We both were up early to get started on our drive back. Lynda's Vanagon was promised to be ready by noon and she wanted to pick it up and drive back to Portland while it was still light out.
We stopped at a German bakery when back in Leavenworth. While the pastries were fine, the man behind the counter was reluctant to tell us where he was from (Hagen, Germany), "Why does that matter?" he replied, but then told us his hometown. "So typical German!" said Lynda.
Weather was predicted with 30% chance of rain. Would we be able to hike the Wallace falls? I had really hoped so, as the falls were described as the area's most visited waterfall, with only 5.5 miles r/t. We were on the trail by 8:45am and it was already busy, with lots of dogs as well. We stayed on the river trail, skirting the longer and steeper hillside trail. The falls cascaded along the entire trail, and Minnie took a few dips in the water. I took the dogs off leash a few times to keep them from pulling too much, but luckily we had the dogs back on leashes when a park ranger came by. My dogs were both not very friendly to the other dogs, which aggravated me.
We turned around at the Lower Falls, just at the 1.75 mile marker. I'd have gone farther but Lynda has bad knees. It was a wise decision as we were hit with a sudden and intense downpour. My rain jacket did no good as my fleece jacket got wet. We completed 3.5 miles, a good start for the day when four miles is my set minimum.
We got back to Ed's transmissions at 1pm. The van was ready, so I dropped Lynda off and decided last minute to go north (rather than south back to the Olympic peninsula) to hike Oyster Dome, another well-rated hike in my "Hiking Washington" book. This 6.4-mile hike up the Chuckanut hills provides expansive views of the San Juan islands. What a view! This hike was worth the two-hour drive north. I started at 3pm and got back to the van around 7pm. There were still groups of young people going up the hill at 6pm. By now I was tired and I'm sure so where the dogs. We finally got some good hiking mileage in on this hike, and the cool forest was good for Minnie.
And then I decided to drive further north, first along WA11 that circles the northwestern side of the bay, then landed on the Lummi peninsula where a tribe of Native Americans live with a view back toward Bellingham, and then landed in the small border town of Lynden, WA with Mount Baker in the horizon. I wanted to park near the McDonald's to get on the wifi, but there were several cars parked in the lot with young people loitering, and two city cop cars parked nearby. That didn't look very promising, so I went across the street and found another hotspot behind the Taco Time off WA539. It was dark back here and I was the only car in that section of the parking lot. Several cop cars drove past me while I was parked there. That was enough to convince me it was time to park somewhere for the night. My choice was the Hidden Village RV Park and Campground, set along a bubbling creek with pretty landscaping.
Just wow.
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