Not one raindrop

Very few Senior Trailblazers (seven to be exact) came out today for our regular Thursday hike. It had something to do with the weather forecast: it was awful. All last night the wind blew hard, and more than a half inch of rain fell. The forecast for today:

Windy...occasional showers. Precipitation may mix with wet snow in heavier showers. Highs 45 to 50. Northwest wind 15 to 30 mph. Local gusts to 45 mph this morning. 

When I woke to find the sun shining, I figured it would end soon. I packed my new backpack with all the rain gear near the top, and since it was going to be windy and rainy, I took lots of warm clothes. That picture above shows the beginning of our hike today, up what we call "Cub Creek." Isn't it an inviting trail? We meandered up the trail in perfect hiking weather. We covered eight miles in total and 1,500 feet in elevation.

As we climbed higher, though, this is what we saw: snow. Apparently last night while it was raining in Bellingham, at the higher elevations snow was falling. This is Al, who led our trek up past the Cub Creek trail to the Stewart Mountain road. The rain never came, and the only precipitation we had were the big plops of snow falling off the trees onto us, like on Al's arm. (Click to enlarge.)

When we got to our lunch spot, we looked at the temperature and noticed that it wasn't exactly warm, right around freezing. But the wind never blew, other than an occasional gust (just enough to let the snow on the trees give us a nice shower). Here's how much snow was on the logs when we brushed them off to have lunch:

I would say it's about five or six inches, and walking in the snow was a bit tiring. By the time we had gone four miles and stopped for lunch, we discussed whether to go on longer or start back. The consensus was not to push our luck, so although our total miles were just under eight, several of them were in snow, which takes a little more effort to walk through. I'm tired but not terribly so.

I just had to show you my new pack: it's an REI Ventura 30, which gives me the room to carry everything I need. That's my nifty inflatable REI seat cushion, much nicer to sit on than that cold snow, my sparkly hat, and my trekking poles. We did get a view now and then.

This picture looks out past the snow-covered trees to Lake Whatcom, where we started out. It was a truly wonderful day, and although I'm feeling well exercised, I'm not hobbling around like I was a week ago. This was much more fun, although one of our more enthusiastic hikers thought it was a "wimpy" hike. Not! And not one raindrop.
:-)