Pass Lake Trail to Ginnett Tursi Trail #69

         February and March have been a couple of interesting months for our household....we have had plans on the weekends, we had snow (which doesn't happen that often in Western Washington lowlands.) or we have been really sick with the flu bugs that were going around.
           When we were finally all well and the weather turned amazing for the weekend (why does it always seem to be sunny when you are sick or working?) we went hiking!

To get to Pass Lake take I-5 to exit 230 (Burlington/Anacortes WA highway 20)
Follow Highway 20 west until you come to a Roundabout. Take the 2nd exit to stay on Highway 20. You will come to another Roundabout, take the 2nd exit to stay on Highway 20. Continue to follow Highway 20 and turn Right onto Rosario Road. The parking lot is immediately on your right.

Mr. H, Miss A, the dog Cookie and I left our house and picked up L on our way to Pass Lake Trail in Naked Man Valley. ( I had to add the name of the valley it makes the kids and I laugh.)
The parking lot is small and does require a Discover Pass and there is a portapotty. When we arrived the parking lot was jammed pack because people were fly fishing for Rainbow and Brown trout in Pass Lake. I managed to squeeze into a spot between 2 vehicles and we unloaded.

Miss A of course was our fearless leader.

 Mr. H was kinda upset that we were going up hill.

 But it soon leveled out and was pretty flat.

The trail had intermittent shade, which after a while was really nice, because it warmed up very fast. 

A little further on we came upon this tree, and I hear 

Miss A; There is my house.

Mr. H: Okay why aren't you in it?

Miss A: I am joking that is my neighbors house.

A bit further along you come to a junction.

 At this junction you want to take the Ginnett trail.

We hiked up an incline.

Then the trail flattened out again.

Then we went down hill and arrived upon

some mud. Miss A ran down this whole section, so I had to run to try and catch up to her. She was so fast.

You can see the mud in the picture below, and it makes sense that there is mud since there is a wetland practically on the trail. The sunk cabbage only stunk on our way back. That stuff is horrendous smelling.

So pretty.

Miss A and Mr. H insisted that we stop so they could explore and climb on the rocks.

H found a cave and named it the H cave. However Miss A insisted that the cave be named the Miss A and H cave. 

H wanted to go in it and wanted me to go in it. I said no to both because we didn't' know how stable it was.

After some playing around we proceeded on to arrive at another junction.

We then took the Ginnett Tursi trail.

Up we go.

Miss A thought that we should stop and go on the rock above her to see the view. However L convinced her that we needed to continue a short distance to have the actual view.

She agreed and we passed this pile of old lumber

to arrive at this slab of concrete 

                                                    from this old house that burnt down.

And this view!! No wonder the couple decided to build their house here.

We enjoyed the view for a few minuets and proceeded on.

You follow the old road to come to this "Y," Stay right. Also if you noticed in an earlier picture and in this picture below you can see that this trail is part of the Pacific Northwest Trail.

Trail. Now we have done 2 small sections of the Pacific Northwest Trail. The other section was on Alger Alp.

The trail then leads you to the John Tursi Trail and you can only go left.

We crossed a very small stream and bridge. 

It wasn't that far until we arrived at a rock wall in this opening.

Of course we stopped and inspected the rock fall that occurred at this old red rock quarry. 

We continued on and hiked up this hill.

If I remember correctly we had to hike up 3 inclines. H was complaining about going up hill at this point and that his feet were hurting.

He was excited that this was a down hill "finally." (His words.) A short distance later

we arrived  upon this old log cabin and had to check out the remains of it.

A little bit further up the trail you climb this hill.

At the top of the hill was our destination which used to be a copper mine. H wanted to go in and explore. But after going in just a couple of feet I turned around and said no. Who knows what or who would be in it and if it was safe.

We then turned around and headed back to the car. However we did stop on the way back and ate some food at one of the view points, which I highly recommend.
 The weather was amazing, we had a wonderful time, saw just a handful of people and hiked a little over 4 miles round trip.

Until next time!