Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Stinging Hike!

One thing that has amazed us about this area of the country is the short dark nights!  There is light in the sky to some degree until close to 11:00pm!  The photo below was taken around 9:30am.

On Sunday we hiked around five miles at Ebey State Park and the adjacent Kettle Island park.  It was another glorious day here and we loved walking on the excellent trailways.  We didn't run into a soul until we got to one of the kiosks.  Michael found this trail network using Google earth.  But, he also saw a trail here at the campground that led to route 20, the major "highway" on Whidbey Island.  As we started our hike with this trail, we discovered wooden signs by the Nelson family who evidently created this trail.  Benches were named and so on, but loved the sign that warned us of a pending climb!


Bill's Hill - Feel the burn


After the climb, we got intimate with stinging nettle.  There was a dense patch of this plant and we cleared it as best we could, but both of us felt the sting.  The leaves have little needles that stick into you stinging like "icy hot", feeling cold and hot at the same time!  Then little welts appear and it stays around for about 24 hours.


Stinging nettle patch


Indian pipe fungus



Mystery mushroom




Lyndesay's bench


Fuzzy little bell flowers everywhere

A really fun and active day!











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