RETURN TO LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN

I've got this Winthrop-Conconully ride on the brain--a 70-miler that includes significant climbing and descending chunks on gravel road--and I'm trying to decide what kind of bike to ride: 29r MTB or a 'cross bike. So Titanium Cancellara (Scott Young) and I headed up (and down) Lookout Mountain, Galby's big brother, to see how enjoyable (or not) it is on my Giant TCX 1. 

Scott's expression pretty much says it all--Lookout is tough, hard, difficult and a pain-in-the-glutes/quads/calves/hammies. Only 5.2 miles long, it climbs 2,032 feet for an average grade of 7.4 percent but that's deceptive for way more than a mile of it is flat or downhill. All I know is that w/ my 38-26 (as opposed to my Tarmac's helpful 34-27), I suffered mightily. 

 

Usually, Lookout rewards w/ a stunning vista south toward the Chuckanuts, Bellingham Bay and San Juan Islands (see this post from last year), but today she was pretty socked in.



The descent requires a short bushwack and we wondered if we'd have trouble following the trail, but it was no problem.



Titanium Cancellara fends off a gigantic foxglove!

On the way back to town, we stopped by Lake Padden where Charlie Heggem, RD for the Mount Baker Hill Climb, was helping out with the Padden Duathlon. Which reminds me, the road to Artist Point opens next Tuesday--woo-hoo!  

Kinda funny, Tyler Mitchell, who rode with the Ti Cowboys during last year's Tour de Whatcom (this year's TdW is next Saturday!) was out shooting phots for the duathlon and snapped the below shot of me. (I look in a spot of bother; I think Scott just passed me for the town sign sprint.)

SEPTEMBER SUMMER RIDE

Summer came late to the Northwest this year but when it finally got here, it put it's feet up, made itself comfortable and decided to stay awhile. Another incredible day weather-wise so we headed up Fragrance Lake Road, Lost Lake Trail and to the logged area above the old Dictionary Trail where the views on days like this are out of this world. Beyond the Titanium Cowboys (above) are Bellingham Bay, Lummi and Orcas islands, Western Whatcom County and Canada.

Area Man (me) is proud to announce that for the first time ever, he was able to ride the psycho-steep and usually muddy-slippery-as-hell Lost Lake climb clean on my single-speed. (Please hold your applause 'til the end of the post.) The almost-no-rain-in-the-past-six-weeks was a big help. Still, a first-ever after turning 50 is nice. ('Course, Titanium Cancellara has always been able to ride it clean ...)

Along with the water- and island-side views, with a few pedal strokes to the east, you've got terrific views of Mount Baker, local hills and faves such as Lookout Mountain, Lake Samish, Galbraith, Blanchard, Lost and Mud lakes, Raptor Ridge, etc. and all that. Pretty much everywhere we've mountain biked and run over the past 10-plus years.

Here's John on a stump. Unfortunately, I ran out of film before his dismount. Which was a three-quarter triple half-gainer with a 900 Fakie McTwist Cork thing. Pretty amazing, really.



Whilst we were up there, the Titanium Cowboys posed for this year's holiday card. (Not really; sorta looks like it though.) Return ride was an usually dry and way-fast Lost Lake Trail to Arroyo Park and the outdoor fireplace table at Boulevard Park's Woods Coffee. Terrific super happy fun.

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN REVISIT

Titanium Cowboy steeds atop Lookout Mountain overlooking Galby and Bellingham Bay.

Ran into Val Thompson at Haggens the other day and we got to talking about Lookout Mountain. Which got me a-thinkin' how I've not been there in years. So the following day, which be yesterday, the Titanium Cowboys and I loaded up the steeds and headed for the top of the 2,600-foot bump that from Bellingham looks like Galby's big brother.
Below are some pics and directions for how we got there. First, we headed up Galbraith from the Birch St. side (click here for info on the latest Galbraith Rd. access closure), and made our way via Cedar Dust, the Wall, etc. to the Tower Rd. We turned left, headed up and then left onto Rd. 4000 (the one that passes the Mullet) which we'd eventually follow all the way down to Lake Louise Rd. and Sudden Valley. Along the way we passed the Naughty Nelly-Keystone intersection; just keep following signs for Rd. 4000. See pics below.

Rd. 4000 by intersection of Naughty Nelly and Keystone. The small bump in the upper left is the top of Lookout Mtn, which is about 800 feet higher than Galbraith Mtn.

On the way down to Sudden Valley, we came across a porcupine (really, that's a porcupine running like heck for that black drainage pipe ), ...

... I got a flat tire, and after fixing that, we found ourselves at Lake Louise Rd. where we turned right. A half-mile farther ahead on the right, we found the gated access road ("Lookout Mountain Preserve" was painted on it) and we headed up. It's a pretty epic climb--2,100 feet in 5.3 miles--and given that there are several flat and even downhill stretches along the way, it boasts some crazy-steep pitches. For whatever reason I wasn't quite able to access my big boy climbing legs (perhaps I was still feeling the effects of the City Steeps ride just three days earlier), so it seemed harder than I remembered. The other cowboys climbed like angels though, dancing on the pedals the whole way.

Even though it wasn't a super clear day, at the summit we were treated to terrific island-, lake- and city views.

View from Lookout Mountain: that's Lake Samish in the foreground with Blanchard Mountain just beyond.

Beyond Titanium Cancellara is Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands, Lake Padden and a little bit of the Whoopsie Woodle side of Galbraith Mtn.

Heading back down requires 5 or 10 minutes of bushwacking. Just make for the stand of trees in the pic below, trending toward the left side. There're remnants of a trail (ish) so keep your eyes open.  

Eventually you reach a logging road. Go right and almost immediatlely, left (not straight). From here, there're myriad logging road intersections, but just stay on the main road that keeps descending; it's fairly obvious. After a 6-mile descent, you'll reach the rifle range (no doubt hearing it long before you see it), where you squeeze around a gate and follow the paved road down to Samish Way. You come out near the I-5 exit 246.

Turning right we headed up to Lake Padden and rode through the horse trails-slash-Indie Series expert loop (or whatever they call it) with an eye toward's next month's Padden Mountain Pedal. Click here for info on that race.)

Another great ride!

TEAM UNATTACKED DOES CLEATOR-GALBRAITH DOUBLE

Also threw in some Lake Padden trails for fun. Above, Scott Young and John Clark attack the steep hill on the expert loop.

John (above) was taking his maiden ride up his Niner Air 9. He even let go of the above railing a couple times. Below, note evidence of the spill I took on the Railroad Trail near Alabama Hill. Good thing I was wearing gloves. I looked down at my computer and my handlebar clipped a tree. Got a few scrapes but nuffin' serious. All told, we rode 40 miles with 4,600 feet elevation gain, in a little over 4 hours.

John and I are both training for an 8-hour mountain bike race down in Northern California at the end of March. We're soloing it, not riding it as a team. I've been working with Daryl Smith of Advantage Multisport who's got me doing back-to-back longish rides on weekends (generally four, four-and-a-half hours one day with signif. elevation gain, two to three hours the following day) and a tough interval workout during the week. That's usually hill repeats up Sehome Arboretum Road.

Friday, Jen, Bake and I leave for SoCal where we hope to catch the final three days of the Tour of California. Bummer that Fabian Cancellara won't be there but I think there'll be one or two other well-known cyclists we may recognize. Go Levi!

UBER EPIC RIDE

Team Unattacked headed out on their second training ride of the year. And what an epic one she was. Up Galbraith then down Road 4000 to Sudden Valley. Then up Lookout Mountain Road which climbs 2,200 feet in 5-1/2 miles and, as we found out, the top mile of which is still under a couple feet of snow. (As the video shows.)

Then down Lookout where Unattacked Scott Young split for home whilst tap dancing afficianado John Clark and I headed up to the Galbraith Towers. But first we "enjoyed" some straight up the hill bushwacking mit bikes on our shoulders. Killer. Then down via Wonderland, Mullet, etc.

Super great ride: 35 miles, 5,000 feet elevation gain, 4-1/2 hours.

AREA MAN RETURNS TO BIKE-THEMED BLOG

Also includes photos of snow geese and swans. What the--?

Reduced to walking by snow on upper reaches of Lookout Mountain.

Baker and the Twin Sisters from Lookout Mountain.

Looking south toward the San Juan Islands and Olympic Mountains from the top of Lookout Mountain.

Last week I headed down to Skagit County for a Seattle Times story I wrote about the annual gathering of trumpeter swans and snow geese. It'll be in this Thursday's Times.

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN EPIC

For a while now, prolly ever since I got the 29er, I've been itchin' to get to the top of Lookout Mountain, the higher hill to the south that you see from the top of Galbraith. Today, the Clark Man and I got there. Here's how we did it. Time was somewhat a factor, so instead of heading up Galbraith then down road 4000 to where it comes out across from Sudden Valley Gate 13, we rode from our homes in the Columbia neighborhood out to Sudden Valley. That took about 50 minutes.

We followed Lake Louise Road for a couple miles (I guess; I have an altimeter but no odometer), past Stimpson Family Reserve, past Gate 13, and just across from Gate 9, we took a right at the gated road painted with the words, "Lookout Mountain Preserve". From there we headed up. And up. And up. (See above. That's John. Heading up.)

We went straight (or left according to the topo map) at a junction lower down and then just followed the gravel road to a fork at about 2,100 feet el. Here's where we didn't know where to go. The map shows two seperate tower areas--one to the left (south) at 2,676 feet and one to the right (north) at 2,677 feet. Our friend Steve Noble had e-mailed me that from the lower tower, you could bushwack for about seven or eight minutes then find a road that descends all the way to the Plantation Rifle Range just above Lake Samish.

Lower tower must mean the south one, right? Don't you think of south as lower than north? And 2,676 feet is lower than 2,677, innit? So we headed left and climbed another 600 feet to the south tower. Which, guess what ... anyone? ... wasn't the tower we wanted. Still, though there weren't any views, it was cool to be up there. (Here're some stats: from Lake Louise Road we climbed 2,200 feet in about an hour and 10. BTW, these towers are about 900 feet higher than Galbraith Mountain's towers.)
So, we headed over to the north and, apparently, lower tower, dropping 600 feet awfully darn quickly, only to have to immediately start climbing right back up again. (In general, we don't climb as fast as we descend.) On the way back up, we kept ours eyes open for any semblance of a trail. Just above, John bushwacks following something that petered out to nothing but at least we were getting views here--south toward Lake Samish. We were above the clouds and the cloudbank over the lake was stunning.
Just before reaching the north towers, the road splits, go left and make for the near tower a couple hundred yards to the south; that's where you'll find the trail. (Did anyone else notice a change in the authors' point of view?) In fact, just above, John is standing right where you'll find it. The trail goes south for a few hundred yards across a clear cut, then just before entering some trees, turns left and drops steeply across and down the hillside. (There was some pink flagging in the trees, but I wouldn't depend on it being there forever.) Our bikes on our shoulders, we hike-a-biked for about 10 minutes until we found ourselves on a gravel road overlooking Lake Samish. We were now on the south side of the mountain.

(Backtracking a bit, below is the view of Galbraith Mountain from the north tower. The clear-cut to the left is Woopsie-Woodle, the clear-cut to the right is Wonderland. The towers are in the wooded section in the middle. Tomorrow I'll put this up so you can click on it and see it bigger and better.)

Now back on road, we followed logging roads and the like all the way down. (NOTE: As soon as you get on your bike go right, then left at the first switchback. Don't go straight and down here; the road dead-ends just ahead.) Eventually we ended up at the Plantation Rifle Range which, despite giving us heart attack after heart attack from the sound of exploding firearms, was a most welcome sight. From there we headed home and ... I got a flat tire near the Sehome Haggen. A minor inconvenience. ('specially since I went to Starbucks and had coffee whilst waiting for Jen and Bake to come pick me up).

A truly extraordinary ride! I've no idea how we'll top it. But we look forward to trying.