Mt Vernon and North Cascades
A Birthday Getaway
Liz had a birthday this week so we planned a little getaway to do some hiking and biking. We chose Mt Vernon as our destination this trip to take advantage of our Thousand Trails membership. We had stayed at this campground before and were prepared for the idea of no sewer hookup. We booked 5 nights and planned to use the facility showers which worked out ok.
Day 1
Our first day we took the e-bikes on the Cascade Trail which is a rail trail from Sedro Wooly to Concrete, WA. We really enjoyed our ride with a variety of scenery along the Skagit River from farm land to the foothills of the North Cascades. The trail is gravel and in good condition with the exception of one small washout. We stopped at the Tea and Tour posts along the way. The posts had boxes with laminated pages describing the history of the area. The total mileage for this out and back was 46 miles, We stopped 5b’s Bakery in Concrete and grabbed some wonderful treats before exploring the small town. We had a fantastic day riding through this area.
Day 2
We drove to Anacortes today and had a nice day just putting around on the e-bikes. We always enjoy this area and of course rode the Tommy Thompson Trail again. We also rode to the Cap Sante Lookout and Washington Park where we enjoyed some great views of the area. After riding aorund town we stopped at Gere a Deli for a bite to eat. Our ride total for the day was 22 miles.
Day 3
Today we drove back to the Concrete area to hike the Sauk Mountain Trail. The road from Hwy 20 to the trail head was a 7 mile narrow and windy road with huge pot holes, but the hike was worth it. This trail has amazing views from the parking lot and continue to get better as you ascend to the peak. I would definitely give this one 5 stars. We got an early start and had shade all the way up and most of the way down, which also gave us much lower crowds as this is a very popular trail. We saw only a few people on the way up, but many more as we were headed back to the parking lot. After the hike we intended to stop at 5b’S again in Concrete but they are closed Wednesdays. We did however find a place to grab a couple of personal pies at Shuh Farms
Day 4
We drove to Bellingham, another of our favorite towns on the west side. Actually, Fairhaven is the part of Bellingham that we really like, so we spent the day there. It was an enjoyable laid back day with no particular agenda. We visited the bike shop where we purcahsed our gravel bikes on a previous trip and had a nice lunch after walking the waterfront. Other than that, not much to report here.