The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Welcome to the The Washington State Hiking Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with part time co-host and guidebook author Craig Romano, she provides practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers of all skill and ability levels that is practical, accurate, fun and inclusive. We cover hikes near Seattle and Tacoma as well as hikes all across Washington from the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the Shrub Steppe of Eastern Washington.
Jennie is a middle aged, plus sized, frequently solo slow hiker and a born and raised Washingtonian and has enjoyed Washington's trails her entire life. Craig is a trail runner and ultra marathoner who also loves the mellow walk close to home. Originally from New Hampshire, he has made his home in Washington for more than 30 years. He the author of more than 20 guidebooks covering trails across Washington State and beyond.
The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Secret Coastal Hikes in Whatcom County
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Craig shares dreamy coastal hikes in Whatcom County that Jennie has mostly never heard of!
Our sponsor for the month of July is Visit Bellingham/Whatcom County- thank you!
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Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co-host Craig Romano. Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive. Our sponsor for the month of July is Bellingham and Whatcom County situated between Seattle and Vancouver bc. The vibrant college town of Bellingham, Washington boast trails for every taste and skill level. Find urban trails in the heart of town for a car free visit or take a scenic drive to the nearby Chuck Nut Mountains. For Alpine Vistas, head into the Mount Baker wilderness or stunning North Cascades National Park. No matter where you begin, you'll always end somewhere unforgettable. Learn more@bellingham.org. Thank you so much, Bellingham and Whatcom County for being our sponsors for the month of July. Hey, Craig. How you doing? I'm doing well, Jennie. I'm so excited that we're. Talking about Coastal Whatcom County today. So Craig, tell us a bit about some of your favorite, uh, or maybe start with like why some of these Whatcom County Coast hikes are so cool, and then give us a few of your favorites. Bellingham touches. Part of the Sailor Sea and all, but might not be familiar. , With coastal hikes there because things aren't striking out like Whidby Island and some other areas. Definitely in Bellingham, uh, along the bay and everything, some great trails. And I think Jennie, we're gonna talk about that more, on our urban trail, Bellingham, but south of Bellingham, probably one of the nicest beaches. There's a couple, actually, there's two places. Teddy Bear Cove. Clayton Beach and Clayton Beach is one of those rare places in Puget Sound that has a sandy beach, you know, real sand. You're not walking on the rock and for so long. Wait what? Real sand? Yeah. Real sand. Real sand. I know. You know that typical walking on rocks, you could actually take your shoes off and, not feel like, oh my God, it's a torture walk. Um. The thing about Clayton Beach, it's long been a popular place, , for Western Washington, uh, students , and, Bellingham residents and all. Uh, but it was illegal to get there, um, because you, you had to cross railroad tracks, active tracks. Uh, the railroad did not want you to do that. It was dangerous. Yeah. Because they're going. And finally, I, this, uh, just I believe two years ago, beautiful, beautiful. Overpass trail overpass now, so you can safely access this. It's no longer being discouraged to go there. Awesome. It's in my trails, Bellingham book. You can find it. So you can park at Lost Lake in , Larrabee State Park at that trailhead, and then you follow the inner urban trail., South where it used to go, it used to go across Sandwich Bay. That part doesn't, doesn't, , exist anymore. And then you drop down. This is right on the Skagit walk and line. You drop down to Clayton Beach and it's this little hidden beach. The road is well above you. We get great views out to the islands. I've seen seals. You know, on, on the beach and, and the water's there. Of course, IC Birds, that's great. Teddy Bear Cove is even closer. You can't, park along the road to get there. So you have to park at one of the, , the interurban trail trail heads, and then you hike on the Interurban Trail. You hit the connector road. The connector trail crossed the road dropped down. This is all near the Woodstock farm, , historic farm. Really cool area. We'll talk more about this in the Bellingham area. That's a great coast, a great, coastal hike. Now going north of the city. You know, there's , you got a refinery. There's, , Lummi Nation. A lot of that's closed off. . One of the places that people may not be familiar with, , is the Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve. Mm. This is south of Birch Bay and just north of Cherry Point. Mm-hmm. And so you hike about three quarters of a mile, trails County Park, and you drop down. Below the BL is pretty much this deserted beach. , This one is not a sandy beach. It's pretty tough. It's, it could be slow, rocky going, so you still want the low tide. Uh, the birding there is incredible. Mm, you see amazing bird and you can walk as far as south as the refinery. You can go there, , and you're gonna get these great views looking out across the strai of Wanda Fuca, straight of Georgia, the Olympic Peninsula. It's not a hike that you're gonna wanna. Do some serious miles on, it's, it's pretty slow, slow walking, but the birding is, is spectacular. Oh, cool. So that's a place that's you might not have heard of North of Birch Bay. Outside of Blaine is Smo spit. Semi almost is wonderful. It's actually a paved trail. There's a, county park there. Um, there's a paved trail that goes out to the resort. But what's neat about this area is the history. , It was all canneries a hundred years ago. And, part of those canneries have been at the park. It's part of the visitor center. Now. There's, there's some restored buildings there. The resort uses restored buildings. Um, used to be in the summertime, there's a ferry that goes across from Blaine. To the resort, but that ferry was used. It's a passenger ferry. It was used years ago for the workers in Blaine to go, uh, across to,, the packing plant there. So this is a fascinating, and you got Drayton Harbor on one side. You've got, uh, semi Amu Bay, um, boundary Bay on the other side. And the birding once again is incredible. Incredible here. Um, going across Drayton looking, looking in that direction. Mount Ba Baker's across the way. The views are spectacular from Smo looking north, you're looking into British Columbia. Out towards Point Roberts, the part of Washington that most Washingtonians have never been to. It's Whatcom County. Yeah. Um. Point Roberts , is just a funky place and you've gotta know, can you, can you talk about that a little more, Craig? 'cause I thought we have some listeners who are like, what, what is the deal with Point Roberts? So if you pull out your map and you, you look out the 49th parallel goes across, you know, there's Surrey to the north and, and Blaine to the south. And it keeps going and it cuts off this little part of mainland, the mainland from British Columbia. And it's about a four mile by four mile. Block. It's, it's an ex slave, um, it's point Roberts that, uh, probably should have gone to British Columbia, but we ended up with it. And so, so, and it's funky place. You've never been there. Uh, about 60% of the people who live there are Canadian Canadians, uh, own property. They come down to the beaches. Um, it's, it's crazy. If you're there, your cell phone's gonna be on Canadian service. Uh, though you may go to a store and just to make sure it's clear for everybody, you have to cross the border twice to get there. Twice, you have to go into British Columbia. Then over then into the us then back into British Columbia, then back over, then back down, right. This is where that, that nexus pass is really gonna help where you can wait, or if you got a buddy or maybe you're, you're for, you have a boat you can take off from, from the mar. That's the way, have and go to the marina and, and, uh. Robertson, you can bypass all that, the board. But it's a funky place where,, you could buy gas. There's a gas station there where the gas, you're gonna pay in US dollars, but it's priced in liters. You gotta go to a, there's a bar there that only takes Canadian money. Uh, it's one of those transitional places. It's funky. It's, it's now. We have, you know, we've talked about this. I, I love Point Roberts. It's a great place, but Point Roberts, , is going through kind of a tough time right now because a lot of Canadians, um, who spend a lot of time in Point Roberts, it's, a great beaches there are not coming down. And they're not gonna come down to a certain president leaves office. Yeah. So Point Roberts, um. Can definitely use some of our love to go up there because there are small businesses up there that are suffering. And I'll tell you, one of the most spectacular urban hikes, or it's, it's actually, it's not really that urban, but, and I have this in my, uh, day hiking San Juan book, , because it's, it's close to SWAs where the ferries lead head out to the San Juan Gulf Islands, and I have it in my urban Trails Vancouver, British Columbia book. Yeah. Even though it's, it's Wacom County. And that's the, the, , Lily Point. Willy Point Marine Park. It's a Whatcom County Park. It's over a hundred acres, 200 foot bluffs. On, , on here, some, some of the highest bluffs in the sound. , It used to be a historic, a PA, the Alaska Packers big fish. Salmon packing area. All that's left now are are the piers. There's some rusted equipment and you're gonna see more bald eagles in one area. Maybe Jennie, she works in Alaska. Maybe she's seen more, but in Washington you're gonna see more eagles here than ever. You are looking across Boundary Bay. There's Mount Baker right across. It is gotta be one of the most spectacular places. There's several miles of trails in this park and you, and you could walk along the coast in this area. It's incredible. That's one of the best co that to me, that is the best coastal hike in Whatcom County. It's one of the best hikes period in in, in the Sailor Sea. I absolutely love the place. That's super cool also. It is super cool and so many people have not been there. It was saved by the Nature Conservancy, um, um, maybe about 30 years ago. Uh, it could have easily even gotten developed, um, and then over by where the marina is. This is on, on, on the south side of point. Roberts is Lighthouse Park, which is another county, county park as well. Shorter trails. Really wonderful. Great place for, for whale watching. Looking out at the San Juan Islands. Wonderful park. But don't go there looking for a lighthouse because there is no lighthouse that's obnoxious. It was nano 'cause originally they were gonna build a lighthouse there and that's how that, how that park came to be. So no lighthouse, but it's a lovely park,, that you can hike. And then one other county park, there's three county parks in this tiny little part of Whatcom County is the monument park. And you will see. Monument. It's right on the boundary, on the, on the, on the international. So it's one, it's a big monument. You, you're gonna hike along the international boundary and then you're gonna drop down to the coastline and you can walk south. Don't walk north because you're gonna be crossing the border illegally if you do that, uh, walk. But you'll see milepost zero, boundary zero there, you know, the boundaries are numbered across the way, and then you can walk south. All the way back towards Lighthouse Park. So I've just given you three parks, three coastal parks you can hike on Point Roberts. Uh, so definitely, definitely check that out. It's a hidden gem, hidden secret to Whatcom County residents, but not to, not to people in Delta, BC or, or Vancouver, sorry. They know about it or Richmond. They're there. So, so, um, definitely check it out. Those. I'm not done with Whatcom County. I'm gonna give you another place that a lot of people tend not to think about. It requires a little effort. No Bo, no border crossings on this one. Jennie, you have any idea which place I'm gonna throw you? I'm gonna send you to now I am gonna guess that it's an island. It is an island. It's part of the San Juan. So you don't take a Washington State ferry there. You take a Whatcom County ferry there. , This is Lummi, Lumme Island. Mm-hmm. Lummi Island. A big, big island. The southern part of it has, is mountainous. It's actually one of the highest points in the San Juans. The northern part is kind of flat. There's farms in there. There are, several, uh, Lummi Island Land Trust. Parks there. I have this, I have them in my , day hike in the San Juan and Gulf Islands book. Coastal, you have only have a small access , of public land, of coastal access that you can hike there. But on the Baker Preserve, which goes up on Lummi Mountain, halfway up Lum, which is on the coast, it is incredible. You hike up on Baker, preserve the overlook, drop straight down, you can hike into some DNR land, uh, I mean Washington, um, fish and wildlife land in that area. Um, the views dropping down into the water are incredible and right across to, to, um. To Orca Island and to Satna Island and British Columbia and Vancouver Island. It is fantastic. Uh, the views up there, that's one of the best amazing coastal hikes also in Washington. It's so cool. Love it. So outside of Bellingham. I just tho those are the places to go if you Yeah. Little maritime hiking. That's so many, so many awesome suggestions, Craig. And so much diversity and like landscapes and even countries you're going Yeah. And you are to get to different places. That's really cool. Yeah, you're right on the boundary. And, that's the thing too. You're gonna be standing on, you're gonna be hiking a lot of places and certainly we talk about, uh, hiking in the Bellingham area too. And a lot of your viewscape is gonna be British Columbia. Yeah, you're gonna be looking at the coast, the coast mountains there and, the North shore peaks of Vancouver. Yep. I mean, that's how close it is, so, yep. Wonderful. Thanks Craig. We'll see everybody next week. Thank you again to visit Bellingham in Whatcom County for sponsoring us for the month of July. And if you are enjoying this podcast, we would love to have you give us a rating or a review. And I know that you hear that all the time in the middle or at the end of every podcast, but it really does make a difference. It helps people find us when they're looking for podcasts and it makes a big difference. So it doesn't matter what app you're using or how you do it, but it really does help. And so that's why we're asking you for it. Alright, see you next week.
