Our Excursion: 20230507: NW Washington Trip – Day 4
(Part of trip: )
Date of our excursion: 2023-05-07
Location: Bellingham, Washington
Our Planned Itinerary:Original Plan:
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Travelers on this Excursion: |
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We hit some cool places.
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Continents: North America |
Some featured areas we visited: |
Some points of interest we hit: |
We changed our plans today so now we are planning to head to Cedar Lake and Pine Lake and then keep walking until we hit Oyster Dome. So basically, up, over, and down one mountain and then up and down the next one. Spoiler alert: that was too lofty of a goal. For some reason the miles didn’t speed by today. We did still hit a crazy mileage goal and still saw some great views.
We started the day by driving to the Cedar Lake trailhead. The hill looks steep and we plan on some serious elevation gain so we decide to take one hiking pole each. Well, this hill is REALLY steep. At .6 miles, we determine we really would benefit from having 2 hiking poles each. We haven’t come that far so one of us rushed down the mountain, grabbed the remaining poles, and trudged back up the mountain. It was definitely worth it because this hill just kept going up. steeply.
Eventually, we found Cedar Lake. It was quite beautiful. Pine Lake seemed to be only for camping and didn’t have a very visible trail.
We kept trekking after the Lakes and saw some nice nature. One trail we headed down was quite steep downhill, was very skinny, and had a narrow rut. We noticed tire tracks; tracks that were wider than a normal mountain bike. We were on a dirt bike trail! There had been no signs warning us of this. Off in the distance we heard the unmistakable roar of dirtbikes. Good thing we were currently in a wider section of the trail so we could step off and let the bikes go by. I think they were shocked to see 2 random hikers on their trail! At one point, Erika’s hiking pole gave out, so she tripped in a bike rut, landed in mud, and bent her pole. Now she is going to need new poles; but at least that is one less thing to pack in her suitcase.
After hiking a while, about halfway between the 2 mountains, we decided to turn around if we wanted to make it back to the hotel before dark. We wanted more soup! The hike back was nice as well. We avoided the dirt bike trail so we got to see some different views. We met a mountain biker and he said “Where did you come from?”. Ha, I guess not many people wander around these remote areas!
Finally we made it back to the trailhead and the much anticipated portapotty. We hung out at Rogue1, relaxed, stretched, hydrated, and ate snacks before heading back to the hotel. We walked a TON today so since we didn’t want to be sore tomorrow, we did a stretching workout video.
We still have some daylight so we take another walk along South Bay Trail. It is really convenient having the trail entrance right outside the hotel door. Dinner was soup again. Evening activities included the nightly epsom foot soak and packing all our bags.