5/17/2010 Goldfinch and Snakes

I have spent the last 2 days putting together a new office desk I bought--in hindsight, it might have been worth my while to pay the fee to have it delivered and assembled. It took hours and hours, but it's done. However, I have been a bit sore from the lifting and bending (guess I need to get to a gym...), so I decided to go for a shorter walk today. I only walked 1.58 miles, and I was slow--taking a lot of pictures. I did the loop around the wetlands area of the Port; I like to listen to and watch the birds. Two snakes slithered across my path and into a pond of water before I really noticed them. Glad I didn't see them on the trail. They looked like harmless garter snakes, but kind of small. 

Today I noticed that the Rose Hips are starting to bloom. The other day as I was walking, I was sort of sad to think that everything would be done blooming soon, and then there would be no color this summer, but today I realized that it's just that different things bloom at different times, and there will be color all summer. One of the benefits of walking the same route frequently is noticing the changes. I also saw my first goldfinch of the season today. It didn't even fly away as I neared it to snap a picture. They are very pretty birds. Slow walk today, but lots to look at.  Here's my route: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/722880

5/16/2010 The Port of Skagit

As much as any of you who read this are probably tired of hearing about my walks at the port, it is a convenient place to walk with such a variety of routes. Since I didn't head out until after 4:30 PM, the Port ended up being my destination, and I walked the outer loop. 2.1 miles today. Lots of activity here, even for this late on a Sunday afternoon. Looked like some sort of motorcycle competition at the airport. At first I thought that strange, but then they do have long strips of cement. It was very humid today, and even with just a Tshirt, it was warm. I can't imagine living in the South where it is humid all day every day. Today I noticed all the Hawthorn trees now that my mom pointed them out. In one area, there were at least 15 that I counted.
In the parking lot today, I saw an animal that I cannot identify. It looked like it might be something like a ferret, but the coloring was odd. It was sort of reddish and tan. It came running towards me in the parking lot, but before I could take a picture of it, it ran off into the grass. I'll probably look for it every time I walk up there now, however, with the abundance of eagles and hawks, I can't imagine it would live long around there. I noticed today that I haven't seen the heron around lately. I think it is nesting season for them. Anyway--another great day! Here's my route: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/721785

5/15/2010 Bay View Women's Run/Walk

Today I did my first BayView Women's Run/Walk. It is a 2 mile run/walk or 10k run, sponsored by the Burlington Soroptimist Club to raise money for domestic violence. Great cause. It was a beautiful day, and all of the Peterson family, including spouses, was there. The guys all helped out, and Lindsey, Kelli, and Kezia all walked, with Alice in the stroller. It was immediately apparent that I was not going to keep up with the 20 year olds and their long strides, so I sent them off and continued on in my slow manner. I did finish the 2 miles in less than 40 minutes, though, so I felt pretty good about my time, and I was in no way the last one in. This fun run experience was by far much better than the Bellingham one I entered earlier this year. It was a beautiful day! Here's the route: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/719521 The timing is off because I forgot to turn off my All Sport at the end.

5/14/2010 Burlington Dike Trail

Back to some normalcy today; a very uneventful walk. My friend Christie and I walked the Burlington Dike Trail today, 2.3 miles. We drove to where we normally park, only to find the gate locked, so we went around to the other end of the trail and started there. Have no idea why the gate was locked and all the signs say No Trespassing--the trail is listed on the Skagit County trail map. Very nice day out again; it's been so nice this week that it's going to be hard when it inevitably begins raining again. Seems like everyone's mood is just a bit better when the sun shines. Makes me wonder if people in places like Arizona and Hawaii are always in good moods.  In the past seven days I have walked over 13 miles; sometime soon when I have nothing else to do, I'll have to go through my blog to find out how far I have walked total to date. Somewhere inside me is a statistician waiting to get out, I guess.  Tomorrow my walk will be the Bayview Women's Run/Walk. First time I can actually participate, and I'm sure it will be fun. Hope I don't come in last, is all. Here's my data for today: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/718244

5/13/2010 Chased by Geese

After traipsing around the county the past few days and finding trouble yesterday, Christie and I headed to the Port trails today in the interest of time. I was fitting my walk in between two appointments, so we only had an hour.  We did the upper trail, 2.26 miles. The trees have all grown in and shaded the woods even more, forming a very nice canopy to walk through. It was very nice out today--didn't even need a jacket, walked in my short sleeved shirt. I have been waiting for weather like this for a long time now, it seems. The walk was very uneventful until we got nearly back to the car and passed the duck pond where two very large geese reside. My friend Christie thought it would be nice to wave to them, and they headed right for us. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of them, but the REALLY didn't like that idea, and started chasing us. I snapped my picture, took a moment to see how it turned out, looked up, and here they came--right for me. Yikes! I actually had to take off running, because they were closing in. I looked for an avenue of escape, but could find nothing but a deep ditch that I really didn't want to fall in to, so I just kept going, hoping they would stop---they eventually did! Whew! Geese can be pretty mean. Meaner than the security guy at the refinery yesterday, that's for sure.  I'll be sure and stay out of the geese's way next time I come by here. Might be on their watch list too!  Here's our route today, 2.26 miles.  http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/717038

5/12/2010 Terriorists? Am I on the Watch List now?

Today was quite an adventure. My friend Christie and I headed to the refineries today to walk around March Point a bit. We parked the car and headed out, and shortly were stopped by a security person who questioned us about our car--it seems we were parked within 300 feet of the trestle that goes out to the ships that come in, and that's forbidden now that we are in a terrorist age in our country. Before 9/11 people could come out to the March Point area and camp all along the road next to the beaches--not any more--camping is forbidden, as is parking too close to anything that has to do with the refinery. We apologized and went on with our walk. When we got back near the car, there was a heron in the water, so we stopped to take pictures, and then headed under the trestle towards where the company campground is. We could see an eagle sitting in a tree and knew there was a nest somewhere. On the way, I snapped a couple of pictures of the trestle; I thought it had a lot of interesting lines in it. The next thing we knew, back came security. He wanted to know what kind of bird we were taking pictures of, told us we couldn't take any pictures of any refinery structures, and told us to delete the pictures on our cameras. Ha! Seriously? Do I look like a terrorist? Am I going to publish my pictures? Not any that have to do with refinery structures--so you won't see the trestle shots--but the birds are okay. It certainly made us aware that we had been filmed the whole time we were on our walk. Glad I didn't take a picture of one of the gigantic tanks like I was going to. Made for an interesting walk though. I'm pretty sure that if I had given him my name, I'd now be on some sort of watch list. Let's see what happens when I have to fly to Wisconsin later this month.

Other than the law breaking we did, it was a pretty amazing day. Christie commented on how lucky we are that we live in a place where one day we are walking along a river in the mountains and the next day along the shore of the ocean. Today we saw some Black Oystercatchers in the bay. Their beaks are bright orange and very long--they use them to dig up mussels and other clams. They are really not common in the area, so it was pretty neat to see them.

On the way home we drove through an area where the herons are nesting. At one point we saw at least 15 herons flying and/or sitting in the trees. They just kept flying from the bay to the trees and back to the bay again. It was quite a sight.  All in all, quite an adventurous day!  Here's our route of 2.57 miles: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/716060

5/11/2010 Cascade Trail--Lyman

After my mom and Tony left today, my friend Christie and I headed out for a walk. We hadn't walked together for quite some time now.  We decided to drive up Highway 20 to catch part of the Cascade Trail that goes from Sedro Woolley to Concrete. We parked in Lyman across from the post office, and headed west on the trail there. It was gorgeous. The trail here runs right along the Skagit River, and in a couple of places there are nice little sandy beaches and waterways all shaded with trees. Parts of it are also like the port trails, just long areas covered in a canopy of deciduous trees. But to look out and see the mountains so close was pretty cool.  We spotted this Common Merganser pair heading down the river in one area. They seemed to not be too worried that we were near them. We also saw a red-breasted sapsucker today, but I couldn't get a picture before it flew away. It was pretty cool to see, though, with its bright red head and spotted body.  Days like today make me remember how lucky I am to be living in such a beautiful area. We walked about 2.6 miles today.  Here's our route:  http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/714963