Weather was not looking good for a long drive to a trail so I headed down to South Whidbey State Park near Freeland since I saw all sunshine over the island. This was my 12 hike of this year and the weather turned out nice while I was there. Whidbey Island has about five state parks on the Island and this is the only one I had not been to. This park is located off Smugglers Cove Road and it easy to get there from the main road which is Highway 20 at the top part of the island but halfway down it becomes 525 just past turnoff to the Port Townsend Ferry. Make a right just across the highway from the Historical Greenbank Farm and Winery. The park has about six miles of trails if you do them all which I did today. The trails take you through some old growth Cedar and Douglas Fur as you can see from some of my pictures. The park spans both sides of Smugglers Cove Road with a short but step trail down to the beach. There are closure signs up now on the beach trail but it would seem they are ignored by the locals since they are familiar with the area and I saw plenty of them on the trail. There is a mud slide about a quarter mile down the hill. No trees have fallen over just mud. You can cross it rather easy but expect to get your shoes quite muddy. It is a small crossing with no apparent danger but I do understand the liability reason for the state park putting up the warning signs. The beach is about a 1/4 mile long with some nice views of Smugglers Cove, The Olympic Mountains, Pudget Sound and Port Townsend. If you want to get away from the noise coming from the vehicles you will need to take the Ridge Loop Trail across the road. It gets you back in there far enough to loose the noise from the cars. The Wilbert Trail which is name after the family that fought to protect the old growth trees is a pretty level trail but you never get rid of the noise from the cars. Some really nice old growth trees and beach access to check out. I always like exploring new areas regardless of how small or the views. You just can't beat checking out what mother nature has to offer. Check out my small video of South Whidbey Island State Park Beach on my youtube channel at lmm3181 or click on this direct link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmCe9tezJn0&list=UUqJaSfrcykoO8iBW2vH7rhw&index=1&feature=plcp Check out over 155 other trails I have hiked in Washington State also. As always get out and see this beautiful state!!! Enjoy your hiking. Mike

Loop Ridge trail was easy to traverse and lush and diverse. Didn't see another hiker until we intersected the Wilbur Trail. Lush and beautiful with lots of old growth trees to marvel at. Ferns and Nettles beginning to encroach the trails but it didn't impact the hike. Beach Trail has steep slope and stairs to reach the water. The beach was a narrow strip (might have been tide related) but likable if you don't mind climbing over driftwood.

Directions to this park and the trails are well described in Craig Romano's book,"Day Hiking Central Cascades". The beach trail was closed because of the Tsunami warning so we started our hike by doing the 1 mile Forest Discovery loop which begins on the west side of the park south of the Day Use Parking area. Because of the recent heavy rains the trail was muddy in places and the strong winds of the day before may have been the reason for 2 downed trees across the trail.These were easily negotiated. Skunk cabbage was beginning to bloom. We then did the 1.9 mile Ridge Loop Trail on the east side of the park to the Wilbert Trail. Here we turned right and walked a short distance to a 500 year old "Giant Cedar".We then returned right on the Wilbert Trail passing through beautiful groves of Douglas Fir and cedar trees and logs covered with many varieties of beautiful moss. There are many boardwalks along this trail which helped to keep our boots out of the mud. This was a very pleasant new area for us to explore!

Took our doggie Max to Whidbey for the day started at Double Buff, then hit South Whidbey and ended at Fort Ebey due to WTA's hike of the week. It was in the rain shadow as predicted. I had been here once before and love it, so much to see. Lake, Beach, old fort, great trail, not much else you can ask for, oh I know only a handfull of people! Good Times for everyone. Both my boys were tuckered out and sleeping on the drive home.

It was such a beautiful day today that I could just not stay at home. So, I packed up two 2 year olds and took the ferry to Whidbey Island. South Whidbey State Park was our destination. I wanted to see how long the kids could hike. So I brought no backpack....ummm, that may have been a mistake. We started up the Ridge Loop Trail and the kids did fairly well. About half way through they started to get tired and about the Giant Cedar the one got tired and I had to carry piggy back style. So, we did not take the Wilbert Trail back to the start, but continued down to the campground and took the road back to the parking lot. We encounted some blowdowns, it looked like some had been cut back, but not all. It was quite muddy in several spots. We didn't get stuck, but we did have muddy boots. The mosquitos were starting to come out. We got back to the car and then took our picnic lunch down to the beach and played for several hours in the sun.