The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
EP: 0049 Bellingham Trails: Navigating Bellingham's 40+ Miles of Connected Pathways with Irena Lambrou
Discover Bellingham's extensive trail systems and how they connect the city's diverse neighborhoods. We explore both well-known paths and hidden gems that make Bellingham a paradise for walkers, joggers, and cyclists of all experience levels.
• Trail systems throughout Bellingham allow users to loop around the entire city with minimal road travel
• Chuckanut and southern areas feature Fragrance Lake trails and the Interurban connecting to Fairhaven
• Waterfront trails link Boulevard Park through downtown with stunning bay views
• Eastern neighborhoods (Barkley, Roosevelt, Alabama Hill) offer the most accessible trail connections
• Whatcom Falls Park provides family-friendly recreation with waterfalls, swimming holes and playgrounds
• Galbraith Mountain features 20+ miles of trails for mountain bikers of all skill levels
• Lake Padden's loop and surrounding trails connect back to southern neighborhoods
• Most trails are dog-friendly but check regulations as some areas have restrictions
• Many trails feature well-maintained gravel surfaces with good tree canopy for year-round use
• Apps like All Trails and Trail Forks help newcomers navigate the extensive network
Know before you go - check which trails allow dogs, mountain bikes or horses as designations vary throughout the system.
You can reach Irena at irenalambrou@johnlscott.com
Hello and welcome to the Bellingham Real Estate Podcast. I'm Paul Balzatti. I'm here with Irina Lambrou.
Speaker 2:Good morning.
Speaker 1:Good morning Irina. Irina, second time on the podcast, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Of course, back and first time in the new studio, which is a new office, which is fabulous. And today we're going to talk about Bellingham Parks and Trails. I'd say primarily we're going to talk about Bellingham trail systems and then also how they relate to the different neighborhoods. You know, if you live in Bellingham, you know you might learn a little thing or two here. But this is primarily for people who are relocating to Bellingham and want to learn how the trail systems, where the trail systems are, how they interact with the neighborhoods and all that. And I am having you on because I know that you're a major trail user, major trail I don't know if major is the right word, but regular trail user.
Speaker 2:I would say regular.
Speaker 1:Avid Avid.
Speaker 2:Avid regular and I often give people directions on the trails. So I would say a lot of people move here, are excited, they get out there and then they get lost. So I would spend a lot of time on the trails yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and it's. It's such a great topic because the trail system is such a huge part of like, such a huge amenity for Bellingham. I think that people know there's trails here but they don't recognize, they don't know until they get here how expansive the trail system is. And what were you saying before? We were just getting on that the trail system, kind of all of it talks to each other, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a pretty comprehensive trail system so you could loop, you know, you could start your morning coffee at Zwanich Park and then make your way all the way around Bellingham, through Fairhaven, all the way back through Boulevard Park and make your way to Zwanich, again pretty much on trails. And I think some of this conversation started with doing this episode and I used to be a pretty big trail runner and now I'm a little bit more of a light trail runner and do some mountain biking too. But there's one point where I ran. We ran from Blanchard, which is south of here, you know, in another county, and then we ran all the way to Barkley, hagen. So that's about 36 miles on trail and I think we had one mile of road running. And I know like there's a there's a 40 or 50 mile mountain bike loop that you could do all on trails through the Blanchard, chuckanut, scalperith. So, yeah, you could be on your bike, your e-bike, your feet, your legs, as long as you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could be on your bike, your e-bike, your feet, your legs, as long as you want or as short as you want, through through Bellingham and beyond. Yeah, and I want to, and we'll break down a little bit. You know, the, the areas we could. We could maybe we'll circle to the end about if somebody was motorcycling or motorbiking, but primarily, you know, these trails are for walking, jogging, biking or, and then there's, and then there's mountain biking trails which are a little, you know, they're a little bit different. Um, right, obviously Galbraith being the biggest, but let's, let's uh, just kind of start with for you, what is your favorite place? Let's just start with your favorites. Where is your favorite kind of go-to trail system? And then they're going to be different for me, because you're, you just explain, you're pretty hardcore.
Speaker 1:I'm the used to be, okay, I'm the, but you, you, you mountain bike too, and um, I have a mountain bike, so I look like I, I can look like I know what I'm doing. Um, but, uh, but I'm more of the. How do I jog or walk two miles person, and then, um, and then go, just putz around, you know. So I'm kind of I'm the, I'm the amateur person here and then. So I'm going to speak to more of that, that crowd I actually probably more of like the. You know, I'm probably more in line with, maybe somebody who's, you know, retired, who's not very active, you know, that's probably more my speed on the trail systems. And then you're like joking, and you're the 40 mile, you're the 40 mile person who's like, yeah, I just, I just let me tell you how you can run from skagit county all the way through the entire city so it all, it's the whole spectrum.
Speaker 2:I think that you know, even though we're joking and laughing, if you're, if your mo is out for a few you a mile or just going for a walk, we have that, and we have things for the most avid adventurists as well, and it's right in our back door. So yeah, even though we're laughing about you, I'm serious.
Speaker 1:No, that's the point is, we do have it all, so let's, let's break it down.
Speaker 2:So, like, what is your favorite go-to trail system right now? Dollar chuckanut around fragrance lake. If it's the summer we're jumping in I'm not a cold plunger and then you know, you're kind of in and out in an hour and you get tons of elevation gain and it just is beautiful. You have the view of the water and um dot island and, uh, it's just peaceful back there.
Speaker 1:So I my go-to is two dollar trail um on chuckanut yeah, fragrant with fragrance lake yeah just kind of, if you google fragrance like, you'll see that system which is super beautiful. Yes, absolutely so, and that's a really cool one to start with, because that's kind of just south of the actual inner urban trail system in bellingham, so let's kind of work our way north from there. So then we-.
Speaker 2:Hold on. So just to give folks from out of town a little bit more detail, so the Chuckanut's are part of the Larrabee Park Trail System and so the Chuckanut Mountains it's called. That's the mountain and that is where the interurban from the south ends. So it ends or you could start there. You could park your car and start at Larrabee State Park, and Larrabee State Park is beautiful. They just redid the trail that goes all the way down to the water, so I would highly recommend exploring that trail. That leads you down to the big Long Beach, so you could start there and there. That leads you down to the big long beach, so you could start there and there. And, yeah, the Chuckin' Nuts in and of themselves.
Speaker 2:Mountain biking, accessibility, running, walking, hiking there are trails that you can't have a bike on, and then there are trails that are mountain biking specific. So if you're doing one or the other, I would always say know what the accessibility is. If you're a walker or a runner or a hiker and you're on a mountain biking trail, it could get. You know. People are going pretty fast down the downhill trails, so you just want to know, if you're newer to the area, what trails you're on, and you should also know, and we can talk about as we go, what trails are dog friendly and what trails aren't. You know some of our trails you can't have a dog on, so, um, you know, just always.
Speaker 1:Know before you go, know before you go yeah, and that and so that would be neighborhood wise, that would be obviously chuck, chuck nut drive, chuck nut drive. But then and then we'd go to edge more and then you are taking.
Speaker 2:you can take the inner urban, which is a gravel trail, so you could be on a gravel bike. You can be on a, you know, a regular bike. You'd be on e-bike or walking or hiking. And so from Larrabee State Park into Fairhaven, it's seven miles and so, as you're walking along Chuckanut Drive, you will come into Edgemoor. There's also the Chuckanut Village, a small subsection, really nice neighborhood down by the water, and then there's Edgemore and then you'll kind of pop out into Fairhaven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's that system right there, you just got into it. And then to your east would be Happy Valley neighborhood, so Happy Valley and Fairhaven, which in Happy Valley kind of borders, fair haven park, yep, right, which is kind of spits right out of from that same system, right, yep, and so um, and would you say that? And so you're saying in the fair haven park system of trails that come out from there, that's a combination of some dog friendly trails and some mountain biking trails. There's both there. You say, is that fair to say?
Speaker 2:Yep, and then as you're going along the interurban, between the interurban heading into Fairhaven and Fairhaven Park, there's a smaller acreage that is now a city park designated. That we affectionately called 100 Acre Woods and I think that's actually its real title now, kind of like from Christopher Robin, you know, 100 Acres with Pooh Bear, but that trail system is pretty extensive as well. A lot of people can get lost back in there. There's a lot of little offsets. But now that it's a city park, you know we ask that you have your dogs on leash and you pick up after your dogs and all those things. But you can bike through there. But that's also a great area to explore with with kids. You know, kind of slow down and just enjoy the beautiful canopy of the trees. And so that's South neighborhood, happy Valley, edgemore it's about. You know, five minute walk to all of those.
Speaker 1:And, and before we leave the South side, the, there's also access to get down to the beach too, right?
Speaker 2:There's access to get down to the beach along Chuckanut Drive, along Chuckanut Village. The neighborhood puts you out into Mud Bay and a little you know, insider knowledge. I've been driving around with someone new to town and she's like you know every trail in town and I don't think she knows, wants to know about the trails. But I'm always telling her about all this stuff um so unsolicited. So, Edgemoor there's a great trail called Clark's Point. So if you're ever in the Edgemoor neighborhood it's a great, you can walk.
Speaker 2:Edgemoor it's not a trail, but if you go down to the end of Edgemoor there is you can't park there so you have to walk to it. But there's a beautiful trail called Clark's Point and a lot of people go cliff jumping off of there in the summer and it's also has this beautiful, really large madrona trees. So it's a it's a really peaceful place for a picnic and in an evening evening sunset. So that's edgemore and that's, you know, fair haven and happy valley neighborhoods, and then you can continue and I think you have about three blocks from the inner urban trail to um boulevard park trail okay, yeah so there's three road city blocks and then you can get back on trail.
Speaker 1:Right, going through downtown Fairhaven, yep and um, and then, of course, you know, most people know um, and it's just the classic we always take when we have. When you live in Bellingham, when you have friends come into town, you always take them to Fairhaven so they can take the bridge trail over to Boulevard park, cause it's such a beautiful, cool thing. Why don't we stay along the water? But I wanted to quickly mention also that when we're talking about all these different types of trails and it's going to all sound a little bit overwhelming going through all of it what's your favorite app? Because I think there's like all trails and not one of them. You don't use an app. Oh, you're, you're, you're. You know what your your app is like your noggin, like your brain.
Speaker 2:Um, for me, some people like Strava. I don't know okay, so I think all trails is the one that I um um Trail Forks is a great one that's for uh mountain biking yes and um and yeah, it is, you know, and so I'm kind of just so our to our listeners and to our viewers. In my head, what we're kind of doing is doing a big loop around the city of Fairhaven via the trail system. You could also go. I'm trying to decide if we're going clockwise or counterclockwise.
Speaker 1:I think we're going to go west, so that would be clockwise.
Speaker 2:So if you went the opposite direction you could get off of the inner urban the other way and go all the way through trails. So we'll go along the water and then keep keeping on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think what's important about the apps, though, is, you know again, this is, this is the my side of the world where, like when you go into these trails and you and you have your kids and you don't really and you don't know where you're, what you're doing here, whether you're going to Galbraith or we'll get into, I guess we'll kind of finish at Galbraith.
Speaker 2:We'll kind of finish, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is a fun, galbraith Mountain obviously being a major mountain biking Mecca, mecca. We could finish with the prize, you know, jewel of Bellingham, essentially.
Speaker 1:But those apps were critical for me because, you know, I'm looking for what they call bunny trails you know, and um, and so it's supposed to be for, you know, 10 and 12 year olds, eight year olds, six year olds, but it's also for grown men who are scared on their mountain bikes too. Bunny trails are for women, yes, and um, we're scared and so, uh, you know. So those trail, those apps can also give you an idea of what trail is for what. Yes, so you don't have to. You know, you can use those apps for that. So, okay, so we're going along the water, so now, as we're along the water.
Speaker 2:You're starting out at Boulevard Park. There, right above you, is the South Hill neighborhood.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So South Hill is overlooking the bay. It's a pretty popular neighborhood here and they have easy access. Another insider local tidbit if you want to get some, you know sometimes we have a cold winter day and you just really want to get that sweat going. So you can go from Taylor Dock and just run straight up South Hill on Taylor Avenue and I don't know how many feet of elevation gain it is, but you will get such a workout and you get to the top. It's beautiful view of the whole bay. If you want to keep going, go down the Taylor steps and do laps like the firefighters up and down Taylor steps.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Which that's a whole in and of itself. You could go down Taylor steps and then head towards the Seaholm Arboretum, but we'll stay along the water here, but let's just real quick.
Speaker 1:So Seahorn Marboretum, because we're not going to get as into the inner urban inner side here. So that is a fabulous trail system too. Marboretum 4, Seahorn neighborhood, Western Washington University that's up on that hill with Western Yep, it's a beautiful.
Speaker 2:a lot of people are telling me oh, I still haven't gone there. There's a great lookout at the top. I can't remember what those are called, but you can climb up to the top of the tower and have a little lookout. And yeah, it's pretty biodiverse and a lot of little offshoots. So there's a lot of single-tracked trails as well as the nice wide trails. So if you have a stroller or if you just want to get off trail with your dog or something like that, so Seaholm Arboretum is pretty, pretty fun place to explore.
Speaker 1:So now if we go through Boulevard and we get to downtown area, we have to jump off, go through downtown right and then to get so so let's go kind of, now through downtown, we're going west. What's the next move?
Speaker 2:Okay, so you are on a trail. I can't remember the name of the road right there, but you'll probably be on road for about three blocks.
Speaker 1:Eldridge.
Speaker 2:No, you'll probably be on a trail about three blocks until you come to the developed waterfront. Now, oh yeah, so you can loop around the Acid Ballpark and downtown waterfront and still be on trail and then kind of head out. You'll be on the road or on a sidewalk, depending if you're on a bike or if you're walking, and then you'll head to zwanich park and from zwanich park you can go up. I think it's is a you can. You can get onto the railroad trail. And this is where it gets a little funny, because there's the Beta Baker Trail that goes down to Little Squalicum Park waterfront or there's Railroad Trail, and depending on which one you take, you know you could take Beta Baker to Cornwall Park.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and then keep going all the way around and then hit the Railroad Trail to Barkley again, and Barkley, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I think this is a good spot to stop. Anday again, then barclay, yeah, and I think, uh, this is a good spot to stop and point out that neighborhoods and stuff if you're in, if you're in what we'd call like the core neighborhoods of columbia neighborhoods, sunnyland neighborhood, um through there, you know there's lots of little parks and there is, if you're coming from pretty much anywhere, there is um kind is kind of. Is there maps as far as, like, you want to bike through those areas?
Speaker 2:I mean obviously you can road bike, but there are signs on the like near the roads.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's little signs that'll tell you what trail you're on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So there's technically kind of inner road bike trails too. There's still Cutting through.
Speaker 2:We call the south side one the inner urban. But Beta Baker and then the railroad trail are also those gravel inner urban trails.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I guess maybe they used to just be the old railroad system or something.
Speaker 1:Oh, Kind of like they're in part. Yeah, so, and then I think when you're in, you know correct me if you feel differently about it, but I think when you live in, like a York, neighborhood.
Speaker 1:Columbia lettered streets, I think that you're. The trail system isn't necessarily. That's, I mean, your walkability. There is more about also in city access to downtown and it's more of an urban kind of thing to where you have more you could still lots of parks and and waterfront access, but it's more about kind of the walkability to shops and breweries and downtown and things like that.
Speaker 1:Whereas, you know, I think part of the theme of this conversation is is that, even even if a lot of people want to be there for walkability and other things like walkability and bikeability and all that kind of stuff, but what's beautiful about Bellingham when we start going through all this is you really can live anywhere in Bellingham and have maybe better access than you think to a lot of things once you learn the trail system and if you utilize the trail system. But definitely best walkability is through these core older neighborhoods and I don't know if you have any other thoughts on that before we now we go west and then we're going to. If we go from there, you're going to basically, I mean, I guess from there you're kind of then heading out to Birchwood and then there's not really not much of a trail system right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the Birchwood neighborhood has the Beta Baker Trail.
Speaker 1:Beta Baker, which is mostly on and off roads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but it is that kind of gravel inner urban. I think it runs along the Birchwood neighborhood, kind of the what am I looking for there? The edge of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:And other trails in Birchwood. I think once you get north of Birchwood you're getting into the Cordata Trail System a little bit more, which is also a great trail system with the Juliana Trail and just they have about four miles of trail up in Cordata north of Bellingham, comprehensive loop and keep going we could head back east on the railroad trail and head towards Barkley, would you?
Speaker 1:I would, and I would consider the Cordata neighborhood kind of its own little thing, you know, wouldn't you? I mean, because I kind of think that there's the trail system otherwise, and most of those amenities kind of cut off and then kind of cut back across central Bellingham and then over we can head east over to Roosevelt and that's where we'll go now. But but if you move to Cordata neighborhood, you do have that four mile loop, you do have the new Cordata Park, you know they've, they've put in some more infrastructure for for biking and walking and things like that, but that's a little bit more insulated from everything else in that sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit more insulated, but I think that you can still there are. There are still small trail sections to get you out there, so um or less um less traffic, like traffic areas if you're biking yeah so you kind of feel safe on your bike to kind of go on the road and then pop, pop back onto a trail, like if you want to take northwest rather than meridian, get you to stay on that and then jump on a trail real quick again that's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because yeah we're talking about mainly arch is trail access without having I feel like we're trying to talk about without having to drive to it. Right, Exactly. But there are. You can still, even if you're in north of town, there's I was thinking like there's some really great trails along the river. You know it's a you know five or 10 minute drive. There's so many other trails beyond that you can drive to, to access. But these are more you're jumping on your bike or you're walking out your door and you just want to get on a trail and go, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now we're cutting across to Roosevelt and then Barkley and which is where we are right now, and um, and Alabama Hill and Whatcom Falls Park and all of that, so that whole area which I mean. That's kind of where where I spent most of my time on the trails because I live in Silver Beach neighborhood, we obviously work here and I would say that this trail system you have Barkley Village, that kind of centers around as far as a place to bike or walk to All the trails kind of lead into Barkley Village and then you have and, then or and or.
Speaker 1:They all lead into Whatham falls park, um, just south of barkley village and that would be the railroad trail that would be the in that we'd call that the railroad trail the railroad trail connects you from barkley all the way up to blow down donovan walkham falls yeah, and I, and I think that I I would mention that, um, or I will mention I would, I will that what I like about this part of the trail system is A it's so broad and expansive you know on this east side of town that you know you can get to a lot of places relatively fast and B for people like me who just like to walk, bike or jog, these are mostly wide, you know, gravel trails that are really accessible for kids, dogs, all of those kind of things. But all roads then can lead to the mountain biking on Galbraith from here too. So I mean, what would you want to add to this area?
Speaker 2:I did just want to add. So we're talking about Barclay neighborhood right now. There are a few other offshoots. I'm trying to remember the trail that goes down to Whatcom Falls, not Whatcom Falls to the waterfront, and then basically you can follow that up, you know, along Ohio and then enter Whatcom Falls from downtown Bellingham, but I can't remember the name of that trail right now. But anyway, from from Barkley you can go straight to Bloedel. So you cut over. There's a bridge that goes over Alabama. You can see the beautiful sunset Silver Beach area. You have the Big Rocks Park and its own extensive trail system, um, up in silver beach. So that's a whole other area to explore that goes over barkley. Is it barley bullard or what's? Is that britain? It's that road that you could go over, but I'm sorry, um, so you're going up the hill, barkley hill. So if you go up Barkley Hill you can actually go to the opposite side and there's more trails, that there's a pond over there. So there's a lot of access, you know on that whole.
Speaker 1:Bloatout Donovan Park area throughout and then up Barkley Hill and then up to Silver Beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, throughout the whole area to explore. And then, just, you know, a quick tidbit If you're just moving here and you don't know too much about it, you could go all the way out, since we're at the lake. You go all the way out North shore and go to the Lake Whatcom. You know, trailhead there's the Chanterelle trail and there's the along the lake three mile out, so it'd be a six mile round trip. It's again, it's a wider trail, it's gravel, one's flat. The chanterelle trail is more of a hiking trail and then there's more um, you know, mountain biking trails back in there and surf and turf and things.
Speaker 2:So, um, if you want to be adventurous and go out on the lake, those are more. So we're going to keep going on our circle, though from whatcom falls, blow down and then our crown jewel of Galbraith.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that when we're on this side, if you're moving to Bellingham, would you agree that. So, as far as like if trail access not just amenities for downtown and those kind of things, which is more of the core neighborhoods where you have more walkability to more of those kinds of amenities, if you're looking to just get out of your house and onto a trail, obviously, if you're in Chukkanat, if you're in Edgemore, if you're along Fairhaven, happy Valley or South Hill, you have all of those accesses right there. But I would say, I would say, other than that South neighborhood, I would say this East area, I would, I would, I would. I don don't have the numbers here, but I think that there's the most trail accesses, most accessibility to the most amount of trail systems from just about any home. So if you buy a home anywhere in Barkley neighborhood, roosevelt neighborhood, alabama Hill, whatcom Falls, that whole section, pretty much every street, you have multiple trail accesses within a quarter to a half mile. So the trail system is extremely expansive for all of those neighborhoods.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, so basically, when we head over from Barkley Hill, which you mentioned, then up over Silver Beach and then we go back on Alabama Hill, you have Bloedel Donovan Park. I would say that's a really cool area because you have the Whatcom Falls Park access and Lake Whatcom, which is super cool, and then from there you're so close to Galbraith Whatcom Falls Park we should talk about a little bit on its own. I would say that that's not really a mountain biking park, though that's more, or is there some mountain biking that people do in there. I think of it more of as a jogging family kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Jogging family the single track would be. I mean you could probably mountain bike it, but I think that a lot of people will park their car at Whatcom Falls and then bike up Birch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm kind of heading. All the mountain bikers are heading to Galbraith from there.
Speaker 2:There are, yeah, there's. There's playgrounds at Whatcom Falls. The reason it's called Whatcom Falls is that the you know the CCC built this incredible bridge over the waterfall in the 1930s. So if you go there and it's winter and we have tons of water rushing, it's this beautiful waterfall on two sides and then in the summer a lot of people end up. It's kind of a local swimming hole Plus the just walking around that park. It's just beautiful trees there's, you know, you could watch the salmon spawning, and certain times of the year there's the ducks in the pond, there's lots of offshoots and then there's playgrounds. So there's lots of, you know, amenities and, yeah, it's a great. It's a great park to explore.
Speaker 1:It's, it's fabulous, it's definitely you know.
Speaker 2:And there's some off off leash dog areas too. So you know, you know, yeah, so that's good to know too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I used to take my kids like when you're under 14, I think we're under 12. They let the kids fish in the hatchery pond and in the little. So it's, it's really neat. So so you have that area and then let's get into. So you got kind of Geneva, whatcom Falls and Cuget and Alabama, but no, but let's say those three neighborhoods Geneva, whatcom Falls and well, I guess no, and then also Samish, all of these, all of these neighborhoods, now all are kind of sitting below Galbraith Mountain. So talk to us about Galbraith Mountain, which is why a lot of people move here.
Speaker 2:So in my mind I'm also. I just want to give a shout out to the puget neighborhood. So puget, that's a little bit below um, galbraith and the immediate surrounding neighborhoods, but it has its own trail system that comes up and then you can access galbraith from its its own little back way. So puget also has a trail system, which is good to know. And then so you're at Whatcom Falls, you're heading up on Birch Street to Galbraith Mountain and that's what we call the north entrance of Galbraith. I think it's the Miranda Trailhead.
Speaker 2:So Miranda Trailhead, it has a pretty steep climb up to Galbraith Mountain and that is about, I would say, up to Galbraith Mountain and that is about, I would say, 20 miles of mountain biking access. It is currently still a working mountain, so they log, but we always get updates from the WNBC from when that's happening, so when to stay off the mountain. But it is also walker, runner, dog friendly. So um it, and we can have class two e-bikes. I think so, as long as there's not a throttle, you can have, you can have your e-bike on a mountain, um, and I will double check, but I think it's class two, um, but those are fantastic trails, whether you're riding all the way up to the towers and you're going to do more of a downhill ride and hit the jumps, or you can stay more mellow, which is my ideal cross-country riding and get some great views as well. So it has a little something for everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So then if we head, let's say, down U Street and then we cut, and you're right, there's going to be all sorts of from Puget all the way down, there's going to be lots of access to the mountain. And you know, and it's worth noting, that even when you look at the trail system maps, there's so many small little neighborhood, little trail access. So almost every one of these streets, somebody's like allowed something off their side yard or something to you know so, which is super cool too.
Speaker 2:So almost every neighborhood tends to have an access point totally so, as you're coming down galbraith and I just wanted to give this side note we'll talk about south entrance of galbraith on the south side of bellingham, running parallel to you know how paul just said, u Street.
Speaker 2:If you go down U Street towards Padden and you're not on Galbraith, there is its own extensive trail system called the Samish Crest Connector and it's a really sweet trail if you've never explored it. Basically, you jump off from Lake Padden, which we'll get to in a second, go across the street and then it's just, it's beautiful back there and there's lots of hidden geocaches, really interesting stuff you can find on Samish Crest and then you'll pop out so you can access Samish Crest from the Puget neighborhood or from the Lake Padden side, and that you know. You have the backside view of um Sehome, margarita and you get like this beautiful view of of um the waterfront as well. It's a very you kind of feel like kind of turned around, like wait, where am I? You have this different view of the Bellingham Bay, so it's kind of cool, yeah that's a fabulous area and then.
Speaker 1:So now we, if we go over down U Street, so I think probably uh, would you say the most popular access or the biggest access to Galbraith is probably that South Side access. That's just more. It's easier to get on. That's for, again, the people like me with the little kids who are just trying to like we just bomb down and the gravel road and it's flat and get right on those bunny trails.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So as you're coming up and over Galbraith, you know you can end your ride or start your ride at the south side entrance, which now there's a nice big parking lot, there's a you know a street crossing with a light.
Speaker 2:So it's nice and safe and then that's off, samish Way, samish Way, basically, yep, samish Way. And then that parking lot is also access to the hiking horse trails and we haven't really talked about horse trails in Bellingham, but there are special access for horses. So the backside of Lake Padden is horse trail, of you know. You can get on your bike and go to Galbraith and again, like when you're doing this big round loop, you could, you know, not even have to take a car. You could take the trails all the way through Lake Padden, the hiking trails, the horse trails, and then just jump on the trails to Galbraith and keep going. So we're just heading back south into Fairhaven now along Lake Padden.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll. I'll rebring up that. You know you can. There's multiple apps that will will give you the actual rating of each trail and how difficult they are and what they're meant for, which is super cool. Um, and then now, when you're going South, you're running into Lake Padden and the Lake Padden trail system.
Speaker 2:It's about uh two and a half mile loop around lake padden, but then there's an extensive hiking trail system behind the loop yeah, yeah, and that would be.
Speaker 1:So. That would be considered the south neighborhood and samish neighborhood. Those two neighborhoods are going to kind of surround and I would say that, um, and then you have that huge off-leash, off-leash dog park at you know, at Lake Padden Park, right, yep.
Speaker 2:And we are getting into some like Bellingham City Limit air cause.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I would say there are still some main Bellingham neighborhoods that are right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think for the kind of the people that just want to go for a nice walk, I think that probably that Lake Padden Park Loop is probably about as popular as anything.
Speaker 2:You know, paul asked me before we started this. You know what are your favorite trails and in my head, how I decide on trails is very seasonally dependent.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I have these trails that I frequent, depending on the weather and the time of year. And you know Lake Padden is like it depends, you know, maybe it's a fall, it has its own little specialties. Summer sometimes I go to Lake Padden to go swimming and stuff. But you know I think about trails more and what time of year it is and what I like, what you're with, and what you do. Yeah, so it's funny.
Speaker 1:I think I have all these memories of Lake Patton and when I'm there and yeah, it's a lovely spot, it that's one of the trails where people will paint the rocks and then so if you have kids, you know, or even if you don't have, I guess you don't have to have kids to enjoy this at all, like you know. Just they'll paint the rocks and they'll hide them in certain places, and so there's this whole other thing going on. There's just this little sub thing going on with the painted rocks. I don't know if there's anything else like that, but there's, there's hidden ferry areas there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hidden ferries too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:I mean there was something else.
Speaker 2:But if you, if you take Lake Padden, there's a little offshoot as you go around the lake, where the lake pours out and turns into a creek, so it's the Padden Creek, and that Padden Creek will, you know, follow all the way along and it goes out into the ocean.
Speaker 2:But if you follow the creek, there's a trail, it's a beautiful trail that runs along the creek and the waterfall, and then that will continue down its own little trail, and I'm forgetting what neighborhood that's called, but we're not quite into Happy Valley or South yet. And then that's when, once you get out of there, there's about a half mile, there is a secret little trail. It's a little locals trail. So if you don't know that one, it's about a half mile to the inner urban. Otherwise you can jump on a super backwards trail to Hogue Pond and then so it's maybe a quarter mile. So, depending on the trails that you want to take, you'll have maybe a half mile until you hit on the trails that you want to take. Um, you'll have maybe a half mile until you hit the inner urban again, and then you're back on the South inner urban, just like where we started.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's that's it.
Speaker 1:That's the. That's a lot, um, and you know, what it's reminding me of is is how how much I need to like actually trail some more.
Speaker 2:We've made it through. We can make through daylight savings, and now we're back into the time. Now it's go time and that's what.
Speaker 1:That's what's so great about the, about the northwest, uh, as well as yeah, we get a lot of clouds, we get a lot of rain, but there is, um, there is still. There's a lot of days, even this time of year right now we're filming this in march where you know, this is a little bit of a dreary couple of days here, but, like, all it takes is is just you know this the clouds to clear and you get these breaks where you can still go out and and enjoy the trails, and so many of them are gravel and not just like muddy. And yeah, there's still I mean, half those trails systems, more than half the trails we're talking about are really well-developed gravel trails that you can hit year-round, which is fabulous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of the trails have a great canopy too. So even when it's raining, you know, you hardly feel the raindrops. So if you're, you know, in some of the forested areas. A quick shout-out to Sudden Valley.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we didn't talk much about that. So, stimson, if you ever get a chance to hike Stimson, it's beautiful. You can't have your dog on Stimson. That is about a six mile loop and you know, I think there's some old growth out there. So I'm just going to do like a quick, like shout out to a few great areas.
Speaker 2:The backside of Galbraith is Sudden Valley, so you can access Galbraith Mountain from Sudden Valley. If you're down there, a lot of people will, you know, do the Coor Ridge ride, end up at the backside of Galbraith with their bike and then just take the bus back into town, because there's a bus stop right at that, one of the park entrances there, and so that's an easy way to do like a big long ride. And then and so that's an easy way to do like a big long ride and then get back into town. You know, as you go out into towards Mount Baker Wilderness there are so many trails to explore too, but you know those are a little bit more of a drive, but yeah and then there's just so much here.
Speaker 1:And then Lake Samish has trails and there's some some, some boating, yeah, and so Lake Samish has its and there's some potential motocross, some photoing, yeah, and so Lake Samish has its own stuff out there too. So well, this has been great and, hopefully, if you were listening to this, then I really encourage you to go on YouTube and watch the video version, because we'll have some B-roll showing some of the maps and pictures and everything like that.
Speaker 2:And reach out if you have questions, if there's something that you really are interested in doing you know trail-wise or if you're new to town, just reach out, you know we're happy to help Reach out to Irina.
Speaker 1:Thank you, irina. Thank you for listening or watching you guys.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye, bye, thank you.