Pacific Northwest Trail — Friday, Feb. 3, 2012

Puget Sound and Islands

This was a short section of the Pacific Northwest Trail, now a National Scenic Trail. The trail is marked with white blazes, just like the Appalachian Trail. I started at the Squires Lake trailhead, which is a Whatcom County park. It's two miles north of Alger on Old 99. There were a couple of switchbacks up to the lake, then the PNT took off uphill in a southerly direction. At first the PNT was a trail with a few good views west. Then it followed some logging roads up past Little Baldy, then down to Cain Lake Road, coming out about a third of a mile east of Alger. I walked into Alger for lunch at the Alger Bar and Grille, which is very handily positioned! Then I retraced my steps back to Squires Lake. For a bonus I also walked the loop hike around the lake. Total about 8.5 miles, around 4 hours including lunch. Someone has been marking and maintaining this trail...thanks! You can find a good map of this trail section on the Pacific Northwest Trail web site, pnt.org.