[Elvis]

Encouraged & enlightened by PMs with ajlec2000 (welcome!) I opted to make my first visit to the Baker Lake Trail.

The trail description from the forest service gives a decent summary of what you will find... but it doesn't do justice to the lush moss, the gardens of mushrooms and the sheer majesty of the area.  I snapped a million photos - and none of them captured that beauty (in my opinion).

With the constant tree cover, my eTrex was useless, so I'm not sure how far along the trail I went - but I turned around before reaching Maple Grove CG.  There wasn't another soul on this trail today... very quiet the entire trip.  No wildlife noted, except for a few birds... and the stump which I believe crawled out of this lake (probably on Halloween) and I could swear it stalked me all the way back to my vehicle.

I'll return to do the complete trail another time... hopefully with a buddy so we can stash a vehicle at the Baker River side.

My only disappointment was that the low clouds prevented any views of Mt Baker and a lot of my lake shots were less enticing without interesting reflections of clouds in the water.

There was just a slight trace of snow along part of FS Rd #11, but the trail and lake were completely snow free today.

After my hike, I drove around the west side of the lake to check out Baker Lake Resort (closed for season) and the family friendly/wheelchair accessible Shadow of the Sentinels trail.  This SotS trail is closed with a sign explaining about a fungus in some dead trees that poses a danger to not only other trees... but also to humans.  The trail will reopen after they remove these infected trees and clean up the 'stuff'.  I'm guessing this stuff must have given life to that aforementioned stalking stump.

Happy trails, & thanks for reading!

~E

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Sedro-Woolley:  Where butter is a spice and gravy is a beverage.
"Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas."  ~John Dryden
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