Trillium Preserve and Pre-PCT training

It has been several years since my last Pacific Crest Trail adventure and Kelly and I are planning to do the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington Wildernesses this summer. Starting next year section hikers will have to try to win a lottery to be able to hike those sections so we want to get them done before it becomes more difficult to obtain access.

School got out a few weeks ago and I have been hiking like a crazy woman trying to get into shape. It has been a slow process but I've built up to where I now feel much more comfortable about my ability. The plan is to only hike about 8 miles a day, pretty do-able, especially since the area we are going to doesn't involve major elevation gain or loss. My biggest fears are mosquitoes and that the trail will be too snow covered in one section. I bought a mosquito suit and I have an ice ax and microspikes. We will see how the reports are in a weeks time. The plan is to camp at Waldo Lake at 4,200 feet elevation for 2 nights to acclimate to higher elevation, and then hike from there to Elk Lake Resort, where we will leave a car so we can go into Bend and get a shower at a motel and recharge our electronics, etc. Then we will return to the trail and start the section that I'm concerned will be snow covered. It was solid snow several weeks ago and the weather has been rather cool since then. Fingers crossed it will melt off some before we attempt it.

Yesterday I did a six mile training hike at a place on Whidbey called the Trillium Preserve. This is 726 acres of protected forest land with several trail running through it. I parked at the trail head off Hwy 20, shouldered my backpack and headed out down Dragonfly Glades Trail. It was a gentle decline and incline over several miles.

 I took a picture of the trail map which was a tremendous help while I was hiking. Several trails are marked with a post, but don't have names on them. I imagine that the names will be added at some point. Some trails are clearly marked by a post with names.

From Dragonfly Glade I hopped on the Crossroads trail and took that down to Uncle Buck, passing huckleberry bushes loaded with bright red sweet berries.

This was a nice marker and I was intrigued by the Enramada with the cross on it. Enramada means "arbor" in Spanish. Eventually I came to an area with picnic tables and hitching posts for horses. It was a nice area and would make a lovely picnic area for anyone hiking. An Eagle Scout had placed a bench there for his eagle service project.

I realized when I saw the large wooden cross that this  picnic area must be Enramada. From there I continued hiking and took a road up to a cleared area.

But I was dismayed to find the area littered with firework debris and trash and I also wasn't sure that this was actually the Happy Trail since the post didn't have names on it. I returned back down to Burkholder Trail where I ran across a marker set in some concrete that puzzled me. Any one have any ideas of what it is?

I saw another trail going steeply up a hill. I took it, despite it being unmarked and it connected into the Happy Trail. From there I took the Patrick Way trail up until I came to a bench dedicated to the memory of Patrick Janicki. He died of an opioid overdose at age 30 after becoming addicted to painkillers he was prescribed after breaking his back, and his family has been instrumental in  restoring the natural landscape of Trillium by clearing out some of the overgrowth and allowing more light in.

Fortunately I noticed a bit of water on the bench before I plopped down, so I set my hiking poles on the bench and started to take off my backpack when I realized that the angry drone I was hearing was a swarm of bees. I grabbed my hiking poles off the bench and fled as a bee rushed towards me. Unfortunately I had already paused my GPS, which I forgot to restart for awhile, so my GPS track is probably at least a half mile short.

Patrick's Way is an old dirt road and really a lovely walk and I enjoyed being out in the sun on the wider track. Eventually I passed a red gate and came out on paved road which I followed down to the parking lot. From my car I explored to find the other two trail head access points and I plan to come back and hike this area again from a different trail head.