Friday March 28, 2014 -- Hike

On Tuesday night, I thought to myself that I wanted to go on a hike. The problem with then became it was March in Washington. Which means there's snow in them-thar mountains and all the roads leading to my normal hikes were blocked. Add to that, I don't do snow.

So I went on to the Washington Trail Association website and started looking. They've got a Google map with all of the hikes they know of laid out. You just find the area you're looking to hike and it'll tell you what's there.

I eventually decided I'd like to hike the Oyster Dome. I texted my sister's husband's sister, Jamie, and she was all for going with me on Friday.

Fast-forward . . . We met at my apartment on Friday morning. We first headed to Haggen to get some trail munchies then to my storage unit to get my hiking boots (I have to have ankle support -- too many rolled ankles in my time) and trail backpack.

As we left Haggen, the skies opened up and let lose a torrent of rain. As we headed north, it calmed. When we took the Chuckanut Drive exit, there weren't any drips hitting our windshield.

We drove and drove and drove through the twists and turns. At one point we thought we may have passed the trail-head but we didn't see any signs or any Discovery Passes in the car windows so we just kept heading north, since we didn't know where we were suppose to go. We eventually crossed the line into Whatcom County and there was Larrabee State Park on our right.

Since we were somewhat lost we decided to go talk to the ranger at the station. He told us our first suspicions were right -- those cars were right at the trail-head for Oyster Dome. He then told us about Fragrance Lake. The start of the trail to get there was just here in the parking lot. Since we were already here and we were wanting to get going we decided to do the Fragrance Lake hike. We took the ranger's advice and started the trail by going up the old fire and logging road. I couldn't imagine trying to drive a car up here! The ground was saturated but there weren't many potholes or mud puddles.

A bit after our halfway mark we came upon a waterfall. I'm glad we did this hike in the early spring! If we were to do it in the late summer, I doubt there would be as much of a flow as we were treated to.

(me at the base of the waterfall; taken with my phone)

I love waterfalls!!! They are one of my favorite things and I love scaling the hills and rocks surrounding them to get up to the top. I think I was a mountain goat in a past life or something. I scrambled up the left side, almost to the top. I love it when the water splashes on your face. And it felt very refreshing after our huff and puff up the trail.

The lake wasn't as special as the waterfall and the switchbacks coming down weren't at all fun on bodies. I wish I had brought hiking poles (my next investment!). 

As we were walking back through the parking lot at the end our our journey, it started sprinkling. We got in the car and headed south and it started down pouring! We timed this entire expedition exceptionally, even if it was all about getting lost. All-in-all, we went about 5.5 miles. 

I'm excited for next Friday -- I'm hoping to keep up the habit and hike every Friday until Fall (maybe I'll even do some winter hikes! We'll see how much I'm willing to invest in gear). 

Cheers!
LC