HAMILTON, LYMAN, AND COCKERSHAM

From the words in the title one could think we might be in England, But no, we are still in Skagit County ;’-).

First I want to post our set up for this time. Being early in the week, we are fortunate to have very few campers near us, and lots of room all around. Wish it was always this way, but we will take what we can.

Today’s ride would take us along the back roads to Hamilton and Lyman. I almost immediately spied my relic for this day ;’-). When in farm country there is always a relic hanging around.

The only breakfast fruit we had for this morning was dried blueberries. They were fine, but we knew we could find something fresh along our route, and almost out of the gate we came to this. Second serving of fruit for today.

Plump, juicy and sweet! Susan had thought ahead (as usual) and brought a container to collect some of the blackbrerrries for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Roads devoid of traffic are rare, but we had them here. Moss covered rocks lined one side of the road, pine needles lined the other, and clear sky (blue even though it doesn’t look it in this photo) lead us on for our day of adventure.

Neither Susan nor I have been to Rasar State Park, and were curious for a visit. It is a delight with paved roads winding through, trees that offer good shade and privacy sites, and very clean. We took the short trail to the beach for a view of the emerald green Skagit River..

The route took us by and near barns, farms, orchards and a couple of small ranches.

I think of this as The Giving Tree.

We rounded a curve and were surprised to see the lane blocked by the only vehicle we had seen on our route. The white van was parked there and the driver was hanging out the door looking at something. He pointed and told us of the elk herd he was viewing with telephone camera in hand.

We don’t know if they are wild or farmed, but there was no place we passed that appeared to be an elk ranch.

About to end the “road” part of our route before getting on the trail for our return to camp, we stopped to have our lunch. ‘Table’ for two with a view please. We could have been anywhere in our own country or a different country. And only about 80 miles from home.

Back to the trail. Beside the trailhead Susan needed to visit that display of tools.

Note the “primitive” part...

Most of the trail is wide and hard packed and not too bad to ride on — for a while! We did come to two different detours where we had to get off the trail and maneuver along the road to find the next entry. 

This may end our adventuring part of this outing. We head home tomorrow and may do a stop or two along the way, but nothing much. It has been a great three day getaway and the riding with no traffic is a definite highlight. We have had a good enough time to think we could potentially return sometime. It has been fun.