The Keep Cool trail

You may be wondering why I am writing about a hike I took on a Tuesday! The Trailblazer leaders are beginning to add a few extra hikes to the first part of the week (Monday or Tuesday), but when Al sent out an email request for people to join him today, I was the only one who responded. However, an inveterate couple of hikers named Verne and Kathy joined the two of us to make a foursome that hiked the Keep Cool trail today.

I first learned about this trail when Al wrote about it on his blog here. He hiked it last September for the first time, which was a good thing. It meant he had a GPS track of the trail, which was clear of snow when he covered it last year. Today, not so much. The picture above was taken at the beginning of the hike, at about 3,000 feet elevation. By the time we had gone no more than a mile on this sketchy trail, we hit snow.

The day was sunny and glorious. As you can see from this picture, the trail is not always obvious, as it is no longer maintained by the Forest Service. It goes to Yellow Aster Butte, but it is only used these days by people who are long-time hikers. (You can find out more by going to Al's link.) Today, we ran into snow and lost the trail at about 4,000 feet. Verne's route-finding skills are considerable, as he's been on this trip many times, but Al kept telling us when we veered off the trail by a fair amount. We could hear a stream rushing by, and we knew we should be close to it, but we wanted to avoid falling through the snow in scenes like this:

It's not unusual for streams to undercut snow cover like this, but it is not a good idea to get too close or worse yet, fall into one of these sink holes. So we were careful, and finally we gained the "meadow" (or what will be a meadow when all the snow is gone).

By this time, it was time for us to stop and have some lunch. I would say we were standing on at least five and possibly ten feet of snow. I do know we had stopped seeing any signs of ground beneath our feet a while before we got to this place. Al, Kathy, and Verne (and I) all agreed to sit down in a nice bit of shade and have some lunch. We looked around and identified all the peaks we could see.

The highest peak in this picture is Yellow Aster Butte, which is currently impassable because of snow. The smaller peak to the right is called Larrabee Peak. As you can see, it will be a LONG TIME before we will be able to gain access to the Butte this year. The snow is so much deeper than it was this time last year, and the flowers that will burst forth when it's gone will not be in bloom any time soon. Although this makes me sad, I couldn't complain too much as we headed back down the trail and ran into ground (and foliage) again. I took this picture of a blossom that shows much promise.

All in all, I had a great day in the Mt. Baker wilderness area with Al and two new friends, and on Thursday I will get to be with my other Trailblazer friends for a hike into... yes, snow. It's everywhere around here and unavoidable for most of the summer season. I'll just have to manage.
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Weather or not

Yesterday we had one of the most beautiful sunny blue sky days I've seen so far this year. And it meant that I would head to Snohomish to join my friends so we could play together in the sky. Here you see my playmates: Kevin and me standing, with Cindy, Dave and Linny in front. These are some of the friends I fly around with in the air. Yesterday I only made two jumps, but of course Ninja Linny made four, staying until sunset while Smart Guy and I headed north to Bellingham. The traffic was not fun. We would have gone back again today, but we awoke to wind, rain, and low clouds. So I took pictures instead.

Some of the visitors to our front yard that don't bother me at all, the deer, drive the flower people who live on ground level a bit crazy, since they LOVE to eat the tender little shoots as they come up. This one is watching the people traffic to make sure nobody is interested in chasing away the local wildlife. Nobody was, so he (she?) spent quite a bit of time on the lawn figuring out what to eat next.

Poppies must not be on their list of favorite things, because these guys hadn't been touched, and I had been meaning to take a picture when they were in their first bloom, they were so beautiful. Now they are a little past their prime, but I walked out just now to capture this picture to share with you. Now all I needed was a bit of blue, and they would be perfect for the holiday weekend.

The penstemon planted in my little planter on the front porch comes up every year whether I take care of them or not. I originally planted them for this reason: they are irresistible to hummingbirds. This is my third season in my planter, and I love to watch these little hummers come to taste them. Although I have an almost identical picture from last year, I have no idea if it is the same little guy or not, and these are blooms from this year's plants. Don't you just love those pretty little wings? And if you enlarge this picture, you can admire those teeny tiny little legs tucked up to reduce drag.

And with that, I'm off to the Y to swim laps, and then to the movies with Judy. We're going to see Midnight in Paris, which is, I'm told, a delightful movie. I'll let you know. I truly hope you are enjoying your weekend, and Happy Independence Day to one and all!
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Rainy Middle Fork road hike

Today twelve Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center with only a vague idea of where we would be going. Our scheduled hike, Hannegan Pass, is still not passable because of snow. In fact, the Bellingham Herald printed an article today that confirmed our fears: Artist Point, which we use to access many of our favorite hikes in the Mt. Baker area, will not be cleared of snow this year. So, today we chose to drive from our mostly blue skies in Bellingham up to the Middle Fork logging road, hoping for a view and determined to get some exercise, no matter what. We actually had a wonderful day last November when we previously visited this area. I wrote about it here (and you can see the views we missed today).

As we drove our three cars almost thirty miles up to our starting point, it began to rain. And rain. Hoping the sky was just getting the moisture out of its system and then it would be nice, we donned our rain gear and started up the road. It didn't let up, and by the time we had hiked over two miles, some were talking about going back. But we wanted to get a least the exercise we have grown accustomed to having, so we kept going until we got to the junction you see below. Some wanted to hike until 11:00 am on the lower road, which didn't climb so steeply, and others wanted to go up. Since we had our walkie-talkies with us, we split into two groups, with one group going up and the other going down. We agreed to turn around at 11 and head back down to the cars, which is what we did, meeting up again at this junction without any problem.

Sometimes the rain would let up and we would get hopeful for some views and the possibility that we might even dry out a little. At least it wasn't cold, with temperatures somewhere in the low 50s. But it didn't happen. Not knowing WHAT I would write about for this blog, and what pictures I might have to share, I took some pictures of the flowers, and this is the best I got.

I thought the green leaves (if you enlarge the picture you can see they are weighed down with rain), the rock and the flowers all made a nice little scene on an otherwise wet and rainy day. All in all, we covered more than seven miles and those of us who took the high road got somewhere around 2,000 feet elevation gain and loss, making it an acceptable hike. We are pretty hardy to spend five hours walking in the rain, making it back to the cars before even considering stopping for lunch. Some decided to take off and head back to the center, others (like us) got back to the highway and stopped by the side of the road for lunch.

Peggy has missed the last three hikes, since she went off on an adventure to Scotland and just returned late last week. She bought this plastic raincoat for that trip and never used it, but she certainly got a chance to see how it worked today. It's great to have her back! Better luck to all of us, weather wise, next week.
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Summertime!

We Bellingham residents have been wanting a weekend like the one we just had for quite awhile. This picture was actually taken on Memorial Day, the unofficial first day of summer, but then the cool wet weather returned to dampen more than just our spirits. The official first day of summer, though, came last Tuesday and then... we had an absolutely lovely weekend. Although it was cool and a bit cloudy to begin with, Saturday got nicer and nicer. And any day we see the sun and the rain doesn't fall is a good one.

I went walking early Saturday morning with the Fairhaven walking group, after having skipped it the week before because it was raining when I woke. Yesterday we walked about five brisk miles down by the bay and ended up at the Adagio Cafe for coffee afterwards. I then moseyed down to the Farmers' Market with a new friend, Karen, who I've seen before with the walkers, but we both headed down to the market together and I got to know her a bit better. I introduced her to the Rabbit Field Farms booth, where the vendor was expecting my usual purchase of baby kale. It looked good to Karen, so she bought some too. It's especially tasty early in the season.

Then I walked over to the Y and swam a half mile, feeling like a million bucks after swimming, showering, and heading back home. After the exercise and being ready for a good lunch, I felt the weekend had an auspicious beginning. The squirrels were on the porch when I got home, and after I shoo'd them off and swept up after the birds, I realized that they aren't intimidated any more by my Super Soaker antics (which I wrote about here), because the water isn't anything that hurts them and now they know that as crazy as I look, I'm not likely to harm them either. Sigh. They have had babies, and now I have two families, a black set, smaller and native to the area, and a family of gray squirrels. I went out one day after having chased one particularly persistent guy off the porch three or four times and hurled an apple I was eating after him as he ran away. Immediately he turned and inspected it, and of course hauled it back to his den. Or maybe her den. Now I occasionally throw an apple core onto the lawn and it is gone within minutes. As long as they aren't on my porch I don't mind them. My brother-in-law used to remark that squirrels are rodents, after all, just rats with a better wardrobe.

However, I just read an article about sitting still too long in one place, that it's bad for your health. Even if you get lots of exercise otherwise, it's important to take breaks often from sitting, stand up and stretch, even for a minute. I guess these guys are doing me a favor as I snatch up my Super Soaker and run out the front door, pumping the trigger with mad abandon. They run, too, but just as soon as my back is turned, well, you know the rest.

And then yesterday, Sunday, was a brilliant day, filled with sunshine and reaching 72 degrees F. I drove down to Snohomish and ended up making four skydives before heading back home. They were all good ones, too, playing in the air with my friends and having just the best time. All my landings were good, and I'm still learning how to pack this parachute to open consistently nice and soft. I am convinced, however, that once I figure it out, I will be happy with it for the rest of my skydiving career.

Many of my apartment neighbors on the ground level (I'm on the second level) have flower gardens that are simply amazing. That's one thing I do have to say about the rain around here: everything is lush and green, and the flowers are extremely happy to show their stuff. This weekend was the beginning of what I hope will be a truly wonderful summer. And my dear virtual friends, as I read about your lives, I get to experience what your little corner of the universe is like. It means a lot to me to have such a community.
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Back to the Chuckanuts

Because our scheduled hike into the High Country is still impassable, eight Senior Trailblazers who met at the Senior Center discussed our options for today's outing. The weather was gloomy with a 50% chance of rain, so driving for any distance at all didn't make a lot of sense. We decided to stay close to town and chose a pretty hard hike: Chuckanut Ridge. Several of you have asked about the origin of the word "Chuckanut," so I looked it up. It's a Native American word meaning "beach on a bay with a small entrance." To me, it sounds like something a squirrel would do (smile).

When we gained the ridge from the Arroyo parking lot, you can see we had little view of Bellingham, but lots of clouds towards the mountains made it obvious we had made a good choice for today. This trail is not an easy one, with lots of ups and downs, and the scenery for most of the hike was just what was in front of and around us.

The fog began to close in by the time we stopped at Gates Overlook for lunch. I haven't bothered to show you the view from the overlook, because there wasn't one. Marjan, today's leader, gave us options many times during the day to make it longer or shorter, but by the time we packed up from having lunch, nobody seemed to be inclined to make it any longer than the eleven miles (round trip) we would cover on our return. It might have been a smidgen longer, but both of our GPS people were elsewhere (Al is in Las Vegas in over 100-degree heat, and Fred had taken Monday off work for our snowshoe trip and decided to put in some work hours today).

By the time we started heading back down the trail to our cars, the sun began to break through the clouds a little, so we had mixed rain (enough to cause us to put on our rain gear) and sunshine. Cindy pointed out these little flowers to me, which she thinks are called foam flowers (or at least that's what I heard). They remind me of baby's breath, which florists use in bouquets. On the way back down, I couldn't resist asking Dan to let me take a picture of him with this sign:

I don't know who the original Dan was, but our very own Dan will be 78 years old soon, so I figured he deserves a traverse if he wants it. Happy birthday! Not to mention that he had no problem with our long hike and almost 3,000 feet elevation gain and loss. I learned today that he started hiking with the Trailblazers in 2000, when he was about the age I am now. Made me hopeful that I'll still be playing in the Chuckanuts with my friends when I'm 78!
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Geezers in the mist

Fred and Mike on the way to Huntoon Point

The Senior Trailblazers have decided to add a twice-monthly Monday or Tuesday hike to the High Country for the 2011 season, and today four of us set out to see how the conditions actually are up there. The Bellingham Herald featured an article this weekend stating "Plenty of Snow in Cascades Means Shorter Hiking Season." This definitely was NOT what we have been hoping to hear. If you read the article, you'll find that the cool and wet spring, along with lots of late-season snow, means that Artist Point, a very popular place to begin our hikes, will possibly not open for the season -- at all.

This is the road to Artist Point, which stops at the ski area parking lot. We made jokes along the lines of "just gun it, Al, let's see how far we can plow through." Um-hmm. Not very far. We slapped on our snowshoes at the ski area parking lot and set out for Huntoon Point, two miles away from here and a little higher in elevation than Artist Point. The snow was slushy, a little like sno-cone consistency, but it was in the fifties, even without any sign of the sun.

As you can see from our clothing and the sunglasses, it was actually quite toasty and the reflected light off the snow caused me to come home with a sunburned face, and summer's sunlight at 5,000 feet warmed us through the heavy clouds. There is usually an astounding vista here, but we didn't see it at all. This was the best I saw, and I had to capture quickly before it disappeared again.

It almost looks like a black-and-white picture, the colors were so washed out with the sky being almost the same color as the snow. The day was calm and relatively warm, so once we reached Huntoon Point we had lunch and then headed back down to the car. The feeling of the day was a little surreal, with such a monochrome landscape. It was only broken by the colors we added ourselves.

Although it's hard to believe, you are looking at both sky and snow as Mike and Fred make their way across the snowy terrain. Snowshoes make a four-mile hike feel like we went twice as far, but it was still a lovely day, with the four of us deciding to check out Hannegan Road on our way back down to Bellingham. Once we left the High Country and got down below 3,000 feet, the greenery exploded and I just had to take this picture of a trillium almost past its peak. The three petals and three leaves show why this flower and its beautiful leaves celebrate THREE in its name.

So all in all, it was a good day, and I'm looking for something to put on my pink cheeks to help them recover from all that indirect sunshine!
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Singin' in the rain

No, not me. I was grumbling about the rain this morning, not singing. I woke to the sound of it drumming on the roof, which is never a good sign on a Saturday when I'm thinking about going out with the Fairhaven Walkers. Nope, I've been soaked on too many of those walks to be happy about walking in the wetness. But if you ask me, this beautiful flower, taken this morning at the Farmers' Market, was definitely happy. The delicate purple edges (its name is something that begins with a C, but I just can't remember, although I asked the vendor) were so light as to almost be invisible.

After giving up on the walk, the first bus to town goes by at 9:50 am, so I ambled to the bus stop since the rain had dwindled to what was called "light rain mist" on my weather blog. For those of you interested, the temperature outside right now is 54 degrees F, and yesterday's maximum was 66. Our all-time record for the date was 87 in 1958, and I don't think we need to worry about setting records any time soon. We are continuing with our cooler-than-normal temperatures accompanied by rain. At least these days are broken now and then by sunnier and warmer temperatures than we are having today.

There were no crowds at the Market today, either, as you can see from the grey, wet and rather empty sidewalks. But by the time I left the market, the rain had stopped. Although there is no sunshine yet, it's amazing how much my mood lifted once the rain let up. Then it was time for the lap swimming to begin over at the Y's pool, so I went in and swam more than a half mile, in a lane all by myself. By the time I went to catch the bus home, I was smiling and would have been singin' in the rain... if there was any left.

I stopped by the bookstore and picked up The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Everyone who has read it tells me I'll love it, so now I'll have some lunch and snuggle into my recliner and read, while the birds sing outside.
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