The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
EP: 0052 - Where to Live for World-Class Bellingham Mountain Biking with Jessa Loudon
We share how Bellingham Washington's trail network shapes where we live, ride, and invest, from beginner-friendly bunny lines to double-black descents and the neighborhoods that put them minutes away. We also map rural options, community events, and the easements and volunteers that keep 3,000 acres open.
• Galbraith mountains size, easements, and multiuse access
• Trail progression from green to pro, safety, and etiquette
• Geneva, Whatcom Falls, Silver Beach price bands and access
• Puget and Samish neighborhoods for quick south and west entries
• Lookout and Stuart mountain for expansion and acreage
• Chuckanut and Blanchard mountani for coastal tech and views
• How trail proximity influences home values and demand
• WMBC membership, races, camps, and Trackside scene
• Northwest Tune-Up festival highlights and demos
If you’ve got more questions about mountain biking or real estate, you can reach out to Jessa Loudon at jessal@johnlscott.com
Hello and welcome to the Bellingham Real Estate Podcast. I'm Paul Balzotti. I'm here with Jessa Louden. Welcome, Jessica.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Paul.
SPEAKER_00:And today we are talking about mountain biking, mountain biking trails in Bellingham and in Walken County, and how real estate relates to that. So if you're a buyer looking to move into the area and you want to learn about places to be near mountain biking and just the general mountain biking scene, that's what we're going to cover. We had a recent podcast with Irene Lambrue where we talked about the interurban trail system and all the trails. And this one we're going to kind of concentrate on mountain biking trails and kind of the scene around that. So, first off, Jessa, tell us about your background in uh the mountain biking scene. And I'll I'll start with mine, is that I I've mountain biked on Galberth about six times.
SPEAKER_01:Got it. How was it?
SPEAKER_00:It was great. And I did, or what are they called? The bunny trails.
SPEAKER_01:Uh-huh. Yep. Those are good.
SPEAKER_00:I've done the bunny trails and I was scared. And um, and that's and then I've and then I otherwise uh take my mountain bike on the interurban trails, like just flat, like you know, so it's it's a pathetic um no, not at all. You know, it's but that's that's me. But I did enjoy the those those those trails. But that's that's my bike. You share your background, put me to shame.
SPEAKER_01:No, so Bellingham has something for everybody, which is why I love living here. I grew up here and can't imagine living anywhere else. Um, so my uh experience in mom biking starts about eight and a half years ago. My first time on a bike was my first date with my um boyfriend. So that was very exciting and nerve-wracking experience. But since then, eight years ago, I can now ride like any any style of trail um up to double black. So I feel like I've gained a lot of experience through the eight years. And um, it's crazy. I haven't uh ridden I didn't ride my bike growing up here, so it's kind of like yeah, a really new, awesome thing in the last 10 or so years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and uh and and you should also mention you live in the general vicinity of Galberth, right?
SPEAKER_01:For sure, yeah. So I live in the Geneva neighborhood, one of my favorite neighborhoods to ride, um, Galberth Mountain. And um, so it's on the north end of the mountain. There's kind of two main entrances there's a north side to Galberth Mountain and then a south side. So um, yeah, Geneva's all-time favorite because it's uh near the north side entrance to the mountain, and then it's also right next to Lake Whatcom. So you have kind of two really beautiful areas if you like outdoor recreation, right? SmackDub in the middle. I don't have to get in my car to go to the trails. I can literally ride through a park, be there in about two minutes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, let's let's let's go further into that. So um we're gonna cover a couple other mountains and more about the mountain biking scene. But you know, Galbreth is the is the is the is the main one, is the big one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So talk a little bit more about Galbreth and um and then you just started talking about Geneva Geneva neighborhood. Um tell us about Galberth Mountain for for people who don't know much about it. Some think just some maybe some fun facts or anything like that, and then and then the neighborhoods. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_01:So Galberth Mountain, if you're a mountain biker, um, is an all-time Mecca.
SPEAKER_00:I mean people Mecca's the right word.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. People come from um all over. We've had people come stay with us from Europe just to ride the Galberth Mountain biking trails. We've had professional riders come and stay um in town to ride those trails. Like it's just incredible. Uh so what's really unique about Galberth Mountain is that there's about 3,000 acres of land, um 2,200 of which is owned by uh Galberth uh Tree Farm. And so about seven years ago, uh City of Bellingham in 2018 purchased two different easements to be able to protect and maintain those 22 acres for recreational use for kind of all sports. So mountain biking being the primary sport, but also for hikers, trail runners, even horseback riders, kind of all non-motorized use. So um since those easements were put into place in 2018, um, they have kind of a lifetime uh lifespan on the protection of the use of the trails um and space for for those riders. So pretty cool um with just having the protection in place. So the tree farms still regularly harvest timber on the on the mountain, um, but working in conjunction with uh Wacom Mountain Biking Association in the city of Bellingham, they're able to um just close off certain sections and keep the maintenance of the trails going. Um so that's really cool. And then on top of that, Galberth is like has this wide range of um skill levels. So there's there's bunny trails like what you rode. Yep, yep. Um I still found scary. It was not just kids, really all levels to start riding, right? So those um bunny trails start on the south side of the mountain. Um and you can ride up, and they're you know, just kind of flowy, wide trails to learn on. There's also lots of fire roads. Um, and then the trail system goes all the way from those like green bunny trail systems. It's ranked just like uh Ski Hill, so it goes green as the easiest to blue to black to double black to pro, it's like an orange. Um and uh blue steel is kind of the pro line jump line. There's like 50 foot length jumps, um, which is so something you can progress to in the future, Paul.
SPEAKER_00:Have you have you grown off the 50-foot jump?
SPEAKER_01:I haven't done the 50-foot jumps yet, no, but still working on they call them the cedar dust jumps. So um, like a progressive jump line. There's um like four different skill levels there, and after you're done with those, you could someday progress to the to the pro jump line. But yeah, yeah, kind of great for all skill levels, and then there's a wide range of like flowy big jump trails and then narrow tech trails with rocks and roots and um different jumps and things.
SPEAKER_00:And and so it's it's would you say it's 90% mountain bikers? I mean, how many, how many is there certain trails are sc specifically for just for people who are running, or you mention um horses.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, is there yeah, so how is that identified? So there's no specific trails that are just for mountain biking, but if you download the app uh trail forks, you can toggle between which sport you want to do, and it will tell you if a certain trail is downhill specifically. So whether you're on a bike or on foot, um you'd only want to be going downhill on that trail because uh there might be bikes coming down it at a fast speed. So there's no trails that are off-limit to foot traffic, which is pretty cool, but there are trails that say it's a black or a double black downhill only, maybe wouldn't be the best for running or hiking and definitely not ever up.
SPEAKER_00:Totally. Well, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, and then you mentioned uh the ab trail fork. Um when coming out of Galbreth, uh looking at different neighborhoods, you mentioned Geneva. Um it another thing about the real getting into the real estate side of it, uh-huh. I will I've been in real estate for 22 years, and the first five, ten years I was in real estate, Galbreth didn't come up that much. It really didn't. Yeah. And and then it's been this last 10 to 15 years, and probably, you know, about the time you mentioned eight to ten years that you've been doing it, yeah, where the neighborhoods surrounding Galbreth, it feels like almost half of the people moving into the neighborhood are moving into these neighborhoods to have access to Galberth. It's really become, you know, just as much as like, hey, I want to be by the lake or I want to be by the bay, it's become that big of an amenity and that big of a um it to the point where it has affected even resale values in the neighborhoods. So talk about the neighborhoods a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So um I think a lot of that is probably due to the easements that went into effect in 2018.
SPEAKER_00:And that's a great point.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, just more uh I guess marketing going in towards the maintenance of the trails and how great that is and the really hard work that the Waka Mountain Biking Association and its surrounding community puts into the um maintenance of those trails. And just like if you know, if the timber company comes in and and has to log a section, the next day there'll be 200 volunteers on that trail, rebuilding that trail. So it's is a huge network and really special agreement that doesn't exist a lot of other places in the world or the US to have that um kind of symbiotic relationship with a logging company and the recreational community. Yeah. Um, and then as far as the neighborhoods, I mean, yeah, I mentioned Geneva. So uh values in Geneva can range from like 700,000 to about a million is maybe the the kind of average in that neighborhood, just because a lot of the homes are a little bit newer and the lots are a little bit larger. So that's one of the reasons I live living there, is that there's more privacy, there's big mature trees, it feels a little bit more rural. You're just outside of the east um city limits of Bellingham. And um, so you have a little bit more freedom with what you can do on your land and uh just the space is is really, really great. And then um on top of access to Galberth Mountain, you can also get to the next mountain east, so Lookout Mountain, which also has significant trail system.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's right there. That's just that would be just east of it. So um, and then next up would be, I guess coming in would be like Whatcom Falls. Totally, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so the um north entrance to Galberth Mountain is on a street called Birch Street, which is right in Whatcom Falls neighborhood. Um really special community that's kind of on it skirts the edge of Whatcom Falls Park, one of my favorite parks in all of town. So that park has um a pump track for bikes, uh, it has dog park, playgrounds, tennis courts, waterfalls, just everything. Um, but then is also back to um part of it is back to Galberth Mountain. So right from your doorstep, you don't have to get in your car, you can just ride to trails within a minute or so. Pretty special.
SPEAKER_00:And that's just and it's so wild that from there you could be at Belowed Donovan Park, Walkham Falls Park, or Galberth all within like a half a mile.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, totally.
SPEAKER_00:In that little section right there, which is incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, really neat.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and uh, and I mean, and I would say because the lots are a little smaller, um, there's there's some homes that even, you know, you could some homes even started in the 500s. Yes. Not to not to make it sound like five hundreds is is like still a lot of money, Paul.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, I mean I I just had a really great friend, yeah, buy a home for five five thirty in the Whatcom Falls neighborhood, and he's a mountain biker, firefighter, and it was really important to him to be in the network closest to the trails. And so he was able to find, I mean, in Bellingham that is a more affordable home, right? Since the median home price is running about seven fifty seven hundred and fifty thousand. So lower than that is definitely more affordable.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, five thirty. I mean, if you're in Seattle, Greater Seattle, you're right, and you're that close to a lake and trails and stuff like that. You could impossible. Yeah. So it's still relative to the Pacific Northwest real estate scene. It's it there's some stuff that can still be biased, which is great. Yeah. Um, what else we got?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so then you you mentioned um Blowdale Donovan Park, which is near Whatcom Falls neighborhood, um, but then uh also one of my favorite parks in town. So that's right on Lake Whatcombe. It's about 20 acres, um, managed by the the city of Bellingham. And we have a giant dock there, volleyball courts, um uh boat access, paddle boarding. And then on the other side of Blowdale Donovan Park starts the Silver Beach neighborhood. So that's another neighborhood I really like to encourage buyers to look into if they mountain bike and want to be rideable distance to trails. Um, it doesn't skirt the edge of Galbreth, but if you ride through Whatcom Falls Park, you can get to the trails in less than 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, especially if you're on that kind of more northwest edge of Silver Beach. Totally. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And there's lots of waterfront homes there. There's um the lots are a bit smaller, similar to Whatcom Falls, a little bit different than Geneva, but um a lot of the homes have uh spectacular views of the mountains of the lake, um, and then just incredible access to the trail. So there's also a couple different parks over there I really like to mention. There's Northridge Park, um, and then also the sculpture uh rock big rock garden, which is pretty special place with like uh you can walk through it for free, and there's sculptures and um different flowers, and it's community-maintained really beautiful park.
SPEAKER_00:So, okay, I'm gonna move you back. I'm gonna move you back. So now we're going, we cut back through Alabama Hill, which would take us obviously back through Wakham Falls Park. Um if we go what other neighborhoods coming back the other direction and then and then I think we could then head east again.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um going back down south, what other directions uh neighborhoods could you access access Galbreth like within let's say a few blocks.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. So my other two that I want to mention are the Puget neighborhood. So if you're looking at a map and you're looking at where the Wacom Falls neighborhood is, um if you just cross over U Street, so you're just west, um, which is even closer to town, pretty great, but um, would be Puget Hill. Uh so there's a wide mix of single-family homes, there's multifamily homes in Puget, but um uh again, you you ride right across U Street and you can access the mountain in minutes from Puget neighborhood. Um and on top of that, uh there's some more affordable homes in that neighborhood, and it's also definitely just a few minutes to places like Whole Foods or Civic Center, which has giant football stadium, track. Um, there's an aquatic center, ice hockey, indoor soccer, so uh bike park and a skate park. Um yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, and then um, and then south of there would be would be Samish, yeah, Samish. And that's where is Samish, I guess technically that that parking lot to get into Gabrieth, would that technically that'd be technically Sandwich neighborhood?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So like I said, mentioned two different entrances, north side being where most of the neighborhoods are, and then the south side is where the Sammish neighborhood is, kind of that last neighborhood off of Samish Way. And um, you have really easy access to I-5 over there. Um, you have a giant parking, brand new parking lot that has 200 spots for meetups with friends to be able to then go enter from the south side of the mountain and ride those bunny trails or go up to the very top of the mountain and ride harder trails. I can use whenever you see bunny trails, all funny trails something to work up to.
SPEAKER_00:Um so Samish neighborhood um definitely, definitely um uh is a big one there. Um and obviously and Lake Padden is there. So so Samish, so we got Samish, Puget, Walkham Falls, Geneva, those Silver Beach, Alabama Hill, those are kind of hugging it. Um if we if we move, so I think we're that's a pretty good coverage of Galbreth. Um I want to move to if if like let's say you let's say whether it's affordability or let's say you want acreage or um or again you need something with a different price point or you're just getting out of the city. If you're into mountain biking, what other areas can we look at other than Galberth?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I'd suggest for sure um the really north end of Lake Whatcom is gonna be like Agate Bay, um and anywhere near Y Road because um Y Road uh trail system leads up to Stuart Mountain, another uh expanding area for mountain biking. So right now there's a good amount of hiking trails on Stuart Mountain on that north north side of Lake Whatcom, but um probably only a handful of mountain biking trails, um of which they're they're planning a big expansion project.
SPEAKER_00:So someday it could be is that the county or is that this the the association?
SPEAKER_01:It's the it's the county, yeah. But they'll be working closely with the Whatcom Mountain Biking Association because they're yeah, heavily influential in every single mountain biking trail that goes into the planning of Wacom County. So yeah, that that would be a great spot um because the the lots, some lots are like five or ten acres out there um off a Y Road. And then um there's also waterfront homes. So it if you want that, if you want to be right on the water, um and then that road north shore dead ends at the end, and there's really beautiful park at the end that um has a trail called Hertz Trail. You can ride, it's like a bunny trail, so you could ride flat bike on it, or you could um climb up to the top of Stuart Rountain and ride down trail called Brown Pow if you want a bit more rowdy of an experience.
SPEAKER_00:What happens when okay, so if you're on the south end of Lake Wacom, can you go from Stewart Mountain at all? And can you from going the south end? Well, I guess south is pretty south, so I guess is that kind of cut you off? If you want to get over to Galworth and out, would you be then going back around the north end of the lake? Because yeah, because I guess that would be you have to go way south to Lake.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so you so you can ride, yeah, the all the trail systems. I've done a ride from um the Stuart Mountain system, and then you go uh you can't on a road, but on trails, uh you can connect uh Stewart Mountain to then Lookow Mountain to then Galberth Mountain. Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And there's trails that take you from one to the next.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yep, and a lot of fire road too. So if you're more into cross-country riding or gravel riding, here's the place to be as well.
SPEAKER_00:That is super cool. Yeah. You could technically hit three mountains. Yeah. Right back to back to back.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, totally. You could even continue from Galberth Mountain into the Chuckinut Mountains, which is the trail system I was gonna mention next. Oh, yeah. And then even into Blanchard and Alger, which is kind of the last trail system I was gonna mention.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so well let's let's get let's get to those. So I I took us east to Stuart, but you okay, so going um that's going towards Lake Um Komagash.
SPEAKER_01:Well, back north to Chuckanut Mountains. Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So if we're talking about just uh just south of Fairhaven area, yeah, is the technically the south neighborhood. So Chuckanut Mountains is probably what Irina talked a lot about with the interurban trail connecting from Fairhaven, seven miles into the Chuckanuts. And um, that's another great mountain biking uh system. So there's two kind of main trails, double down and double black, that that start there that are really um the the lower one's a bit more technical than the upper one. They're both black trails, but um there's also some other mountain biking trails in there. If you are into hard climbing trails, I would suggest you go up a trail called Hush Hush. Um probably the hardest climb in all of Bellingham. Really? Um yeah, but uh yeah, uh South Neighborhood is also really great for living near trails. Um and then the last system would be Blanchard, so that's just outside of Bellingham and Alger city limits. But um if you like more natural technical riding, uh Blanchard is awesome if people have probably heard of the Oyster Dome hike. So that's where that's at with just killer views of the San Juans and Samish Bay. Um but there's also uh Bellingham's first or Wackham County's first um sanctioned double black trail on uh Blanchard Mountain, which is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00:So, and with Chuckana and Blanchard, that's a little bit more of a um mix of more trails that are a little bit more popular for hikers and joggers, would you say, too? I would say compared to compared to Galberth.
SPEAKER_01:I would say Galberth, yeah, is primarily bikers. It's probably I don't think it's primarily bikers. I'd say it's 50-50 bikers, hikers, runners, um, people with strollers on the on the fire roads. Okay. Um, yeah, there's although it's Galbreth is probably known more for mountain biking than those just from like the publicity of it. Yeah. Um, yeah, any any sport is really on that mountain at any time.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, okay. And so it's and so I guess that could be the same with the other mountains as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I've seen people take their goats on walks on uh Blanchard Mountain. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00:So it's good for goat walking, yeah, sure. Well, that's well, the next podcast will be goat. Yeah, for the goat trails.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, great.
SPEAKER_00:Um so okay, well that's that's a good so that that stretch is and you that's a and I and I really had never thought about that, how you could theoretically just like actually. Connect them all. Yeah. It's amazing. And that would then, and then for real estate wise, that you mentioned that gets you into Alger, that gets you into Bo Edison, yep, that gets you into uh Lake Samish, basically. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So like you said, if you are looking for more of a rural feel or just having a bit more land, um, then probably Agate Bay area off of Y or anywhere off of Y Road, um, Alger area or um kind of just the outskirts of Chuckanaut would be some of my top choices for that.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So I think that that covers most of what I wanted to um get into or all of I really want to get into on that. Before we jump off, um, if somebody is just moved here or is moving here, um, what are the you mentioned the association, what other kind of community events, what other things could should people plug into or be aware they could plug into?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so Walk and Mountain Biking Coalition would be my number one from the get-go. It's just just incredible. Um, you can become a member um for I think it's between 15 and$25 per year, and they do a ton of fundraising. Um, and then they also do really awesome like summer racing events. So they call it the World Cup. Um, so every couple Wednesdays, all of summer, it's just all ages. They they do it by like kids go first and and race down a particular trail, then women, then men, and um, there's just a whole wide range of ages for it and skill levels, which is super cool. And there's always like food and drinks, and it's you know cost affordable. And um, so that'd be something I'd definitely look into is that summer trail riding series. Um, but on top of that, they have lots of events with with kids that you can get your kids involved in like skill camps and also they're in the schools. Um, they can help get you a bike if you don't have a bike. Um and then there's different community events that happen down at track side downtown. Um so there's a wide range of skill levels for like different pump tracks down there with um you can teach your one and a half year old to ride uh ride a bike down there, or you can hit like the double black jumps.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I read that uh they read that pump track down at a track side was initially just supposed to be a temporary thing. Right, right. And then good luck getting that gone.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that might be challenged, but it's because yeah, that's supposed to be developed for other things in the future, but I think it's becoming a little bit of a staple down there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll see. And if if they do develop down there, hopefully they'll just move it to somewhere close by. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:But that space has opened up, yeah, a lot of availability for big events like in the northwest tune-up, if you've heard of that. Yep. Big mountain bike festival that happens in July, where um there's a big endurance race that happens on Galberth Mountain during it, and they have lots of booths set up down at Track Side and music, and um, they have free bike demos every year. It's really neat. Sweet.
SPEAKER_00:Sweet, very cool. Okay. Well, if you got more questions about mountain biking or real estate, you can reach out to Jessa. Thank you for joining, Jessa. Thank you for listening or watching you guys.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for having me.