Friday, July 8th - We had a fine day for hiking right from our campsite on East Sullivan Lake: First the 3/4 mi loop nature trail, where we spent quite a bit of time watching red-naped sapsuckers fly to a nesting hole - the giveaway was their noisy babies: Feed me, feed me! They were too fast to get a photo, but we enjoyed watching the process.
Jimmy is standing next to a Douglas fir with an odd shape. During its seedling years it was repeatedly pinned down to the ground by heavy amounts of snow and forest debris ... but it wanted to live and it succeeded!
Next we began a fairly level (with moderate grades) 4.2 mile trail to the bottom of the lake at Noisy Creek. We made it over half way (past the far left point in above photo).
We had fun on the rock slide areas, pitching rocks in the water, but those talus slopes are hard to walk on.
Wild tiger lily.
Unknown orchid.
Lorquin's admiral (butterfly sat on my finger a long time!)
Loved seeing wild tiger lilies scattered thru the woods - in fact, wildflowers flourish wherever there's a clearing, esp white daisies. We hiked about 6 miles altogether ... for some reason we were the only intrepid folk on the trails today. AND, today was the first time I've found ripe wild strawberries ... tiny but oh-so-sweet. I picked all I could find and Jimmy said I was robbing the bears! Yummy treat for me.
Looked like a great day for hiking. I've always know that Wild tiger lily as a Turk's Cap (lily). I love 'em! We saw a nice scattering of them on a recent hike north of Twisp.
ReplyDeleteHeading west on Highway 20 today, planning to end up in Rockport, then explore the national park from there. After that? Whidbey Island, to eat our fill of the delicious Coupeville mussels. :)