Fun and companionship and cold clear conditions and Western larches and Mountain Queers make for a good day out!
An early winter adventure on a beautiful clear day!
We had a lovely hike to Ollalie Creek Campground, which started with a wonderful short trip to the Grove of the Patriarchs, which includes a cool suspension bridge, and ended with a quick side trip to beautiful Silver Falls.
Seven nautical mile round-trip paddle along an historic section of coast at the northern end of Camano Island. This area was once a major logging community and home to the first shipbuilding operation in the Puget Sound region.
Trail was in relatively good condition. There were a few small downed trees on the trail from yesterday's wind storm. Watch for hanging branches toward the top.
A surprisingly pleasant shoulder season conditioner (~16 miles, ~5900’ gain), with added drama from an intimidating forecast that never happened. Gorgeous fall colors, treecicles (portmanteau of icicles and tree), plus much stoic cloud gazing.
We hiked to Susan Jane Lake , our destination . Views of Josephine Lake would have been impacted by storm activity . The Fall colors were beautiful in the berry areas.
Successful run -- despite gate being locked
Started at 8 AM, hiked to the summit. Returned to the cars by 2:30 PM
About a foot of new snow in the Headlight basin beyond the pass made navigation difficult since the trail was completely covered. Became more of a snow scramble than a hike. We reached the bottom of the basin past the grove of larches, but decided to turn around towards the part where the trail goes over rocky terrain and was not visible.
Beautiful fall scenery , sneaky first rock pitch
Pleasant training run, good group that was very tolerant of leader's slow pace. My Strava recording https://www.strava.com/activities/6102641020
An unexpectedly beautiful day to paddle in Chuckanut Bay.
A gorgeous ‘end of the season’ tour along alpine ridges and meadows connecting 4 distinct peaks: Burnt Park (Pt 6327), Palisades, Marcus, and Pt 6218 (the ridge NW of Marcus). This strenuous exploratory traverse (~5300’ gain, ~14 miles, 5 miles off trail) is a keeper, with unexpected sun/views and impending weather that held off until we arrived back at the cars.
Hit maple pass loop with the first snow fall of the season. The trail was very muddy on the way up with lots of tourists hiking in micro-spikes. The Larches were in full splendor and it seemed like the whole of Seattle had showed up to see them.
A beautiful trail, but perhaps there are better times than October to attempt it. Ran up late in the afternoon on a Sunday and found a lot of scree and icey snow. Completed it in around 4:45 hours.