I know I haven't been posting much lately. I'm in college full time as well as homeschooling my two boys so there hasn't been as much time for hiking lately. We did manage to get out once during my spring break. We went to one of my favorite local places,
Lord Hill Regional Park. We originally decided not to go in the morning because it was pretty wet outside. Around noon, the weather was looking okay, so we changed our minds and decided to head out. It (of course) started raining on the way there and continued for the first 30 minutes of hiking. The trails were muddy, but we came prepared with boots and/or shoes that could get dirty. We only saw a couple of other people who ventured out in the rain on the trail that day.
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| You can see my son is somewhat drenched from the rain. |
We went up to the lookout off of the pipeline cutoff trail (my favorite lookout, and a great place to eat lunch). We stopped to have something to eat under some trees that were keeping us drier. After we'd been there for about 15 minutes, the rain stopped and some blue sky started peeking through the clouds!
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| The view from the lookout. |
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| I loved the way the water on this lichen was catching the sun. |
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| We even found a snake sunning himself along side the trail on the way back to the car. |
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| We saw some flowers, including skunk cabbage, announcing that spring had arrived. |
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| Salmon berries are in bloom. |
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| Trillium was up and blooming as well. |
It was nice to be out and get some exercise and fresh air. The flowers and sunshine were a nice reward too!
I'm taking the summer off from school so I should have more time to hike and will try to blog the hikes that we do over the summer.
Happy Trail!
We went on another short, but nice hike on the Japanese Gulch Trail in Mukilteo this week. We walked between 2 1/2 and 3 miles and spent about an hour and a half divided between walking and eating lunch. There have been many improvements to the trail since the last time I visited. You no longer have to pull yourself up a steep hill with a rope. This section was replaced by stairs. There are many other muddy or steep areas that now have wooden boardwalks or bridges. We also decided to check out the 1/4 mile interpretive trail on the opposite side (North) of the road from the main Japanese Gulch site (where the dog park is). This trail begins a little bit east of the main site and dead-ends at Mukilteo Lane. Nice interpretive signs and lots of berries ripe at the time I hiked, both huckleberries and thimble berries.
