I felt bad because after spending time carefully crafting and feeding the flames I ended up ignoring the thing until it ran out of wood. The van was just too much fun. I had warmth and light already, I had no use for a fire this night.
I made myself dinner with the nifty Coleman stove I purchased off of craigslist and went to bed.
The next morning I hungered for adventure so I made my way down to the Elbow Lake trail.
When I first entered the woods, at this trail head, I got the feeling that I was in "The Fire Swamp" from the Princess Bride movie.
I was half expecting to battle an R.O.U.S. (Rodent Of Unusual Size). Unfortunately there were none to be found.
The first part of the trail is less than 1/8 mile, then you come to a river which must be crossed to get to the rest of the trail. I found a mighty, fallen birch which made the perfect bridge.
The beginning of the second part of the trail is fantastic. Fern covered boulders the size of school busses dapple a forest filled with mossy trees the trunks of which harbor fungus the size of dinner plates.
The trail continues up the mountain. Fallen trees bear their ancient root systems, woven together like magnificent wicker tapestries.
There are a number of creeks, streams and washes that cross the trail. The cool water is refreshing to the heated hiker.
As I got closer to elbow lake snow started to cover patches of the trail.
There was a family hiking out as I was on my way in. They claimed to have seen a bear cub on the shore of the lake while they had been camping. Seeing the camera around my neck they excitedly encouraged me to keep an eye out for the cub so I could get "some great pictures". I think it would be awesome to have some great photos of a bear to add to my portfolio. But what is even more awesome than bear photos? NOT being mauled and having my arms eaten off by a pissed off mama bear that thinks the lens of my camera is the barrel of a 30 30 pointed at her cub.
So I cautiously made my way up to and around Elbow Lake.
The lake is kind of like two lakes. The front one is larger than the one in the rear and harder to get around. The smaller one is very small and the trail leads right to it. There was snow around the bank of this lake but the water was still plenty warm to swim in. As far as the number of fish in the lake there are one of two possibilities. One, they stock the lake with fish and these fish all hang out and get fat and happy and healthy on every bug that stop on the surface tension of the water. Or two, there's just one, crazy fast, alpha fish that swims at the speed of sound eating every bug that touches the water. The fish were everywhere.
No wonder there are bear cubs hanging around.
And with that thought in mind I decided to head back.
The hike takes about three hours total and is close to two miles each way. It's not much of a challenging hike for anyone who has any idea of how to stand on two feet. There's one area that's covered in a whole cluster cuss of fallen trees. I pretended to be a balance beam walker for the circus and made my way across the trunks until I found the continuation of the trail. I did the whole thing in flip flops and would highly recommend the hike to anyone looking for a scenic activity for the afternoon.
I didn't pack a lunch but would also recommend doing that.
The trail is down a kind of logging road off of Mosquito Lake Rd. which is just off of highway 542. It's about a an hour and a half drive from Bellingham Washington.
On my way back I noticed a sign for a cemetery, accompanied by a grassy, dirt road that went up into the woods. It was right off of Mosquito Lake Rd. so I decided to check it out.
It was a cemetery riddled with little trails that strayed off into the woods. Each trail leads to more plots for dead people. It was a neat area and I thought it a nice idea for a cemetery.
nice : gap
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