Deception Pass State Park - Hoypus Point — Friday, Apr. 19, 2013

Puget Sound and Islands > Whidbey Island

Nice, rainy day in the great PNW. We decided to skip slogging through any gloop at elevation and hit something a little closer to the waterline. Started at the Ducken Rd trailhead and kept a clockwise course, generally avoiding any of the trails that crossed the crown of the hill. Best views are down on the water anyhow. Even with checking the map at the trailhead, and using a gps, the various trails crossing and recrossing can be a touch confusing if one isn't just keeping to the outside course. Not much elevation gain on this one, and due to the rain we didn't manage to avoid any gloop: much of the trail was a mudhole. Only encountered one other person, a trail-runner and her dog. A word to horse riders in the park. If a trail is marked hikers only, no horses, that means hikers only, no horses. We didn't encounter a single trail out of seven miles of wandering that did not bear mounds of manure, and some of those trails were churned into six inches of sucking mud by equine passage. And on those sections where hikers had pushed along the side of the trail, or built puncheons, the horse riders have very evidently been eschewing the old, horse-churned trail for the cleaner path. The only vaguely clear sections come after the few, more substantial blowdowns. Still, a very pleasant hike overall, with a few groves of very nice old growth fir, cedar, and a few spruces. Great views of some of the surrounding islands, even in the rain and the fog. Definitely recommended.