When I got up Saturday morning, it was raining, so I decided to head north for better weather. I had been up to the Oyster Dome a couple of times from the west trail head on Highway 11. This time I thought coming from the east would be a good choice to see some new country. In the book, ""Winter Hikes"", it gives descriptions of hikes in the Chuckanut Mountains. The DNR has several trail heads on Blanchard Hill to pick from to start your hike. And the weather was good.

I used the Incline Trail off the B-1000 road, but went up the Incline Alt. Trail which is much less steep. The Incline Trail was built as a logging railroad incline 3/4 of a mile long in 1920, with a maximum grade of 38 percent by the Sammish Bay Logging Company to reach the timber in the shortest possible route. It was called the Lizard Lake incline. Once at the top of the incline I hiked the old railroad grade trail to the junction with the Lizard Lake Trail. There was about a foot of old snow on the ground, but it was packed down from other hikers. I hike over to the lake which has several DNR campsites and a privy.

I continued on past three other trail junctions to the end of the old railroad grade. This is where the PNT comes up from Highway 11 and where the trail to the Oyster Dome heads north. After getting up to the Dome it was time for lunch and the views out to the San Juans and the Bat Caves down below. I didn't stay to long as the wind was blowing (I think it always does up on top).

I did meet several other hikers, three horse rider and two mtn. bikers. If you would like to see a photo of the incline and learn some history of the area, check out the book, ""Logging Railroads of Skagit County"" by Dennis Thompson.

With the Cascades looking wet and cloudy, my friends Lee and Shelley, and I headed up north to Skagit County and the southern end of the Chuckanuts. We headed up the PNT to the view point up at the Oyster Dome. The trail switch backs up though second growth timber for a mile, then goes into an old DNR clear cut area that is growing back up with small conifers. Here you get your first views out over the water to Mt. Erie and the San Juan Islands. Once into the trees, the trail gets muddy and steep in places. At 3.5 miles you come to an old logging railroad grade, then it is only a half mile further to the Oyster Dome and some great views. This area was originally logged between 1912 to 1928 by the Samish Bay Logging Co. who had a sawmill at Blanchard on the bay.

With the wind blowing cold at the Oyster Dome, we had a quick bite to eat and then headed down. A little over a mile back we took a side trail to the Bat Caves which gives you a view of the face of the Oyster Dome from below. There are a lot of large stone blocks piled up and making some caves. There is a warning sign telling of all the bad things insides the caves. Rock climbers can do some crack climbing up the Oyster Dome on different routes.

We lucked out with the weather, as it didn't start raining until we got back down to the car, as other were still going up. And some of them did not have any rain gear. We did see two Eagles flying around and making lots of noise. The hike is describe in the book ""Winterhikes in Puget Sound & the Olympic Foothills"". 3-25.