Today we set out to explore Rufus creek trail in new trail system at Lookout Mtn. As we made our way to Bellingham we saw that the wind was still blowing pretty strong (I looked at my weather app and it said the gusts were at 36 mph). We had planned on going there yesterday but the forecast was for high winds and rain all day, and getting better on Friday so we put it off for today. We aren't too keen on hiking in the forest on windy days, our pumpkin heads are way too soft for large branches and heaven forbid full size trees falling on them. My husband made a wonderful decision for a change of destination since the winds were blowing out of the SSE. He figured the Sudden Valley area would probably be in the winds' path, so we headed towards Chuckanut mtn. Our plan would be to hike the west side of the mtn. and be sheltered from the wind. It worked out perfectly and we had no rain. Hurray!
Here's a photo of the route that we took as shown from my Garmin tracking.
We parked at the North Chuckanut parking lot and headed up the hill to the Interurban trail. It's a short uphill to a boardwalk trail just before the Interurban trail junction.
Hiking along the Interurban trail.
One of the small falls along the trail.
We took a right turn at the sign.
A closer view of the sign.
A sea of ferns ❤
Another small waterfall just off the trail.
We headed down the Chuckanut falls trail and noticed all of the treefall carnage along the way.
Chuckanut Falls
Back out to the trail to make our way towards Madrone crest by way of the Hemlock trail,
and the Huckleberry trail.
Wonderful bits of jelly? fungus here and there on the trees.
Mr. and Mrs. Pack enjoying their view at our lunchbreak. I don't know why they're sitting so far apart, hope they're getting along o.k.😉
One of the "less" foilaged sections of the trail.
The Mr. checking out the map board.
Looks like we'll meander up the Salal trail.
First some sawing to clear the way.
Yay! Cut and cleared!!
A nice mossy rock outcropping along the trail.
Lichen? I liked the contrasting colors in the photo.
More hanging trees, we got to go under and over some today.
Holly Berries ❤
Madrona tree ❤
Mr. and Mrs. Pack stopped to enjoy the view at Madrone crest. Looks like they're getting along better now😍, sitting a bit closer together.
Not too much of a view today. Mt. Baker is hiding behind the clouds. We did have a fine view of a clear cut logging operation though.
I loved how the sun peeked in to the trail through the trees.
We made our way out to the Lost Lake trail and headed down the hill,
Of course a little more trail clean up again.
Fine work, trusty little handsaw!
Back to the Hemlock trail
and my first heart rock sighting of 2019❤
One more interesting lichen?
The final leg, down the boardwalk trail to the parking lot. Thanks to the Mr. for keeping us safe with his alternate route decision and thanks to his "trusty little handsaw" for clearing the way.
Relive video of our route:
Garmin stats:
total miles hiked - 7.72
total ascent - 2188
total descent - 1719 feet
