Picture of the week ~ Snow leaf

Smith Creek aka Cub Creek

We chose Smith Creek for today's hike. The trail head is at the parking lot just beyond the North Lake Whatcom trail parking lot.

We began with a plan to go about 4 miles, eat lunch and then return. So we were hoping to get an 8 mile hike in today.

We were in luck, no rain and just a chill in the air when we took our first steps up the trail.

We stopped at this side old road for a quick snack, it's just about 1/2 mile from the first clearing where the power line towers are.

We enjoyed our snack, then packed up to move on as we were getting just a bit cold.

We kept going up the road a ways past the first towers. 

Looking out towards Lake Whatcom and Bellingham bay in the distance.

We began to see patches of snow as we gained elevation.

I attempted to make a snow angel but it was pretty crusty, I hardly left a dent.

https://youtu.be/be6A1GDpvgM

Snow leaf

We went to about the far corner in the photo below, then turned and made our way down the road to find a good lunch spot.

We sat in the cleared spot just in front of the tower in the photo below for lunch. We enjoyed views of the water to our right.....

and a view of where we had come from to the left.

After lunch, we got a bit chilly so we packed up and headed down the road. We took a turn at the first tower below to check out the view. Normally we would have followed the road farther down till it connected to the standard Smith/Cub Creek trail.

My husband noticed a narrow trail that took off to the right just at the top of a small hill.

The photo below shows where we headed into the woods. I sketched some "road" and "trail" lines so you can see where we went. When we entered the forest we found a really good trail that meandered comfortably a ways then headed "DOWN" the hill pretty aggressively. We decided to follow it and see where it came out or to put it another way - where "we" wanted to come out! Either way we were committed to see where it lead.

We followed the trail quite a ways and then walked cross country through some blackberry bushes and marsh bushes and grass to the road. The road that we came down to connected to the trail we had taken up earlier in the day. We walked out to a small view spur trail and I took this panorama of Cain lake (on the left) and Lake Whatcom (on the right).

We rejoined the trail and hiked about 2 more miles down to the trailhead.

As we headed down the trail we watched for places where our "adventure" trail might join the one we were on. Sure enough about 1 mile down the trail we saw a side spur. We decided we would come back again on another day and hike "UP" our trail and down the Smith creek trail for a good loop hike.

I thought this tree branch outstretched across the trail was whimsical looking, like a moss and Licorice fern coated arm. It would be a good Limbo bar, "no back-bend needed" - YES!

Garmin Stats:

total miles hiked - 9 miles

 minimum altitude - 347 feet

maximum altitude - 2539 feet

total ascent - 2490 feet

total descent - 3123 feet (due to our downhill adventure side-trip)