On Friday August 20th, a group of Cascadian Farm employees, and their friends and families enjoyed a beautiful Skagit Valley day, and took part in a longstanding tradition: we hiked up to the top of Sauk Mountain for a mile-high picnic, and then came back down to the farm to pick a basket of our mouth-watering organic blueberries. This has been an annual event for Cascadian Farm and Small Planet Foods employees for the last 7 years! You can also view these photos in a slideshow on Flickr.
Here's the 5,400 ft peak of Sauk Mountain, as viewed from the trailhead.
The Sauk Mountain trail is a great hike for beginners and experts alike!
Here is a view of the Sauk River from the Sauk Mountain Trailhead. The Sauk River meets the Skagit River just below the Mountain, near Rockport, WA.
Jim, Don, and Cherie stop for a quick equipment check before heading up the trail.
Craig Weakly is Small Planet Foods' Director of Organic Agriculture & Sustainability. He is also an avid wildlife photographer. He stopped to take a photo of this thistle along the side of the trail.
Wild Blueberries are a great treat of any Skagit Valley hike. Joan found some along the way and we stopped to snack on a few.
Don Smith with his wife Cherie (middle), and Joan Clinkston pause for a photo-opp. This is about half-way up the Sauk Mountain trail.
We had a few creatures like this Marmot join us near the top of the mountain!
Farmer Jim seemed to be able to name almost every Cascade Mountain peak (and there were dozens) visible from the top of Sauk Mountain.
The group stopped for a mile-high picnic at the top of Sauk Mountain.
Sometimes it's hard to get all the pets and people to look in the same direction!
After the hike, we headed up-river to the farm to pick blueberries. The parking lot is full, it's prime blueberry time!
They taste even better than they look :)
Look how full these blueberry bushes are!
Here's a look at the sun kissing the tops of the trees behind Cascadian Farm's upper field. Mt Chaval is in the background (this is the mountain in the Cascadian Farm logo).
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