omething new every time.
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sin. Silver Lake sits below Silvertip Peak. Despite it being the end of August, the lake was still 80% frozen.
I started out heading to the lookout tower, but as you can see in the picture above there was still a lot of snow on the trail. (The lookout is on the snow-free peak on the right.) Since there was no one on the trail, I headed back to the meadows below and hung out at the junction between the two trails in the area. This turned out to be the perfect place to steward because everyone had to pass me before deciding which fork in the trail to take. I helped about 50 people in all, had terrific views of Mount Baker all day, and got sunburns in the strangest places because of the way the sun reflects off the snow.
Hike-A-Thon Fundraising Goals:
The Padilla Bay Shore Trail follows along the bay for a few miles offering good views out to the San Juan Islands. Although the trail is very wide and flat, there were several interesting features. The trail passes by two sloughs , and there were a lot of various birds flying around and walking along the shore. Mount Baker can be 
seen in the distance, and a picturesque old barn is just beside the trail.
Hike-A-Thon Fundraising Goals:
Goat Lake was my first destination. Back in the late 1800s, this area was bustling with activity from the Penn Mining Co. who built a seven-mile long wagon road to their mining camps near the lake. Portions of the trail follow along this old, wooden road. Just before reaching the lake, I stopped to take some photos of McIntosh Falls.
My last stop of the day was the Gold Basin Mill Pond, another historical location along the Mountain Loop Highway. The pond was the site of a lumber and shingle mill in the early 1900s. While there was a lot of activity at the pond 100 years ago, today the only activity came from the tadpoles swimming around.
After hiking up through the snow-covered meadows in the picture above, I continued up the Railroad Grade trail which was snow-free. This trail follows along the Easton Glacier moraine. (A moraine is basically the rocky debris left behind when a glacier recedes.) With a drop-off to the rocky valley where the glacier once stood on the right and another drop-off to the snow-filled meadow valley on the left, the path climbs up the narrow ridge between the two valleys. On a clear day, there are great up-close views of Mount Baker from the trail, but today was not clear so I only had views of the many marmots that call this area home.
I've hiked to Wallace Falls several times, and I've hiked to Wallace Lake before, but I've never been to them both on the same day, so today I combined the two into a longer loop hike.
The lake was very peaceful though, and the picnic tables made a great lunch spot.
The falls were running pretty high. By this time, the clouds had lifted enough that there were also good views down the Skykomish River Valley.
The fog had lifted somewhat by this point, so it was actually possible to see the far shore of Boardman Lake.
Today was another quick hike close to home. I went to the Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary and hiked both the Perimeter Trail which skirts the outer edge of the wetlands and the Boardwalk Loop which heads right through the wetlands. I could hear plenty of birds chirping and frogs croaking, but my wildlife sightings were limited to two lonely ducks.
Once at the trailhead, our work crew for the day headed up the Elliott Creek Trail to the Chokwich Creek Trail. During the day, we repaired one sinkhole in the trail, removed one tree that was down across the trail, and removed brush and overhanging branches along the sides of the trail. It was a productive day!
