Exploring the Chuckanuts during a stay in Bellingham. Forecast was cold and wet, and that was definitely the case. We did a 7 mile, 1300 foot elevation gain loop (including the short 0.6 mile RT/100 foot descent detour to Chuckanut Falls).
Started from the North Chuckanut trailhead, up to Interurban then the wide road-like Hemlock trail. At about 1.5 miles from the car we turned right onto the Lost Lake trail at Checkpoint Kiosk "A" (like the Hemlock this is basically an old road) and climbed to the four way intersection Kiosk checkpoint "B" where the Salal trail (single track later widening to narrow old road) takes off to the left and the Chuckanut Ridge trail takes off to the right. By this time snow falling from the sky was real, decorating the trees and creating slushy spots on the trail. After a pretty 0.7 miles in the woods Salal connects back to the Hemlock trail south of where we left it. Left/north on the Hemlock trail and after a mile or so we turned right onto the Chuckanut Falls trail, which offers an alternate return to the Interurban and the parking area, and took the side trail to see the falls. Then back to the car, wet, chilled, and ready for a cup of hot tea. Looking forward to more explorations and maybe some one-ways in the area. Today was not the day to seek out views but another time for that as well.
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