To: TrailLink Webmaster
Please do not intersperse my photos among the existing ones. Post them together and in the correct sequence in which they are numbered.
This is a detailed exploration of the entire length of the Cascade Trail from Concrete to Sedro-Woolley. Miles are in (parentheses), GPS coordinates are in {braces} and numbers in [brackets] refer to the images posted herewith. Although a trip report by toolbear posted on August 27, 2009 already contained some nice pictures, I have added another 22 more up to date and geo-coded pictures with this report covering the entire length of the trail. This is a trip report on taking the public transportation bus from Sedro-Woolley to Concrete and a one-way bicycle ride from Concrete to Sedro-Woolley (downhill but into a head wind). The frustrating part of the start of my bicycling adventure was trying to find the bus stop where SKAT Route 8/Route 117 stops eastbound, since this bus route does not follow SR20 while in town, but zig-zags through the neighborhood and the map at http://www.skagittransit.org/page-1412.html and in the printed timetable is too coarse to be useful. Coming on SR20 eastbound, I was led to believe that this bus stop is close to the Fruitdale/SR20 trailhead, when the actual start of the trail is further west on Polte Rd., separated from SR20 by an industrial/commercial complex and not visible from SR20. There is a parking place for 5 vehicles, a picnic table and a trail map at this mile post zero {N48.50914;W122.22413}. The bus stop I was looking for is about two blocks south of there at the corner of Township St. and Wicker Rd. [1] where it goes south on Township and and then turns east onto Wicker. As of May 2012, the SKAT Route 8/Route 117 runs five times on weekdays and twice on Saturdays. All busses have bike racks. I got off the Route 8 bus at the entrance to the town of Concrete where the bus route crosses the Cascade Trail just off SR20 and right next to the old cement silos. The bus continues, but I did not know where the next bus stop would be in the upper part of the historic town. From the silos you can ride the trail 0.6 miles to the actual eastern end of the trail at the Concrete Center, a senior center, and turn around {N48.53851;W121.75162} [2][3]. The railroad once continued further east to Rockport, but the condition of that RR grade is unkown. For those who are arriving in their own cars (and take the bus at the end of the day coming back up), there is plenty of parking at the Senior Center, but no facilities. There is a public toilet on Main Street across from Upper Skagit Library or you can visit the library facilities if you are there while the UpperSkagit Library is open.
Our mileage count for this trip report starts from the Senior Center (0.00). For railroad history buffs: at (0.19) next to the Post Office sits an old passenger railroad wagon {N48.53851;W121.75162} [4] which has seen better days, but now the windows are boarded up and the car is left to rot, sitting on a short section of track. This would make a perfect location for a snack bar and espresso stand. At (0.63) [5] you come past the old cement silos and begin the real trail adventure. A sign points to the Concrete Historic Byway and explains the history of the town and the silos [6]. There are no facilities at Silo Park (north of the silos) which is now a town park (not a county park). For the tired hiker and biker in need of a rest stop, there are at least 14 sitting benches every few miles along the entire length of this trail to sit down and rest and enjoy the view (only one of those benches had been vandalized). For the next 3 miles the trail is high above Highway 20 in the woods. At (3.05) {N48.54236;W121.80791} is a picnic table [7] above a vinyard. At (6.73) {N48.53327;W121.88358}, the bridge over Grandy Creek is gone, so one has to detour [8] for a few hundred yard and cross the creek on the busy highway bridge which does have a pedestrian sidewalk. At (6.92) {N48.53249;W121.88671} the trail crosses Baker Lake Road [9]. Baker Lake Road is the point of access to a very scenic recreational area including lakes for boating, fishing, swimming, camping, climbing, hiking, biking and a hot spring. Take a week off and explore it if you have the time. There are two types of mileage markers along the south side of the Cascade trail: the old square RR signs, black numbers on white background, and modern signs on plastic poles placed by Skagit County Parks, some even with GPS coordinates and elevation written in felt marker (but slowly fading in the weather). You cannot see these modern markers when you come from the east since they carry the mileage number only on the west side of the pole. The first one I noticed at (7.43) was mileage marker 16 {N48.53028;W121.89767} [10], which happened to be next to a narrow trail where one can scramble down the steep bank and cross the highway to go to Baker Lake Grocery for refreshments. As far as the old B&W RR mileage signs, I remember seing a 42 at Concrete and a 23 near Fruitdale. The two types of mileage markers are not co-located, but off-set. At (9.92) {N48.52406;W121.95027} [11] is a bridge over Alder Creek.
Approaching the SR20 crossing, a herd of about 20 beefalos [12] on a pasture to the north was stampeding when they saw me coming and they were racing me along the fence all the way to the west end of the pasture (they won). That was an exciting experience.
The crossing of SR 20 is at (10.67) {N48.52453;W121.96620} [13] and from now on the trail runs south of SR20, between the highway and the Skagit River. At (11.56) a section of trestle across a lilypad pond (an old riverbed oxbow) is missing and a barricade {N48.52515;W121.98528} [14] prevents us from going straight into the pond, requiring us to make a short <100 yards detour out onto Lyman-Hamilton Road. Somewhere between the lilypad lake and mile marker 11 we are crossing the 122nd Meridian as we travel west. For the next 3 miles one is tempted to trade the gravel trail for smooth asphalt pavement and use Lyman-Hamilton Road which parallels the trail to the "city" of Lyman. Supposedly, as described in Trail Bears earlier trip report, there is a city park in Lyman with facilities, but it is not evident from the trail where one has to leave the trail to visit this park (there are no signs along the trail). At 15.8, just past the RR 29 mile marker, starts a scenic stretch of trail with a nice view of the mighty Skagit River [15] [16] (Skagit River is the third largest River on the west coast of the U.S.). This area attracts hundreds of bald eagles in the winter that feast on spawned out salmon carcasses on the river banks. At (16.12) {N48.52373;W122.08213} is the most scenic bench [17] of the entire trail with a nice view of the river. The trail then leaves the river front view and enters a wetland section. At (18.17) {N48.52242;W122.12596} [18] a section of the trail that once was a puncheon boardwalk is flooded by 1-2 inches of water because a creek (Powell or Wiseman Creek?) has shifted its creekbed which was once further west and is now dry. After a washed out section and the dry creek crossing, for the next 2 miles the trail goes through open farmland and a wetland restoration project and at (22.23) {N48.51581;W122.21028} arrives at the Fruitdale Road trailhead [19] [20] which has lots of parking and a portable toilet. It seems most people parking here on weekdays are doing it for ride-share and are not trail users. At (23.03) {N48.50914;W122.22413} is the western terminus of the trail end with a picnic table [21] and a trail map [22] and enough parking for 5 cars. There is an undeveloped section of the old RR grade continuing west into town, but it is not yet rideable. Between Concrete and Sedro-Woolley, on this mid-week day I saw 3-4 parties walking on the trail and only one eastbound through-biker with four heavy panniers on his bike. If you do this ride as a one-way ride, you need to decide if you want to ride eastbound (uphill, elevation gain 160 ft.) or westbound (downhill). I thought riding downhill would be easier, but that was a big mistake. All day I had to struggle against a stiff west wind, which was worse than riding uphill. The prevailing wind direction in this area during fair weather is a west wind.
Skagit County has done a great job converting this RR grade to a multi-user trail. They chose the right size of gravel that packs well (and is easy to ride on with 1.95 inch mountain bike tires) and they converted a very large number (at least 20) trestles to well-designed, sturdy trail bridges. All blackberries along the trail were destroyed by spraying with herbicide in 2011 and only a few thimble berries got spared. All the washouts shown in previous pictures have been repaired and it is not necessary to walk any overgrown bypass trails. I did not see any portable toilets at the Baker Lake Road or Challenger Road access points.
For a description of the trail, illustrated with 12 photos, see
http://www.skagitcounty.net/Common/asp/default.asp?d=ParksAndRecreation&c=General&p=parks/cascadetrail.htm
and download the map at
ftp://ftp.skagitcounty.net/GIS/Documents/Parks/cas-trail.pdf
If I had looked at the lower left hand corner of the trail map beforehand, I would have seen that the bus stop of Route 117 is at Wicker and Township, and that would have saved me some frustration in planning for this bike ride. That map fails to show Rasar State Park.
The town of Concrete is well-named. Well, it was. Because of limestone minerals mined in nearby quarries, this small community in the Skagit Valley became a regional center of cement production. Beginning in 1905, portland cement was manufactured in the town from limestone and used to build the several dams that now generate hydroelectric power in the upper reaches of the Baker River and Skagit River. For the rock hounds and geology enthusiasts among us, see
http://nwgeology.wordpress.com/the-fieldtrips/baker-river-limestone-and-the-town-of-concrete-washington/ and for the history, see
http://concrete-wa.com/about-concrete/
If you want to make a loop trip instead of doing the back-and-forth or hitching a ride on the bus for one way, there is a potential of making a 60-mile loop by taking the South Skagit Highway, crossing the river on bridges in Concrete and on SR 9 in Sedro-Woolley. Another loop or Figure 8 trip is possible along SR20 but I would not want to ride on SR20 under any circumstances as suggested by other trip reports.
While I was in the area, my base camp was at the new Rasar State Park (which is not yet shown on older maps), which you can connect to by taking N. Russel Rd. off SR20 a bit east of the junction of Baker Lake Rd. and then on Capehorn Rd. going west. This is a beautiful park with an extensive trail system along the river and modern facilities, including rental cabins. The other connection from Rasar State Park back to the Cascade Trail is via Lusk Rd. or Pinelli Rd.
For up-to-date SKAT information, please note that the URL once listed on the RTC web site was incorrect. The correct URL is http://www.skagittransit.org/page-1412.html.
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