Hiking with purple fuzzy handcuffs

Last week I hiked Ebey's Landing, because I saw Craig Romano list it as his favorite winter hike in Western Washington on an episode of Evening Magazine. I've already blogged about this hike before, so you can read the guide I wrote then.

On this hike, I added purple fuzzy handcuffs to my hiking pack.

Seen pictured

And I hiked with them attached the whole way.

I really did.

All because of this:

Don't judge me because I had them in my bedroom until now.

I made the hike involve them. It was a great piece to weird out people with.

Hiking Partner: "What are you doing with those again?"

Me: "Tie me to a tree, baby. You know I like it!"

Other hikers: *horrified looks*

Oh yes, it was fun.

I brought along my little Ozzy, and she had her dog, so we had two hyper doggies that we drove all the way down to Coupeville to take on a five mile hike.

Posing in front of the old Ebey blockhouse and estate.

Posing in front of the lagoon

It was sunny and not too cool out. I think it must have been in the 60's. I didn't wear the jacket I packed at all. I got tan lines from my t-shirt in February!

Seattle has had its wettest winter on record, so this was a rare sunny day we took full advantage of.

Hoping for more sunny days suitable for hiking!

A Walk in the Dog Park - Fairhaven Dog Park

So here's the latest news: I have to do a walk a week.

I haven't discussed it on this blog, but I'm going through a divorce. My husband left me, so I started to see a counselor. She has, among other things, prescribed me to walk a minimum of once a week. Specifically, she wants me to walk every trail in the city!

This bodes well for this blog, which I started after I picked up a Whatcom County hiking guide and was disappointed in it and felt I could do better (and then started posting about hikes in other counties).

Last week I walked between Zuanich Point Park and Tom Glenn Commons, which I've already written about before. So this week I decided to go on a short walk someplace that's normally out of my way. It was a short walk, just over a mile, to the Fairhaven Dog Park. This is a nice local dog park where you can let your pooch roam off-leash.

There's parking on 4th street to get to the well-marked trailhead.

Fairhaven Dog Park

Bellingham Parks & Recreation

Parking permit: none needed

Distance: 1.3 miles

Elevation gain: none

There's not much to this little place. From the parking, you quickly enter the off-leash zone. It's a short trail to the main park area.

The dog is enjoying the off-leash adventure

There's a decent sized field where the trail loops around. It's a great place to play fetch and run your dogs if they are into that sort of thing. We saw a handful of other dogs throughout our venture.

The park and trail run past the wastewater treatment plant. Fortunately it's not to odorous.

The dog doesn't care for big fields. He feels sticking to the path is what is proper.

Fall color is still lingering.

There's a lagoon with bird watching opportunities past the off-leash part.

Wastewater treatment tanks

The lagoon is a nesting spot for great blue herons. We didn't see any today though. Just seagulls and crows.

The trail ends in the employee parking lot for the wastewater treatment plant. From here you can take paths and walk along the ferry terminal docks. I just turned around and headed back.

At the trailhead, I crossed the street and took a short jaunt down the trail that leads toward Fairhaven park. These trails connect with South Bay Trail and the Interurban Trail, so you can extend the walk pretty much as far as you like.

I didn't venture far; I just wanted to see the area I had done some volunteer work in for Earth Day several years back. I don't come down here much.

Some recent trail work.

I found some of the trees I helped plant. They seem to be doing well!

I helped plant this.

On my return trip I found one of the historical markers that dot the Fairhaven area.

The QR code was not linking to an active listing, unfortunately. I don't know if they stopped the QR program or if it's just a temporary glitch. Someday I want to blog a walking tour and include all the markers, but that's a time-consuming ordeal I haven't taken on yet. Some appropriately dreary day I will do it, though.

That's all I have for now. I'll have another walk for next week though, or else I'm in trouble with my therapist.