Mt. Erie and Sugarloaf 2011

Finally, a Thursday with no precipitation! It seems a long time ago, since the last few weeks we have hiked in weather than didn't allow for very many good pictures. Last year's hike to this same destination was in February, and I just peeked at the pictures to see how different they were. Very, to say the least. You are looking at Mt. Rainier brought a little closer with my telephoto, but it is the first time I've even SEEN it from the top of Mt. Erie. We had low fog making for some spectacular shots, and the sun only peeked out now and then, but the weather was quite mild and, as I said, there was no rain.

Looking across the water at the Olympics, you can see the low clouds and the view with these clouds was so beautiful it took my breath away. If you enlarge it, almost in the middle of the picture you can see a bird, probably an eagle looking for a quick meal. We had eighteen Trailblazers on today's hike, many of them on this excursion for the first time. Although we trekked from Heart Lake through the Anacortes Community Forest Land south of Bellingham, there is a paved road that goes all the way to the top. We were the only hikers up there, but many people had come for the view, wondering why we had trekking poles and packs, I expect.

Pointing my camera to the east, looking across the Skagit Valley, I could see many of my favorite and familiar mountains, Glacier Peak among them, with the fog drifting across the valley to make my pictures particularly interesting and mysterious. These three pictures cover 180 degrees, looking east, south, and west from the top of Mt. Erie. I took a picture of the whole gang below, with the Anacortes refinery in the background.

 Fred and Norm are in the front row, kneeling and crossing their swords -- I mean their trekking poles. As usual, you can see that we are all in various stages of dress for the weather, except for Mikey on the right, sans umbrella but dressed for his native planet, which I believe is Pluto. There was a lot of up and down on this hike, and by the time we reached the cars, my knees were unhappy because we had covered eight miles and gone up and down 2,300 feet of elevation. However, now that I am home safe and sound, and I think of the more than 1,000 extra calories I burned during this hike, I am very content.

I do want to say thank you to all my readers who have mentioned their adventures with thyroid problems. It did occur to me that maybe part of the reason for the weight gain is this unwelcome guest hanging out in there. I'll know the full story soon, but now I know myself to be in extremely good company!
:-)