Chuckanut Mountain - March 1, 2012

For our first Peak a Week outside of King County, we decided to head up to Chuckanut Mountain in Whatcom County this Thursday morning, March 1.  With the Chuckanut 50k coming up on March 17, Micahel, Peter and I wanted to review the course and show Michael around the mountain, since he'd never ran up there before.  Peter and I, on the other hand, have spent miles and miles on the trails all over Chuckanut, being XC and T&F runners for WWU in Bellingham.

Running in Bellingham is amazing, for those of you who have spent any time there know well.  There's many choices of amazing trails: Lake Padden, Galbraith Mt., Whatcom Falls, Interurban, Blanchard Mt, Stimpson, Sehome Hill, etc.  However, the crown jewel, in my opinion, is Chuckanut Mountain.  It's hard to beat for it's variety and beauty: steep ridges, cliffs, great views, epic lookouts (of cascades, Mt. Baker, Bellingham, west Skagit Valley, San Juan Islands), serene mountain lakes, singletrack, doubletrack, old railroad grades and logging roads, lots of loops and best of all, it's runnable from town.  In college, I took full advantage, running the myriad of trails there: Pine and Cedar Lakes, Raptor Ridge, Fragrance Lake, Lost Lake, the Ridge and Chinscraper.  What's great about the 50k is that it utilizes most of these trails (sans Pine and Cedar Lakes and Raptor Ridge), while adding Arroyo Park, 2-Dollar Bill and Cleater Road.

This morning, we decided to run the "middle 19" of the 50k (see map).  This is essentially the hilly part of the race, taking out the beginning and end of the race that starts and finishes on the Interurban Trail from Fairhaven.   We parked at the Clayton Beach parking lot, happy that it wasn't raining on this cool, overcast day.  Starting on the 'urb, we ran north to Fragrance Lake trailhead and headed up the mountain, enjoying the easy and gentle switchbacks that took us up to the lake.  Once we got there, we circled the lake counter clockwise and took a right onto 2-Dollar Bill Trail.  This is where we got our first views of Teddy Bear Cove and the San Juan Islands through the tall trees to our left/west.  After a mile or so on this fun singletrack, we switchbacked our way down to Cleater Road.  Here, we ascended the road for 3 miles (a real grind) until we were near the top of the Mountain (elevation ~2,000 ft.).

Beginning of Fragrance Lake Trail

According to the Chuckanut 50k website, "Here is where the fun begins."  Right before the top of the road, we took a left onto the Ridge Trail.  This is the trail where I first fell in love with trail running in Bellingham, running it for the first time in 2001 while following my Western teammate and underground trail legend Patrick Murphy.  This epic trail runs north and south along the crest of the mountain and is very technical compared to the rest of the course.  The views can be spectacular and the footing difficult...not the best combo.  We let Michael get the full ridge experience and lead this section for nearly three miles.  This morning, the trail was covered in a splendid white powder, actually helping our footing on the slippery granite slabs and sudden dips and climbs. 

Great Photo of Ridge Trail by DJan.  It looked like this on our run, with a little white stuff mixed in.

At the far north end of the Ridge Trail, we took in the B-ham view from the cliffs while refueling before we took Dan's Traverse down to Lost Lake Road.  At this intersection, we went right towards the lake, surprised at how difficult this "not so hard" seeming uphill felt after the technical part of our run.  After the first half mile or so on the old dirt road, the trail narrows and flattens out, which gave our legs a nice little break before we got into the mud pits that are synonymous with Lost Lake.  As you get closer to the lake, the trail gets more and more muddy, until you are literally running through a small stream.  Right before the lake, we took the junction that turns right and takes you above and past Lost Lake.  Being proud that I had kept my feet fairly dry through the wettest part of the run, I of course submerged my right foot into a fresh mudhole trying to sissy-foot it through a muddy section.

The trail rises again here, the 3rd out of 4 main climbs (Fragrance, Cleater Rd, Lost Lake, Chinscraper) on the course, but also the easiest of the four.  For me, this is mentally the hardest part of the run.  After this climb, you know the top of chincraper is just above you to the right, just within reach.  But to get there, you have run a long downhill, knowing that each step downhill equals a very difficult step uphill a little later.  Once the trail levels off a bit and right before we got to Fragrance Lake Road, we took a right onto the infamous Chinscraper Trail (or Little Chinscraper as some call it).  This is by far the steepest climb of the course and the last major ascent to the top of Chuckanut Mountain.  One thing that's nice about it however, is that there are little (very little, but still) breaks between three main climbs here, always allowing me to get my breath back and regroup before the next uphill.  The final one is a beast, actually requiring you to use your hands in some places so as not to fall or slip backwards.  I usually even use my arms going past some of the trees near the end, grabbing a branch or trunk and pulling myself up as I run.  This morning, it felt great getting to the top, enjoying the fresh snow on the ground as hydration as we waited for one another to finish the climb. 

About 70 yards before the mountain crest, we turned left on a little trail and ran down to the top of the Cleator Road parking area. From the parking area, we continued down Cleator Road for about a mile, all of us feeling pretty good that the hard part of the run was over.  At least that's what I was thinking.  Turns out I was wrong; that part was just ahead.  After the road levels off for just a bit, we passed a gate and turned sharply left (hairpin) onto a wide trail marked "Fragrance Lake".  We then continued downhill on this trail until it become Fragrance Lake Road.  This was the most painful part of the run.  This road is a 3 mile quad-buster and just as Peter had told us it would be, this portion of the run killed the legs.  Fortunately on this run, once we hit the bottom of the road and Clayton Beach parking lot, we were back at our cars and done for the day. 

Cool view of Chuckanut Mt. from east.  We ran red to purple to green to yellow.

I had to walk around a bit in the parking lot afterwards to try to get the downhill pain out of my legs (as if that's possible).  Lucky for us, we had a short 10 minute drive into Bellingham and a Bob's Burgers for some mean eating recovery food.  I had the Breakfast Burger (w/ bacon and eggs), fries and a delicious hefeweizen to wash it down.  Thanks for driving back to Seattle Mikey, I don't think I could have done it after all that. 

For more info and directions: http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/parks/trails/chuckanut.jsp

Run Stats:  Total Distance: 20 miles   Time: 2:56:34    Elevation Gain: ~ 4,500 ft.    Pace: 8:49