eat Bernie until after he's conceded to Hillary. It might be stale by then. John doesn't look like the usual millennial youngster that Bernie attracts, does he? Just goes to show that you can never judge a book by its cover.

First zucchine blossom

And look! I spied a first blossom on my zucchini plant yesterday when I went out in the morning to water. I smiled when I saw it and was reminded that a few years ago, when I saw that flower and the next day it was gone, I was dismayed, thinking that something had eaten it. And then slowly it dawned on me that the flower is the first stage of the zucchini itself! Boy, was I surprised. And now I'm an old hand and mentally translated this blossom into a zucchini by this time next week.

A few of my blogging friends have asked me about the name of the county in which I live, Whatcom. I remember wondering that myself, long ago, so this morning at the coffee shop I asked John and Gene if they knew the origin of the name. They didn't, so I looked it up (the link above). And I learned that its name ultimately derives from the Lummi word Xwotʼqom, meaning "noisy water."

A nearby table was occupied by a man who was busy grading papers. I learned that he is a professor of river ecology at Western Washington University and asked him if he knew the origin of the word. He smiled and told me yes; in fact, it's the bonus question on the papers he was grading at that moment! What are the odds of that happening?

Odds and ends: it seemed like an appropriate title for today's post. While writing this, I thought about the oddity above and the ending of this phase of the political scene. Even more appropriate.
:-)

Heat wave and minus tides

Kayaker at low tide

This morning Lynn and I headed out to meet the walkers at the ferry terminal in Fairhaven. As usual, we were early (a failing of mine) so we went down to the nearby beach and watched this young woman put her kayak into the water and paddle away. There was more beach than usual, because both today and tomorrow we will have minus tides. It means the tide is below mean sea level. They always come with the new moon, which happens tonight at 8:00pm. Right about now the minus tide is happening in Bellingham Bay, with tomorrow bringing an even more minus tide. I found this information on line here.

Padden Creek this morning

We ladies (and one man) walked from the ferry terminal to Arroyo Park and back, around six miles. It is a warm and sunny day, with the entire west coast getting temperatures way above normal for a few days. I found this Public Alert on line for Portland:

Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect from 10 AM today through 10 PM Sunday for much of interior Southwest Washington and northwest Oregon. An Excessive Heat Warning remains in effect from 10 AM this morning to 10 PM Sunday.

Fortunately for me, we are located near the Canadian border but still, we will be having much warmer than normal weather, with the temperature right now (around noon) hovering near 80F (26C). And this is after having been freezing cold in snow just two days ago! Of course, we were way up there in altitude, and now I'm at sea level.

Hula hoops sparkling in the sun

I got the idea for this shot from the Furry Gnome. He recently visited a Farmers' Market and took some colorful pictures. Lynn, Judith and I wandered around the market for awhile, ate a few tasty bits, and then went home. I'm now fulfilling my final Saturday duty, a blog post. Then I'll have some lunch and find a way to keep myself cool and comfy for the rest of the day.
:-)

Excelsior Pass, almost

A damp forest and hikers

Today ten Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center to discuss our options on this rather rainy Thursday. Of course the only day during the week when rain was forecast was today, so we decided instead of trudging up Goat Mountain and then not having a view, we'd venture up Excelsior Pass from the Mt. Baker highway. This is a strenuous hike, going up around 3,500 feet (1,000 meters) over four-and-a-half miles. The group attempted this hike three weeks ago, when my knee could not possibly have taken the strain, so I missed it. That made me rather happy to be going today, to see how my knee would fare.

Our route today

This map shows where we went today. First an hour drive up Highway 542 to the trailhead, and then up the Excelsior Pass trail, just about in the middle of the above map. Starting at 1,825 feet, we slogged up the red wiggly line on the map to right around 5,000 feet of elevation.

Our beautiful forest

Starting out, it was raining gently, not hard, nothing to give us anything we were not prepared for. Now and then, as you can see from the above picture, the clouds thinned and occasionally gave us brief moments when the fog in the trees lighted our way upwards. It was really rather beautiful.

Rich in his rain skirt in the snow

But as we climbed, we finally hit patches of snow that eventually ended up being a deal breaker for reaching the pass, as you can see here. Rich is getting ready to have his lunch, with the only view we had today behind him. The view came and went, but the rain lessened until it was almost nonexistent. Not completely, but almost. We stopped here, at 5,000 feet and less than a mile from the summit, to have our lunch.

Our lunch spot

The snow made the summit possible but not likely to give us anything we had not already experienced. We refreshed ourselves with food and piled on every bit of warm clothing we had with us and then started back down the way we had come. It took a bit of hiking before we were all warm and toasty again.

Out of the snow

Finally we descended enough to be out of the snow. It makes it quite difficult to walk safely and took all my energy just to make sure I didn't fall. As you can see from this picture, it never did get sunny. But not long after this picture was taken, we began to see patches of sunshine and the misty rain came and went, sometimes completely.

The trail 

This final picture was taken at our last stop before we returned to the trailhead. The light green foliage, combined with the misty trees, were lovely to see. We were truly bathing in the forest. We talked about how wonderful forest bathing is for the soul, and today ten of us were scrubbed clean by Shinrin-yoku (森林浴).

And now I am home, filled with joy and happy to be off my feet, drinking my well deserved wine, and rejoicing that my knee did not complain much today! Between yoga and proper rehabilitation, I am well again!
:-)