Saturday, January 23, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Whatcom falls park from the Sr. Center Trailblazer hike
Our hike today was what I call a city walk, we did one similar to this last March.
On that day spring was in the air, the trees and bulbs were blooming, you can look at the spring blossom photos and read about that day's route HERE.
Today 10 of us came to the Bellingham Senior Center prepared for a rainy day on the trail, but we were pleasantly surprised by only a few raindrops right at the beginning of our walk. Our fearless leader "Pat" led us to Whatcom falls park on one of the many city trails, this particular trail led us through neighborhoods and then onto the "Railroad Trail".
We stopped at this trestle and listened to "Pat" as he explained that this was a Fly over for the trains or as we would say on the freeway - an overpass.
I stepped inside the structure and took the photo below looking up towards the sky for a different perspective.
We walked across the Alabama hill pedestrian bridge and then through some neighborhoods before we were in the forest again. I took the photo below of some flags flying over a house, so you could see that there was a brisk breeze blowing at times, and as an homage to our dear Seahawks.
Sadness, our season is over for the year.
"City" hikers :-)
Soon we were following Whatcom creek and approaching the falls.
I took a photo of the falls today to show a comparison of water flow from our March hike, as you can see the water level was a bit lower then.
When we were on the moss & fern covered bridge I took a picture of the spillway. This is the view down creek from the falls.
Our lunch destination was the shelter just on the other side of this bridge.
After lunch we headed west along the creek. This area is where the pipeline explosion happened in June of 2009. You can read the timeline of events HERE.
Just before we crossed Woburn street there is a long stairway leading down to the road from the trail.
Here's a photo of the stairway that I took from last March's walk. On that occasion we went up the stairs.
I decided to take advantage of the stairs and did a little workout. After I went down them, I ran back up. According to Joe there are 105 steps on this stairway. I think I need to make that part of my training workouts.
Very fun!
We made our way back to the senior center by going on the trail behind the car dealerships on Iowa street. My blog post from last year shows photos of this section of the trail.
When we got back to the center, Pat showed me the map he used for the day's hike. The little hill shape on the upper part of the map shows the railroad trail.
My endomondo tracking map shows the same hump for the railroad trail as Pat's, go figure!
Endomondo stats:
total miles walked - 7.75
minimum altitude - 47 feet
maximum altitude - 362 feet
total ascent - 306 feet
total descent - 345 feet
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