The typical well-maintained and marked Whatcom County trails. Did the Rufus Creek Trail out toward Mount Galbraith and up to the Whatcom Lake Viewpoint. No view of Lake Whatcom, as Mother Nature has filled in the terrain over time, but a nice look to Mount Baker. Came down the Baneberry Trail to the rest of the Rufus Trail Loop south of the parking. Great day, a few nice people and a few dogs. Overall a good hike.

Took Rufus Creek trail and detoured to Leila June trail for solitude. Gets dark so early these days and with cloudy overcast conditions, I ran out of time to reach the overlook. Took Rufus Creek Trail back down. 15,000 steps according to my iPhone.

Highlights were a massive grove of Douglas fir on the way back down, abundant sword fern, and a very close hairy woodpecker foraging on the Doug fir bark.

The facilities are nice and trail is well maintained. Only complaint is massive potholes in the parking lot- really needs to be taken care of.

We were at the preserve for several hours this afternoon for a WFR recertification course.

7 of us got to the trailhead around noon, which was more than half full, but the lot still had plenty of spots available. We suspect the rain kept some folks home.

The toilets at the trailhead are nice. I expected a standard vault toilet since that's what they look like from the outside, but these are full plumbing, accessible toilets with toilet paper. Sink and soap included!

We wandered around as a class, totaling around 3.7 miles, along the gravel service road behind the gate from the trailhead then up a side trail. The trails were all in good shape. We saw a handful of mountain bikers and hikers, but it was super quiet. It rained on and off all afternoon.

It definitely felt like fall — there were leaves and changing colors everywhere. The fog made it feel particularly summer-is-over. 

We didn't get back to the trailhead until after dark (before 5 these days!) and we were among only a few cars left in the parking lot at that point.

This was a good hike on a Sunday morning. The parking lot was 3/4 full when I departed the trail head at 11 am and totally full when I returned at 3 pm. The trails are worn smooth by mountain bike tires and are very well marked with signs and maps of the whole trail system. Several Whatcom Firefighters were responding to a medical emergency making haste with a litter to carry a person out  as I was coming down from the Lake Whatcom viewpoint trail. There is a nice bench at the view point but the view is obscured by trees now. 

A forest hike with lots of shade and without much lookout. A waterfall after the previous day's rain and a small view of Mt Baker.
Well-maintained trails. I crossed paths with almost no one on this weekday except a Mtn Biker going up near the end.

I took the road to the end of Waterfall trail and hiked back to Baneberry trail to go up to Mt Baker view then down the Leila June Trail for about 5 miles total.