Our group met at the North Chuckanut Mountain TH and started up the trail around 9am with the North Lost Lake Trail as our target goal.  The trails was several intersections, including a horse detour so it can be a bit tricky to know where to go.  But the nice thing about this area is that every intersection has signage of some kind!  Just familiarize yourself with the map beforehand and head in a mostly southern direction (right) and you'll be fine. We decided to take an indirect route and visit the Chuckanut Falls, arriving there in about 35 minutes  and 1.5 miles from the trailhead.  It's always fun tThis stop is an in and out, but you don't have to go all the way back to the junction so we opted to take a turn left out from there and go up to Hemlock to connect with the Lost Lake trail.  We saw some recent trail construction in this section, you can see a lot of work went into the new tread. o start a hike out with some nice scenery.  From the junction with the Hemlock Trail,  you go right to find the North Lost Lake trail.  Once here, you are on decommissioned service road until you get to Lost Lake.  Shortly after leaving Hemlock and heading south on the North Lost Lake trail (the junction has a kiosk and map), we came to the intersection for the ridge trail at about 10:30 am and 3 miles in to our journey.  It was an hour at a social pace to get to the Lost Lake junction and GAIA totaled us at 5.27 miles so far.  When I had been here last month, the trail had been snow covered and icy, this time the theme was mud and slick.  Footsteps were carefully place as we navigated wet roots and rocks dodging puddles. There were several view points out onto the lake on this section, but we stopped at the outlet and waterfall for lunch at noon. 5.73 miles so far.  The waterfall was melted out from last time but I took the opportunity to visit it from a few different angles.  I really just love how the water comes down over the steps of rock. Our next destination was the Rock Trail, so we went back around the north end of Lost Lake (I didn't want to lead a large group around the south end as I was unsure if it was more than a boot path and we had varying levels of hiking skill with us today. This got us to the junction with Rock Trail @ 12:45 am and 6.8 miles.  The Rock Trail was just as cool as last time, but without the threat of large chunks of icicle falling down from the cliffs of rock above our heads.  From the Cyprus Gates parking lot (you can drive up Cleator Road to this TH), we walked down the road a bit to connect with the ridge trail and head back to  the junction with the North Lost Lake trail.  This is a really nice trail that I'm sure has some amazing views of Baker but we had nothing but eerie trees enveloped in fog.  No worries, though.  We needed our attention to be on the trail as it maneuvered rocks and roots, up and down, for the little more than 3 miles of this section.  We were back to the junction with North Lost Lake at 3:20pm, almost 2 hours later and our trip back from here to the cars was uneventful. Be careful as it is easy to leave the trail and end up walking down California St. instead (there are houses) or taking a right turn and walking away from the parking lot.  You won't go far but when you are ready to take your wet gear off and get dry it can be disappointing.  I was back to the car by 4pm with a total of 12.76 miles for the day. For more details and pictures, including my GAIA track, check out the link below.

Started out from the large North Chuckanut Mountain trailhead at 11:30am. Headed up to the Raptor Ridge Viewpoint via the Chuckanut Falls, Hemlock and Huckleberry trails. Headed back via the North Lost Lake Trail (see tracklog). No obstacles on the trail other than one blowdown on the North Lost Lake Trail. However, there was quite a bit of black ice on the trails, so microspikes were useful. Every major trail junction was not only signed, but had a kiosk showing this detailed trail map: http://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/18258. Encountered quite a few people running or walking their dogs on the Chuckanut Falls Trail, but only a few (including one party on mountain bikes) further along.

I decided to spend the day in the Chuckanut Recreation Area and leave serious snow for this weekend (if you don't see a trip report from me by Monday, we didn't survive snow camping). I'd heard about a waterfall on the Lost Lake Trail, so I set out to explore the area. I parked at the Fragrance Lake TH and set out about 10am. I managed to hit the view point, Fragrance Lake, do the loop around and take the side trail up to overlook the lake, head over to the South Lost Lake Trail, walk around Lost Lake and find that waterfall, then back down the Rock Trail (which was AMAZING) and Double Diamond Trail to connect back with the Fragrance Lake trail and out by about 4:30pm. Most of the snow was on the Lost Lake and Rock trails but there was plenty of black ice all over. I had spikes but only used them when I had to walk out on to Lost Lake because I ran out of fisherman's trail while circumnavigating it, but my poles came in handy as most of the snow is compact and slick. Other than the snow, there are very problems with the trail. Watch your head on the Rock Trail, plenty of icicles dropping large chunks of ice on the trail. I imagine that come Monday when it warms up, there will be plenty of mud and mush to deal with. And more ice falling of the ledges above. My total came to about 11.5 miles for the day, but I had a couple turnarounds that extended my trip. For more details and pictures, follow the link below.