This weekend I finally had the chance to revisit one of the most vast, flat, sandy, scenic beaches on Whidbey Island: Double Bluff County Park. According to the Washington Department of Fishing and Wildlife site, “While the tidelands are a State Park, Double Bluff Park (the upland portion of the park) is operated by the Friends …
Author Archives: ggsmith42
Rosario Beach, Head and Tide Pools at Deception Pass State Park
Shh…Don’t tell anyone. Arrive on any non-summer-visitor-rush day at Rosario Beach and you will likely be alone. I know, right? Unfortunately, most folks must visit during the summer months, which are also awesome, as long as you don’t mind sharing. And I don’t. First, the tide pools, also known as the Urchin Rocks, for reasons …
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Scrapy Sounds, Stinky Smells and…Serenity
If my same-size sister and I had known that the canoe our neighbors agreed to loan us weighed nearly as much as one of us, we’d have handled things differently. Our plan: to lift, load and transport the dark green Coleman X Scanoe to our destination seven miles away: Cornet Bay, part of Deception Pass State …
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Channeling Frederick
Frederick, the title character of one of Leo Lionni’s many wonderful children’s books, is a mouse that seems to be daydreaming and shirking his preparing-for-the-winter-months duties while his mice friends work. But when winter comes, he does his part by sharing the memories he collected and lifting their spirits. Last week Tuesday while others in …
South Whidbey State Park
Last week, for the first time during the decade I’ve lived on Whidbey Island, I made my way to South Whidbey State Park, located between Greenback and Freeland. The Washington State Parks site says, “South Whidbey Island State Park is a 347-acre camping park with 4,500 feet of saltwater shoreline on Admiralty Inlet. Park features include old-growth …
Red Devil Challenge 25K Trail Run
A few months ago, my cousin Steve suggested we run a marathon. I’d been burned by stuff like this before, the event suggester talking me into it, then backing out. Plus, I’d already been there, done that (marathon), so I tried to find something different that might work and did: the Red Devil Challenge 25K …
Wild About the Islands’ Flowers
Two years ago, I came upon a plant while doing what else, running, on the Lighthouse Point trail in Deception Pass State Park. I had never seen the flower before but suspected it was an orchid. I was right. It was a Calypso bulbosa, common name: Fairy slipper orchid. From that day forward, this plant …
Guemes Channel Trail and Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve
Last week, for the first time, I walked a recently-opened mile-long section of the Guemes Channel Trail in Anacortes, which will eventually connect to the Tommy Thompson Trail. I also visited the nearby Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve, which is accessible from the end of a little cul de sac that can be reached from Oakes Road (to Glasgow Way …
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Ginko Petrified Forest State Park
En route to Bloomsday a couple of weeks ago, I stopped at Ginko Petrified Forest State Park during my six hour drive from Whidbey Island to Spokane. I had read a few reviews about the park beforehand, which were mixed. It sounded like a neat place to see different species of petrified wood…if you didn’t mind viewing …
Becoming Bloomies
Last summer, my 28-year-old, moving-back-to-Spokane niece Vanessa and I agreed that this year, in 2015, we’d run Bloomsday together. For many runners, this is a sort of bucket list event, primarily because it has so many participants. In fact, it’s the biggest 12K (7.5 mile) race in the country and the fourth largest timed race …
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