The clouds lifted enough by midday to enjoy the superb view from Oyster Dome. Deep woods flowers blooming, and even a patch of columbine shortly before the branch-off of the Samish Connector from the Pacific Northwest Trail. We hiked up from Chuckanut Drive. Trail conditions about as good as they ever are, except that the fairly numerous mudholes on the Samish Connector, the Oyster Creek trail, and the east end of Max's Shortcut are still pretty much in their wintertime morass mode. The situation on Max's Shortcut is not helped by the illegal motorbikes that have used the trail recently. People who have limited agility, or less agility than they used to have, might be happier heading to Oyster Dome by the longer PNT route (or perhaps from the I-5 side), on constructed trails. The short route via the Samish Connector and Oyster Creek trail is essentially a heavily-used way trail, with lots of ""rocks-and-roots"" steep and somewhat slippery sections (slippery at least in winter or in wintry Junes like this one); not a problem for the average hiker but perhaps less enjoyable for those more comfortable on a ""real"" trail.

This was a Mountaineer's Hike. Started hiking at 7:35 a.m. Ascended the PNT Trail, then Samish Bay Trail with a side trip to Oyster Dome. No one up here at this early hour. Continued to Lily Lake and more exploring. Returned via the PNT via Samish Overlook where we watched the gliders. Stats were 2,750' and 13 miles. Trail had mud and water especially on the Samish Bay Trail and around Lily Lake, but less than expected given this wet spring. Most of the tread is in excellent conditon. This is really a grand loop with beautiful forest, a creek, lakes and a variety of views. Signing is marginal, but you can get an excellent map on the internet - www.pnt.org/images/map-blanchard .gif which is far superior the 7.5 topos. An alternative return can be made using the Lily Lake Trail which merges back into the PNT with little change in the stats. Go early to get a parking spot and to beat the crowds which flock to Oyster Dome on weekends. Logging starts in the next few years so go soon before the chainsaws arrive.

May 17th hiked into Lizard lake with Troop 36 BSA. Trail in great shape, all blow downs removed. Met a few hikers and horseback riders. Hiked from lower parking lot to lake , 5 miles. We set up camp did a little fishing then took off for Lilly Lake, Oyster Dome and the Bat Caves. Trails all clear and in good shape. Sun was out and the view from the Oyster Dome amazing. Watched the boats out in the bay and some rock climbers, then went in search of the Bat Caves. Spent over an hour crawling around the large caves near the bottom. Hiked back up the hill and returned to Lizard lake. Hiked out in the warm sunshine Sunday. Trail in great shape not to many bugs yet fishing good.

Our itinerary took us up the Oyster Dome Trail, then east towards Lily Lake to catch the Pacific Northwest Trail back down the mountain. Although the Oyster Dome Trail is more rugged (lots of rocks and roots to walk over) and steep than the PNW Trail, both were well maintained and easy to follow. We had to walk through several patches of mud and easily crossed a few streams. The views from Oyster Dome and the Samish Overlook were spectacular, but the crowds on the trail diminished our experience somewhat. We arrived at the trailhead at 9:30 AM, and there were already several cars parked along the side of the road. We ran into two other groups of hikers at the Bat Caves. When we arrived at the top of Oyster Dome at about 12:30, there were already ten other people up there eating lunch and enjoying the view. During our descent, we had to move to the side of the trail a few times to allow mountain bikers to pass, and more than a few piles of manure reminded us that this is a multi-use trail. The most annoying things were the numerous unleashed dogs. On two separate occasions a random dog came running up from behind us and scared my wife. Almost every group of hikers brought their animal, and of all of them only one woman had hers on a leash.

Stepping out from the car and onto the trail for this one I was struck by a very curious sensation - things were colorful! Greens, blues, browns, yellows, even reds. I felt like I'd walked into a Skittles commercial after so many monochromatic snow trips. Hoisting a light backpack and trodding along without gaiters or snowshoes gave an old, almost forgotten familiar feeling. My last trip without snow seems a distant memory. The crunch of dirt under boots felt great. After a quick dirt ball fight and a few mud-angels we had the euphoria worked out of our system and onward we went. The skies were grayer than forecast and it was cooler than expected. I'd cleaned up my SLR to haul along for this one. Not too many big views so along the way I practiced my Quarktography (""Quark-tog-raff-ee"" N. photographing interesting small objects, usually plants and flowers, close to the ground and from odd angles.) We found some nice fiddle-heads, some wood violet, a few emerging bleeding heart, and I spotted my first trilium of the year. I was now convinced spring is here. We paused for a look at Samish overlook, then headed up Max's shortcut towards Lily lake. It was chilly here so we kept our speed up to stay warm. In awhile we emerged at the junction near Lily lake. Our routefinding here began to unravel. We were following Karen Syke's Hike of the week directions and a map of Blanchard mountain. Her route description was for the opposite direction and the map seemed misleading, making us believe the route up was from the Talus cave trail. We bypassed the Lily lake turn off, later to regret it. The Bat caves are reached after a very steep downhill section, then crossing a rickety bridge built on two small fallen trees. Someone helpfully scrawled ""cross at own risk"" into the first plank to boost our confidence. It seemed fairly sturdy and we made it. But at the bat caves we could clearly see our error looking up at the cliff towering over us. We didn't feel like backtracking though. I went a little further to peek into a cave before heading back. There's a warning sign here disclaiming pretty much everything under the sun that could happen including ""speleophobia"". It's not often I learn a new word on a hike. We continued downhill and climbed onto a big rock with a nice view out towards the sound. By now the clouds had lifted and it was warming nicely. After a nice break we pushed on down the connector trail and again met the main trail for the final descent back to the car, and onward to tulips. Oyster dome photos: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/oysterdome/ Tulip photos: http://www.pbase.com/billcaat/tulips2008/