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

Nookachamps

We have been a running family off and on for years. 

On January 15, 1983 our daughter Melissa (just a month away from her 11th birthday) ran the Nookachamps half marathon with me, my mom and dad, my brother and his wife. She was determined to run that distance and she had trained diligently towards that goal. Here's a photo of me, my brother (Phil) and Melissa. I'm not sure which race this was, but the picture was taken around that same year. 

Melissa was always my dad's protector. The first few marathons he ran were the Birch Bay and Seaside marathons. At that time he used to get serious chills after he ran. Here's a picture of her comforting him after one of his Birch Bay marathon finishes.

Another fun memory was when we ran the Baker to Bellingham relay together as a family team, also in 1983.  It was a Greater Bellingham running club sponsored event at the time. Here are my mom (Shirley) and dad getting aid and encouragement from Melissa.

Quite a few years later Melissa and my dad made some more memories together running a marathon together in Seattle.

On Saturday January 16th yet another run together was added to their memory bank. My dad (Chuck) and Melissa ran the Nookachamps half marathon together again after a 33 year gap. My brother and his wife (Rosaura) were there also to run the 10k. Here are some special pictures from the day.

Everyone getting ready for their big day -

Here are some photos of Melissa and my dad (83 years young) running their half marathon.

It was wonderful to see them running together again. My husband and I surprised everyone by showing up unannounced to watch them. We drove the course and stopped to cheer every couple of miles. My mom was even able to see them run by a couple of times and yell a cheer for them on my iPhone using a face time call. 

I love these two, with their fun spirited - get after life with a full throttle attitude. 

Like grandpa, like granddaughter!

*If you'd like to see more of what these two do for fun you can read about my dad's 80 mile run on his 80th birthday HERE and to find out more about the Spartan races my daughter enjoys, you can find that info. HERE. Her husband wrote a nice summary about their Tahoe "Beast" Spartan race,  you can read about it HERE. They had the thrill of competing on the same course as the Elite Spartan Race World champions.