Galbraith Mountain – Mtn Biking in Bellingham
After a busy morning with alot of sitting (public transit from Downtown Vancouver to Surrey, car ride from Surrey to Campground from very generous Campground hosts at Pacific Crossing RV Park, quick truck ride to MEC to pick up bikes from the shop and then waiting in line for an hour to cross the border), we finally made the official cross into the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (drum roll please…).
It’s not great timing at the moment as the National Parks are all closed and everyone is wondering how long this can last, but that’s for another day and a different soapbox…
The good news is that the wonderful Whitehorse Mountain Biking community had told us all about some great biking in Bellingham, which is less than an hour from the US /Canadian border.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, our fabulous GPS and the maps we brought with us, we found the trailhead with no mess nor fuss.
I’m really starting to wonder if mountain bikers ever work… After the number of people we saw mid-day in Cumberland, I wasn’t at all surprised to see 8-10 vehicles in the parking lot. As usual people were very friendly and answered all my trail questions when I boldly wandered up, map in hand. By the time we were finished 3 hours later, the parking lot was overflowing and there were probably 30 cars (approx 5 pm).
This was more west coast rain forest riding, worsened from the rains the previous few days, which meant slick roots and lots of puddles.
Galbraith Mountain is a mix of privately owned land and logging. It is moderately well signed, the trail map is GREAT and the ride up the mountain is one of the best yet – gradual incline, smooth gravel surface with no ruts. The up/down ratio is about 50/50 when we looked at the mileage.
Our first ride down was on the 3 pigs trails and these were perfect for Hunter – moderate steepness, moderate technical and great flow. It’s a series of 3 trails that connect in with each other and are lots of fun. 2.5 km up and 2.5km down.
Our second ride was up a little further (3km) and then down on Crazy Eights and Evil Twin. We (I) chose it because it showed as having wood features on the map, which the boys love. Wet wood features are alot less fun than dry wood features and I had some stellar crashes!!! Not sure why it’s always me…??
In our attempt to fit in one more trail we managed to get slightly off course and dropped out of the trail system about 2km away from the parking lot via the road. The plus side of that is we found this awesome mailbox!
We also had a fun afternoon with the local wildlife – Hunter was actively looking both UP and DOWN and spotted the owl and the super large slug… It was a great break for the afternoon.
