More fun in the Sakgit Valley

Its the little things that remind you where you are. The above sign seen in the window of a frozen yogurt store, reminded me that we are not in Texas anymore. 🤯

Here's another example. If you look closely you will see that the ship in the background has been repurposed as a sea wall. It was apparently filled with dirt and planted full of trees. The ship, the "La Merced" was reportedly placed there in 1966 to protect the marina from storms. Recycling at it's finest.

We have mentioned in previous posts that we have become addicted to the local berries. In fact, so much so that we were about to seek financing for our next berry purchase (they are not cheap). Just when we were contemplating our need to back off the berry train and consider "BA" (Berries Anonymous), we discovered "U-Pick" farms. We realized we could get twice the berries for half the price, get only the biggest, sweetest berries. Plus we could forgo the embarrassment of a BA residency.  Wow! 

So we have made picking berries a regular stop now. We have berries in our breakfast oatmeal, berries with our hiking lunches, berries with our happy hour wine and cheese, and of course berries in various forms for desert. What a life!

We continue to find incredible places to hike and bike, seemingly at every turn. This shot was taken atop the mountain at Deception Pass. 

It was an incredible view from the top, but more than a little strenous making the climb. We puffed our way to the top (no relation to the sign I opened with), and it was worth every step.

This week we also had a new experience as we took the Jeep on a ferry to one of the local islands (Guemes). It was a first for us and the Jeep. 

The island had a total of about 13 miles of roads and some really cute homes.  We drove across the island to a little park where we ate lunch and marveled at the view. It could have been Alaska, New England or even Switzerland if we didn't know better. 

We drove back across the island and found a hiking trail to the top of Guemes Mountain. This was by far the toughest hike we have done so far. Still again it was well worth the effort.  Check out the shot of Mt Baker from our spot at the summit.  Wow!

Our next journey, and scene of our first tragedy, was into "Chuckanut". There is a road that goes through this area which is perched along the cliffs with high rock walls on one side and sheer drops to the water on the other. 

While in the Chuckanut area we happened upon a trailhead and just had to stop. The trail system went for miles and we chose to take it to a place called Teddy Bear Cove for our picnic lunch. 

The trail was beautiful with a mix of rustic and improved trail surfaces. It even took us through an area of beautiful homes, each perched on a cliff with views to the sea below.

We made it to the split for Teddy Bear Cove.  It was a gradual, but heavily switch backed trail heading steeply down to the the water. At the base of the trail there were train tracks that separated us from the beach.  As we headed down the last section to the train tracks, Cindy lost her footing and tumbled off a 500' cliff to her death😱.

Oh wait, that was a scene from a movie we saw.  Sorry, old people get confused easily.

Actually Cindy did fall on some loose gravel and jammed her elbow pretty severely.  She toughed up and made it through lunch and the hike back to the Jeep, but was in a lot of pain. She was being  a trooper, but the swelling in her arm told the real tale. Below is a shot from the lunch spot (no shot of the fall or Cindy's arm due to death threats I received as a warning)

So now that Cindy is officially on injured reserve, we will probably chill by the fire (72 degrees today) for our last couple of days here. 

Suffice to say, a return visit to the area is absolutely in our future.

So for now, we will just keep chilling and taking pain meds (that is wine for those who don't know, and it helps Cindy when I take some medicine too 😁).

On Tuesday we will pack up the RV and head to Monroe WA for our next stop along The Next Hundred Miles!

Thanks for reading!