Nov. 9, 2023 - east of Bellingham,
Stats: 21 km / 950m gain / 849m high / 5 hours MT
This was a nice shoulder-season hike, a close neighbour to the more popular Oyster Dome & Chuckanut Ridge hikes. And it was one I could knock off in the Destination Hikes book, leaving me with 10 hikes to go.
Most of the route was on a gated gravel road. No the weather wasn't sunny, but it did not rain and we got a good fresh air workout with friends. It was cold enough at the top, that we needed to put on winter coats and hang onto that hot cup of tea to warm our extremities.
This was the first and best of three waterfalls, along the Waterfall Trail which was a short detour off of the LM-2000 FSR.
When Mexican Sonia saw a sign that read: Buried Cable, she asked, "Is it dead?"
1) The third waterfall (we never did see the second one)
2) We walked up this creek a bit.
1) A lingering Foxgove. 2) Maple Leaves
Just before the summit, we veered off onto this dirt-bike trail which didn't go anywhere.
The summit was not impressive, reminding us of Taggart Peak on Sumas Mt. There was a US Geological benchmark & a 1925 US Coast an Geodetic Survey triangulation station with three communication towers, a few buildings and a propane tanks on the top. But no views. A couple mountain bikers told us to go a bit back, and turn right at the road junction to another communication tower where there would be a better view.
After scouting around for that better viewpoint, we concluded that it must be the road a bit farther down with the big red & white sign, warning of surveillance cameras.
We found a lunch spot on the other side of the knoll where we were more protected from the cold wind. Group shot: Me, Sonia J, Ingrid F, Patrick R, Sheri K + David S
Back down to the junction we went (10 minutes walk) and then a hop & a skip to this much better viewpoint, looking down and west on Lake Samish, Chuckanut Ridge and glimpses of the Salish Sea.
1) We could not see this tower during our ascent, making it more confusing when the mountain bikers directed us to this point.
Four of us stuck to the gently graded road for the descent but Sonia & Sheri took the rougher, steeper mountain-bike trail down, arriving at the parking lot 20 minutes before us.
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