Lily and Lizard Lake Loop, North Butte & Blanchard Hill - Alternate Incline Trail — Sunday, Mar. 26, 2017

A great hike for a rainy day! We started at the new upper TH and hiked up to Lizard Lake via the Alternate Incline. Our goal was the Lizard/Lily lake loop. We ended up modifying it a bit, since we weren't paying attention and hiked the British Army trail instead. After about 1/2 mile, we realized our stupid mistake, backtracked to the lake and found the right trail. We hiked up to North Butte and had some great views of the Sound, even in this bad weather. A word of caution, the Butte is slippery when muddy boot meets wet rock, the viewpoint is small and there is room for only a few people, unlike Oyster Dome. I would not recommend dogs or kids here. We skipped Lily Lake and ate lunch back at Lizard. There is a beaver dam at the outlet stream, a classic textbook beaverlodge in the lake, and beaver chewed downed trees along the shore. Look closely along the trail and notice the fruiting bodies of lichen and moss, very interesting to see. Also there is old rusted equipment along the trail leftover from logging. There were lots of waterfalls and few people,a perfect hike in the rain! We drove back thru the daffs, the fields are in full bloom, not to be missed! We also stopped at the wildlife refuge to see what was happening, and what was happening were some very amorous eagles. We had a front row seat to some x rated eagle activity! Ravennspirit may post the pictures she took.