Outdoor Recreation Photos
| Lord Hill Park October 28th. Overcast but dry today, a nice change. Hiked from the entrance across the length of the park down to the hidden old quarry site and met Jason Patterson, a primitive skills teacher. Jason showed us how to make friction fire and we practiced for about an hour. Then we got out our compasses and plotted a straight line bushwhack course from where we were back to the vans. Following a bearing in the woods is like creating a friction fire, its harder than it looks. | ||
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Jason shows us how to make a coal |
It sure looked simple in the demo |
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Team work |
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| Who needs a fire? Doing all this bow work keeps you warm |
Wait, is that smoke? |
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The desired result is a small hot coal |
Put the coal in a nest of fire starter material and you have fire |
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It takes just the right amount of air to get it to flame |
On the way back we find a rough skinned newt |
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| Lake 22 October 21. Another dampish day in the mountains but also warm. It was about an hour drive to the Lake 22 trailhead about 15 miles north of Granite Falls. There was an abundance of cool mushrooms today and the highlight of this trail is the huge old growth cedar trees. This area was set aside in 1947 as a research Natural Area. The trail gains 1300 feet in 2.7 miles making it a 5.4 mile round trip to the lake. The lake is shallow and nestled at the base of the north face of Mt. Pilchuck. | ||
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| Old growth tree along trail | Taking a break from the rain | |
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| Fall Colors along the way | Purple fuzzy mushrooms, Cortinarius violaceus | |
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| The Fish ladder on the Stillaguamish just outside Granite Falls | Fall gold | |
| Dorothy Lake October 14. It was a bit damp on this hike, but pretty warm, temps in the mid 50's so being damp was not really too bad. It took us about an hour to drive to the trailhead at the end of Miller River road. The vine maples provided nice fall colors. Its 1.8 miles from the trailhead to the north end of the lake and its an 800 foot elevation gain so its a good workout but not too hard. On the way we found lots of mushrooms and pulled a Pacific Giant Salamander out of a small cave. Some big trees in here. The sun came out as we got to the lake and we continued hiking another mile or so to a nice lakeside campground. The fish were not biting and it started to rain so we made a fire. | ||
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| Dorothy Lake Trail | Dorothy lake campfire | |
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| Dorothy Lake Trail | Pacific Giant Salamander, Dorothy Lake Trail | |