This is a great winter hike! Trails were fairly dry and not as much traffic this time of year. Also, lots of fun mushrooms to look at.

Having worked on the new connector trail(aka Rock Trail) in Larrabee State Park with the WTA for some time, my gal and I had been plotting a new year- round low land loop hike out of Bellingham. The beautiful sunny weather on Saturday gave us our chance. We started in Arroyo Park in South Bellingham by parking along Old Samish Rd. just east of Chuckanut Drive. We followed the interurban trail toward Larrabee across the bridge up the hill and onto the trail pointing to North Lost Lake on the left. We stayed on the North Lost Lake trail(old steep road) until we reached the Chuckanut Ridge trail in approximately 1.5 miles on the right. The trail follows the ridge with great views of Baker in the east and the lower B.C. mountains to the north all the way to Cyrus Gates overlook in Larrabee state park (approx. 5 miles). We went beyond the parking area and picked up the trail at the far end descending for about 200 yards until reaching the soon to be open "Rock Trail" or whatever the park officially names it to the left. The next 1.2 miles are worth the journey and the true labor of love by countless volunteers can be seen throughout. The descent started by climbing down numerous stairs through mature regrowth past amazing Chuckanut sandstone cliffs that arched over us for the majority of the journey.... amazing. Rumor has it that local geology types at WWU are drooling over these features. We continued descending down the trail until reaching the junction with the south Lost Lake Trail. We followed the trail down to the lake junction (a nice albeit muddy side trip to the lake provides some amazing falls on the east outflow) and continued onto the North Lost Lake Trail back to Bellingham and the intersection of the Chuckanut Ridge trail. The total length of the trip came out at 12.15 miles... not bad for a loop hike in the lowlands in January! The hike was great for keeping in shape as we dream of those 2014 alpine wanderings to come.

Passing the point of no return. That's what happened on this 3 mile turned 9 mile hike. Poor Jewell--she thought she was going to get home in time to work in the yard. (At this time of year, whenever there is actually sun outside, that's all us Northwester's can think to do. We know if we pass up a lawn mowing day for fun, we may have a jungle on our hands when the next chance rolls around. It's sad, really) But I talked her into doing something quick and local; a beautiful drive up Chuckanut and just a stroll to Lost Lake, turn around come back, be home before 2:30. But there's something about turning around and going back the way I just came that really rubs me the wrong way...to read the rest, go to http://kellbell-whywouldanyonereadthis.blogspot.com/2011/05/loopsadaisy.html PS this loop included Chuckanut Ridge, not Raptor Ridge; but Chuckanut Ridge was not available to put on the list. A picture of the map I used is on my blog.