Anacortes Community Forest Lands - Sugarloaf, Anacortes Community Forest Lands - Mount Erie — Thursday, May. 1, 2025

Happy Mayday!! We filled our virtual basket with wildflowers today! Lots of blooms, prime time for the flowers now. Meadows of camas, blue larkspur and yellow desert parsley, trails lined with fawn lilies and spring beauty, and rocks covered with field chickweed, chickweed monkeyflower and blue eyed Mary. There is also a little tiny pink one new to me with the cute common name of babystars. One thing we did notice was the absence of checker lilies, we only saw one, the large patch we could always count on has been out competed by grass and shrubbery.  The best place for flowers is on Sugarloaf, and we lingered long. We took #215 up to the viewpoint (great today) then down thru the rocks to hit the Mt Erie road. Walk up the road just a bit until #26, there is a large sign with a map and the trails. That will take you up to hit the summit trails for Mt Erie. The views from the lookouts at the top were incredible! Baker, Glacier Peak, the mtn loop mtns and out west the Olys, plus the Sound and Islands. No Rainier, too hazy. We elected to walk back along the road and skip going down the rocks and roots on the summit trails. I skipped posting the view pics and stuck with the flowers, because, of course I did. Loo at the bottom clean and stocked today, don't know about the one on top. No wildflowers were picked or trampled in the hiking of this trail.