I started at the North Chuckanut Mountain Trailhead on the Interurban. Just a few minutes in I saw that the washout at the Arroyo Creek Falls has been repaired. There are now two great boardwalks over the creek and sandbags have been used along the creek side to contain the overflow-at least for now.
I hooked up with the Hemlock Trail and took that until it forks off to the left where I kept to the right and got on the Huckleberry Trail. This continues up a bit steeply and then connects with the Raptor Ridge Trail. Going left from that junction it is about fifty yards to the ridge.
I had been hiking in a tee-shirt until I got on the ridge. There it was quite cold with a light wind, so on came a pullover and gloves while I ate my lunch-hard to imagine that it was mid-June. The new bright green growth on the firs in view up there were a welcome sight.
After lunch I headed back dropping down the Raptor Ridge Trail to the North Lost Lake Trail which continues down to the Hemlock Trail and back to the parking lot. I had gone nearly four and a half hours without seeing any one until I got near the Interurban again.
All of the trails I took are in good condition. There are some muddy spots but they are easy to avoid. One surprise, or mystery was along the Huckleberry Trail. There were about a dozen columbine in one small area. They were the only ones I saw. I wondered how they came to be there amongst the ferns and other thick flora. Had there been a lot of them at one time-perhaps before the area was logged over a century ago?
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