Having worked on the new connector trail(aka Rock Trail) in Larrabee State Park with the WTA for some time, my gal and I had been plotting a new year- round low land loop hike out of Bellingham. The beautiful sunny weather on Saturday gave us our chance. We started in Arroyo Park in South Bellingham by parking along Old Samish Rd. just east of Chuckanut Drive. We followed the interurban trail toward Larrabee across the bridge up the hill and onto the trail pointing to North Lost Lake on the left. We stayed on the North Lost Lake trail(old steep road) until we reached the Chuckanut Ridge trail in approximately 1.5 miles on the right. The trail follows the ridge with great views of Baker in the east and the lower B.C. mountains to the north all the way to Cyrus Gates overlook in Larrabee state park (approx. 5 miles). We went beyond the parking area and picked up the trail at the far end descending for about 200 yards until reaching the soon to be open "Rock Trail" or whatever the park officially names it to the left. The next 1.2 miles are worth the journey and the true labor of love by countless volunteers can be seen throughout. The descent started by climbing down numerous stairs through mature regrowth past amazing Chuckanut sandstone cliffs that arched over us for the majority of the journey.... amazing. Rumor has it that local geology types at WWU are drooling over these features. We continued descending down the trail until reaching the junction with the south Lost Lake Trail. We followed the trail down to the lake junction (a nice albeit muddy side trip to the lake provides some amazing falls on the east outflow) and continued onto the North Lost Lake Trail back to Bellingham and the intersection of the Chuckanut Ridge trail. The total length of the trip came out at 12.15 miles... not bad for a loop hike in the lowlands in January! The hike was great for keeping in shape as we dream of those 2014 alpine wanderings to come.

I hiked a solo trip today and decided to check out the new Rock Trail in the Chuckanut Mts. This is a fine trip that I'd recommend to anyone. I started out at the Lost Lake/Clayton Beach Trailhead on Chucknut Drive and hiked the gated road to the Lost Lake Trail junction at about 2 miles. Instead of going straight on to Lost Lake, I took the beat up and obscure trail that leads left to the high point of Chuckanut Mt. and eventually Cleator Road. This trail gets steep in places, but is easy to follow although eroded by bikes. Still, it's one of my favorites and gets up high pretty quickly. I rarely see anyone on this 1 1/2 section of trail. Just short of the high point look off to your right and find the new "Rock Trail". It's about 1.2 miles long and leads steeply down to the Lost Lake Trail. You wind through impressive sandstone cliffs with interesting formations. The trail itself is an engineering marvel in that it's comprised of stairs and bits of trail that's designed to show of the amazing geology of the place. There's also the wonderful ferns and mossy maples with peek a boo views of the surrounding hills. It's becoming my favorite trail in the Chuckanuts! The trail ends at a junction with the Lost Lake Trail and taking a right here will get you back to the Fragrance Lake Road in about 2 miles, I opted for the left and lunch at Lost Lake. So, I continued another 3/4 mile or so to another junction and took a right to a dark and fumbling trail that eventually leads in 1/4 mile to a very nice rock/lunch spot overlooking Lost Lake. Lost Lake itself isn't that spectacular, but it's nice enough and usually very secluded, but today I met several very friendly people including one very nice young man who invited me to smoke some "herb" with him. That's a first for me and I have to say it was rather sweet and an example of changing times for sure. After lunch, I happily hiked on up the old trail leading back to the Lost Lake Trailhead and the junction with the Fragrance Lake Road at approximately 2.5 miles passing the Rock Trail terminus along the way. From there, I continued on to the Fragrance Lake junction and then down to my car on Chuckanut Drive about two miles away. This section of trail, while very pretty, isn't as much fun to me. Where I'd only seen a couple of nice folks on my previous trails, here there were hoards and nobody said "howdy". It was a very different group of very casual hikers with dogs running everywhere (even though it's a state park), and people who just seemed to have a different attitude. Next time I will probably take the Fragrance Lake Road back again because even though it's not as scenic, it's a whole lot more peaceful. So, this day was 10 miles with about 2300' elevation gain. This area has so much to offer: coastal forests, solitude, ferns, cliffs, and a Bellingham vibe. All of this in as many miles as you want to hike. Loop possibilities are endless and after years of hiking in this area, I'm still finding new routes and secret connections thanks to WTA and all those gorilla trail stompers out there!

Today's excursion was a WTA work party to continue building the Rock Trail to Lost Lake in Larrabee State Park. The crew leader was Arlen "Bridgemaster" Bogaards, with ACL Richard. We started the day, as always, with the safety lecture, and we proceeded downtrail to continue making improvements to the trail. The newly built hiker-only trail leads from the Cyrus Gates Overlook down to a gate junction with the existing Lost Lake trail. A few sections require trail building, whereas others need tweaking. Our two major projects were widening the "Bogaards Bridge" over a small creek and improving tread on the lower part of the new trail. Most of the work party removed roots, dug up mineral soil for new tread, and filled in pits with rock and soil. I joined Richard and John to continue the development of the bridge to a more-user friendly crossing. Before today, the bridge was a half-log stringer (bridge beam) bolted down on sills (e.g. pylons) on either side of the creek. Yesterday, a cedar log was laboriously pulled up from the lake for use in the bridge. We cut slots in the sill and the new stringer and drove in steel spikes to fasten the stringer in place. We used a chainsaw to score the top half of the log with cuts every 3 inches, followed by chopping away the top half with Pulaskis to reveal a walking surface. It took all day, because our source material was a 600-pound log. Next agenda item: handrails! We finished with hot apple cider, cookies, and trailmix. Also of note, during lunchtime two of us went AWOL and hiked down to the junction with the Lost Lake trail to enjoy peek-a-boo views of the new trail's ultimate destination.

Today's outing was a holiday work party on the Rock Trail to Lost Lake in Larrabee State Park. The trail is nearing completion, and it can be followed to Lost Lake from the Cyrus Gates overlook. However, it is not quite complete, and there is no dedicated hiker-only path from the trailhead to the lake. Today's crew leader was Arlen "Trailblazer" Bogaards. ACLs were (hope I did not forget anyone) Jon, Kathy, Marty, Mike, Pete, Richard, Rick, and Terry. The day started with clouds, drizzle, a safety lecture, and the awarding of a hard hat to Janice. There was one main task and one minor task for the day. The main body of work was clearing and starting a hiker-only spur trail from the parking lot to join the trail that has been built so far. A smaller group descended about 1 mile to finish a gate and a hairpin turn that had been built near a problematic trail segment. I went with the larger group and worked with ACLs Kathy and Pete (a work party legend who has attended more than 1500 work parties) to build trail from scratch. We cleared overhanging branches, removed duff, and excavated the layer of organic soil. Afterwards, we removed rotting logs beneath the trail surface and put in rock fill. We graded the surface with mineral soil. I finished the day helping de-fern the part of the route closest to the parking area. By day's end I was drenched and covered in mud. At 1 pm we wrapped up work and drove down to the picnic area. Rangers Forest and McEvers joined us as we had a holiday celebration and lunch. There was a raffle, and three lucky folks won rocks with fossilized leaves 40-50 million years old (from Larrabee State Park). Santa made an appearance, and we received gifts in appreciation for our trailwork. Pete received special recognition from WTA in honor of his tremendous contributions to trailwork over the years. The Rock Trail is projected to open officially in April 2014.

I went up to do a work party in Larrabee State park. My first time on this trail. It is MAGNIFICENT!!! I was in awe of all the work, the amazing environment, the melting ice cascading from the cliffs, the great people donating their time to make this trail great. The trail has numerous stairways to get down the cliffs and the cliffs themselves are worthy of jaw dropping awe filled gazes. We worked the trail near the end where it joins with the Lost Lake trail, improving tread, installing another staircase, and removing duff. One of the crew leaders even made popcorn for an after lunch treat! This is a lovely trail, totally different from any other I've hiked in Larrabee State Park and it is worthy of your attention as an awesome place to hike.