Trail Notes - Samish Overlook to Oyster Dome

These are my notes. I am not a great hiker. I am a plus size gal and a slow hiker.

We arrived at the overlook before 12 pm on a Monday. The road up is gravel and pretty rough. The parking lot has 20 spaces or so. We were able to snag one of the last parking spaces. We ate our lunch at one of the picnic tables . This is place they launch hang gliders. There were no hang gliders on that day.  The view was awesome. We were on the trail by 12. The first part was not bad. Then begins the upward climb with long switch backs. These are not like the switch backs to fragrance lake. The switch backs are much longer. We encountered lots of people on the trail. People were wearing masks when they passed people. I had a bandanna and my son had a mask. In some spots trail was quite narrow. We saw a Dad with 2 kids - (2 years old and 4 years old) They made it to the dome but it would make me nervous to take the youngest as he was running and not listening. The dome is basically a cliff.

I stopped numerous times to catch my breath. It was a steady up.

crossing over some water

When we came to the turnoff for the dome it still was 20 more minutes or so for us.

We crossed a stream on rocks. The last was a scramble over some roots. It took us 2 hours to hike to the dome.

On the way back we went Lily lake to Max's Shortcut to the Larry Reed Trail. Max's Shortcut starts out easy with gentle slope.

However the last part is punishing to the calves. I think this way is longer than just returning the way you got up to the Oyster Dome. It was also quite muddy and buggy. I didn't fare so well the last 20 minutes. I lost my lunch. It took us another 2 hours to get back to our car. Even though we stopped much less. This trail was virtually empty. We did meet a mountain biker who said he saw a cougar near the top of the mountain. That was unsettling. I ended up with 25,300 steps for the day.

My son and I thought the view from the parking lot was as good as the view from Oyster Dome. Don't tell those die hard hikers. I think we can cross this off our bucket list.

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