[Riverside Laker]

Note: this trip was preceded by an arduous training trip: N Mt Evere(s)tt. Lisa asked folks to do a hike for her birthday. I started at my shelter in North Everett and did a long westerly traverse on the 26 trail. I would have done the Lake 22 trail, but it wasn't within range, and besides much too steep for these old legs. En route there were some lovely flowers.

I turned north on the Grand Traverse (see orange Beckey) and took in a few views.

Although you could see all the way to saltwater, I needed to check my bearings. Fortunately there's a handy compass at the top of Railroad Cliff, plus a friendly guy named Scoop who didn't seem to expire any viral material.

The next section of the trip was the Birthday Traverse. It was painstakingly planned, thanks to Senator Scoop. He said there might be dead-end routes, possible going in circles, and probably a lot of backtracking. He seemed so smart that he could run for president. I followed every instruction and managed to tuck in the entire trail, plus a bonus summit with a cool benchmark. First, here's the GPS track.

The rest of the route was a piece of cake at first, but later a four-letter word that was a pain in the S due to backtracking an entire segment. Famished, I finished off the trip with a couple canneles, thanks to ree.

Once this pandemic runs its course, I plan to spend a lot more time on the couch. Stats, thanks to Strava otherwise you'd really be missing out on the data:

• approx 13.49 miles
• roughly 627' gain
• moving time 3:58:59
• elapsed time 4:38:44
• 417 calories
• avg heart rate 84 bpm

[Michael Lewis]

nice trax!

[Sallie4jo]

How grand is that!