Putney Woods, Saratoga Woods and Metcalf Trail System — Tuesday, Mar. 4, 2025

A fun little hike! We did about 6 miles. This is a great trail system for getting in those longer hikes in the winter. We parked at the Putney parking lot and hiked over to the Saratoga section. This is a more interesting section IMHO with some fun stuff to see. First there is the glacial erratic, a very large rock left by receding glaciers. According to various descriptions, this one is one of the biggest in the state and may have come all the way from Mt Constitution! The trail to it is not marked, but it's off the Old Airstrip trail to the left. We piled a couple of sticks to mark the spot. We wandered around and took the Bent Tree Trail, where in fact, there were several bent trees. Working our way back by way of the Wood Nymph, we intersected with the airstrip where there was a piece of rusted out equipment left over probably from logging done years ago. We ate lunch on a log here, then headed back. I strongly suggest downloading a map from the Island County park website or printing it from the Urban Hikes Everett book. Most trails have fun colorful names but some intersections are not marked. There is plenty more to explore, but we were ready for coffee and wanted to beat the rain. Loo clean and stocked.