Raptor Ridge-Chuckanut Mountain

We began at the Pine and Cedar Lake Trail head off from Old Samish Way Road. The trail starts right off with some serious elevation gain and pretty much continues like that until the junction with the Hemlock Trail. From there we went about two hundred to the South and then took a short jaunt up to a small overlook and then went back down to join the Cedar/Pine lake trail and went on to Pine Lake. I tried out the boardwalk at the lake's edge. It was about a half an inch above water but every time I took a step it sank two inches below water. We turned around here and headed back to the Henlock trail and then up to Raptor Ridge.

There were a few muddy areas on the trail and some water, but nothing boots can't easily handle. We saw lots of trillium, a few Bleeding Hearts and Skunk Cabbage. This is a great hike for seeing the rock walls and huge boulders that make up the Chuckanuts. We also ran into evidence of the old logging operations where steel cables are still laying around and nothced tree stumps.

We logged 7.3 miles with a total gain of a bit over 2,000 feet.