Whitehorse Trail - Swede Heaven to Darrington — Sunday, Apr. 5, 2009

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Snohomish County's Whitehorse Trail is a new rails-to-trails project that will eventually connect Arlington and Darrington. Most of the trail is not technically open to the public, but gets quite a bit of hiker use anyway. The 6 mile section of the trail between Swede Heaven Road and Darrington is one of the areas open for use now, and it is a good one. We walked the trail a couple miles from Swede Heaven Road (love that name) to the bluegrass festival grounds. The countryside is still very rural here; the vistas are mostly of forest. The trail approaches the N. Fork Stillaguamish several times and we greatly enjoyed climbing down to one of the fine riverside beaches and lazing in the warm sun. Here and there, we got great views of the awesome north face of Whitehorse Mountain, still draped with deep snow. Even on this spectacular Sunday, few users were to be seen. Perhaps there are too few legitimate users: with no enforcement and no one around to complain, one section of the trail has been illegally used as a shortcut for dirt bikes and ATVs. The Whitehorse Trail is a fine choice for hikers looking for an easy, low-elevation hike in the Darrington/Arlington area.