What an incredible day for a hike. The picture to the left is actually at the end of the hike. The sky was blue and there was a beautiful rainbow over the lake.
Our hike did not start out like that. When we arrived at the parking area, it was pouring rain. It was cold and the sky was very darkened by the clouds. I almost did not want to get out of the car. Below is a picture of the lake when we started out on our hike. Quite a bit of difference from one picture to the other.
I love Henry Hagg Lake. During the summer, I like to ride my bike around the lake. The traffic around the lake is usually light and the round-trip is about 10 miles. It is then easy to vary the distance you want to go. The park has more than 15 miles of hiking trails, and observation decks for wildlife and bird watching. For those that like fishing, the lake is stocked and has two boat launches.
This hike was quite the adventure. The lake must have received a great deal of snow because many areas of the trail were still covered with snow nearly a half week after the snow event. The trail under the snow was very muddy. We passed several runners. They were muddy from foot to waist but certainly seemed to be enjoying the challenge.
If the trail was not covered with snow, it was covered with water. many places we had to be creative to get across the puddles. The water on the trail was probably 5-6 inches deep. You can also see that there is a tree down across the trail about 20 feet in front of me. The storm brought down many trees in the park, mostly small ones.
It is such a good thing that I have such a great partner who enjoys these little adventures as much as I do. Little did we think at the time I made this goal that most of the hikes would have to be completed in the Oregon rainy fall and winter seasons. It sure has been fun and adventurous. I really do enjoy being outside and if it were not for this goal, I would probably have stayed home cleaning house or some other boring, mundane thing on this day. Well this makes 43, only 7 more to go to reach my goal and about 4 weeks left before my birthday.
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