River Meadow's Park - June 16, 2011

River Meadow's Park is a great place for a nice hike that isn't too far out of town. It's about 15 minutes outside of Arlington. There are several miles of trails to explore....some of them are along the river and some are through the meadows and forest. There are campsites and yurts available if you want to explore for a little longer. This was my second trip here and I really like the park....

Here is where we stopped for lunch.

There were some washed out areas and spots of mud....but nothing that was impassable. I would probably wear shoes that you don't mind getting dirty though! We hiked out of the parking lot along the river and followed the trail until it disappeared....several spots along the river for lunch if you feel so inclined... :) Then we turned around and headed back to where the trail branched off and headed up near the park entrance....we followed the road that leads into the park down towards the parking lot and cut off at a gated area on the left that leads to the meadow trails. We probably hiked 3 miles or so....and there were still more areas to explore....

A bee....busy pollinating...

The meadow trails...

Not sure what type of tree/shrub this is...
they always look like little cherries that are all
pit to me....

The first ripe Salmon berries of the season! They weren't too
bad....I think they would have been better with a little
more sun and warm weather!

Not sure what this was either...it was pretty...
but I'm pretty sure it's non-native and invasive...
it was climbing the invasive blackberries...

Well that's all I have....no fungus pictures from this hike....Happy trails.....

Old Sauk River Trail ~ June 9th 2011

It was a cooler cloudy day on our hike at the Old Sauk River Trail. Plenty of parking at the trailhead and we were the only ones there (aside from one ranger and one work party vehicle) at 11:30am when we arrived. The trail is nice and level with not much elevation change. Pretty views of the river and forest along the way.

There were several work parties on the trail doing repairs to the trail and building new bridges.

One of the work crews hard at work making a new log bridge.

Crossing the older bridge, next to the crew getting
a new one ready...

 The trail is about 3 miles one way. We hiked about 2 miles in before we turned around. The trail was in good condition as the work crews had already cleared all of the fallen trees off of the trail. A few muddy spots along the trail, but they were few and far between.

A lovely, fat slug....

A little harder to see...but a toad that hopped across the trail
in front of us...

Plants along the trail....

I couldn't get the camera to focus as well as I would
have liked.....but I thought the seeds hanging from
this grass were really unique!

Western Coralroot Orchid

Thimble Berry blossom....I love Thimble berries, by the way....

Devil's Club...can't wait til it's in bloom...
I love it's spiky flowers....

This was the bottom of  the root ball on a tree that
had blown down....it was a living wall of flowers and
ferns and things....and I though it was really pretty!
The picture below is closer up of the vegetation growing
on it.

The fungus pictures:

I think this may be tapioca slime mold or brefeldia maxima

I can just imagine a small forest fairy has this
lovely mushroom as sun shade outside her
home... :)

Happy trails.....

Mt. Erie from Whistle Lake parking lot ~ June 4th 2011

This was the second time that I've hiked from the Whistle Lake parking area in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. Last time we hiked around Whistle Lake and this time we made it to the top of Mt. Erie. Make sure to bring a map so the that you can plan the trails you will take....lots of trails here and it will be confusing without a map!

Mt Baker as seen from the top of Mt. Erie

Whistle Lake

Whistle Lake from the top of Mt. Erie - you can
see it behind the trees in the middle of the picture

At the top, having a snack

Here's my Dad's adorable dog Dakota, relaxing at the top

The weather was beautiful! There were about 10 cars in the parking lot when we arrived at about noon......there were a few more spots...but it isn't a huge lot. When we left after 5 pm....the lot was full and people were parking along the sides of the road.


We encountered a little mud on the trail, but it was mostly clear. On the way to Mt. Erie we followed 201 out of the parking lot, then onto 21, 207 and 216 all the way up to the top of Mt. Erie. We saw no one else on the trail until we were almost to the top. Once we got to the top it was crowded as usual with people who drove up.....not nearly as much fun as hiking up! The views were beautiful! On the way down we cut off onto 233 and then 204 and followed the lake back to 20 and to the parking lot. This section of trail around the lake was where we encountered a lot of people! We saw people jumping off of a tall rocky area into the lake as well as some teens that were skinny dipping....luckily they were in the water when we went by. We also encountered one motorbike on 20....this is the first one I have seen here in the ACFL's. It took us about 5 1/2 hours and we went approximately 6 miles

Reflections...

The kids having fun....

Taking a leap....

A picture frame tree... :)

Flowers that we saw...

A lily of some sort...

The first reddish salmon berry of the season

Western Coralroot orchids just coming up and starting to bloom....

Something in the pea family I think...

Another pic of the same plant...from a different angle...

Fungus pictures....

Happy trails....and loving the sun!