Loop: Mullet, Cheech & Chong's Wild Ride, Safety Break, Meth Lab

Distance: 4.89 miles
Time: 2 hours 7 minutes

It's a sunny 4th of July, and Raney and I waste no time this morning getting out to the south side of Galbraith. We hope that yesterday's long and heavy rainfall won't make the trails too gummy.

Our route covers 4 new-to-us trails: Mullet, Cheech & Chong's Wild Ride, Safety Break, and Meth Lab.

Each of these trails are "black diamond" expert mountain biking trails. As such, they're restricted to mountain bikes, and have 'no hikers' signs at their entrances. I didn't realize this when planning this route, but it makes sense given the sharp slope and sometimes dangerous stunts on these trails. The last thing a mountain biker needs is to have to dodge a hiker and his dog while negotiating the stunts and steep drops.

Hoping for forgiveness, we walk those trails anyway, and pull well off the path of the handful of bikers we encounter along the way.

Some of the impressive stunts on Cheech & Chong's Wild Ride trail.

We had a little blip in our Runkeeper GPS tracking. Actual distance estimated at 4.89 miles, and 2 hours 7 minutes.

Following our preferred entrance in, we leave Padden Trail parking lot, cross Samish Way to Galbraith lane, and head up N. Galbraith lane. Crossing the two gates, we arrive at the kiosk marked Checkpoint Alpha. Distance from parking lot: 0.6 miles, 11 minutes.

Heading north on Galbraith Lane.

We take logging roads up, so that on the return we're descending the trails. In fact, these trails are considered "directional" trails - i.e. one-way in the downhill direction - and travel in the opposing direction is discouraged. For Mullet and Cheech & Chong, that means you want to plan your route so that you travel in an east-to-west direction.

Following Tower Road (Road 2000) upwards, we go past Road 2200 (0.85 miles, 16 minutes). Then we pass Road 2300 on the right, which leads to Stick trail in the Three Pigs area (1.2 miles, 23 minutes).  

The next major junction on Road 2000 is where Road 3000 peels off to the right (1.5 miles, 29 minutes). We follow Road 3000 eastward.

A few minutes into Road 3000 we spot Straw trail on the right. It's unmarked, but we note it as it's the only Three Pigs trail we haven't walked yet... we'll traverse it on some future day. There's also a trail leading to the left, that's not on my 2011 trails map. I'll have to see if it's a named trail when the 2012 map comes out, which should be soon. 

Straw Trail drops to the right from Road 3000.

At 35 minutes, 1.7 miles, Road 3100 exits to left. We continue on Road 3000.

Some very welcome blue skies over Galbraith.

Road 3000 meets Road 4000 at 2 miles, 40 minutes. We follow Road 4000 on the left, which will take us to the Mullet trailhead. 

Mullet trail is marked with a wooden sign. We reach it at 2.2 miles, 47 minutes. 

After the steep climb in the sunshine on the uncovered logging roads, Mullet offers a cool and shady hike. This route has a lot of boardwalks, bridges, and stunts - some built with hauled-in wood and some shaped out of the natural terrain.

We cross an old logging road at one point, and continue on Mullet. (52 minutes, 2.3 miles)

Partway into Mullet we come across two mountain bikers, who report seeing a bear near Kaiser Trail. Kaiser crosses Mullet in the open logged area shown below. (1 hour 13 minutes, 3.0 miles.) We keep an eye out for it, and I'm hopeful that the tinkling of Raney's collar will help us avoid any surprise encounters.

Stunts on Mullet - designed to deliver serious airtime for the mountain bikers.

Eventually we arrive at the end of Mullet, at the kiosk labeled Checkpoint Charlie. (3.2 miles, 1 hour 18 minutes.)

We cross Road 2000 and head down Cheech & Chong's Wild ride, also known as Shawn's Trail.

This sloping rock makes a natural banked turn for the bikes.

The stunt construction here is amazing!

Raney spots a squirrel.

Cheech & Chong forks in a few places, and we end up on the south-facing fork. This meets up with Road 2200. (3.8 miles, 1 hour 35 minutes.) We turn left (south) on Road 2200.

A few hundred yards later, Road 2200 meets Tower Road. We follow Safety Break trail which will lead us to Meth Lab, and out to Pipeline.

Ten minutes on Safety Break gets us to Meth Lab trail.

At the end of Meth Lab, we meet an overgrown road, which is more like a path. (4.1 miles, 1 hour 48 minutes.) This is Road 2020, and turning left here brings us back to the kiosk marked Checkpoint Alpha.

Heading south on "Road" 2200.

Back at Checkpoint Alpha kiosk (4.3 miles, 1 hour 50 minutes).

We follow Galbraith Lane to retrace our steps back to the car. Lake Padden trailhead parking is now filled to overflowing with the holiday crowd of mountain bikers. Glad we got an early start this morning. We end up back at the van at 4.89 miles, 2 hours 7 minutes. What a great start to our 4th of July!

Our loop route follows logging roads for the ascent, then takes steep trails downwards.

Loop: Stick and Brick trails

Distance: 3.47 miles
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Raney has had a few rest days, and it's time to knock off some of those south-side trails on Galbraith. Under grey and showery skies, we set out for the Padden trailhead. We're heading for the "Three Pigs" area of Galbraith, where the Straw, Stick, and Brick trails await. We cover the last two of those today.

Raney descends the switchbacks on Brick trail.

Our route takes logging roads on the ascent, then follows the windy trails downward.

I learned something today: the proper way to access the south-side trails (other than through Pipeline / Checkpoint Hotel access). I was deterred on earlier hikes by some of the No Trespassing signs, and this morning I finally figured out the route that's permitted by the local landowners.

First off: the pic below shows the *wrong* way to go up Galbraith (which I did on the way up today). This is one of two ways in that's marked on most Galbraith maps.

*Not* the route to take to get into Galbraith south-side.

Instead, you want to turn off before you get to this point. Follow North Galbraith Lane to the double gates. We finally figured this out on the descent.

Going in our route, we come to the south-side kiosk marked Checkpoint Alpha. (Distance from Padden trailhead parking: 0.8 miles, 15 minutes.)

Approaching the Checkpoint Alpha kiosk from Road 2000.

The plan is to follow Road 2000 (also known in this stretch as Tower Road) north, to get to the Stick trailhead.

Below, we bypass Road 2200 which branches off to the left. The Meth Lab trail runs from this junction over to Pipeline. Looking forward to that one someday soon - it's an expert trail for mountain bikers so should make for an interesting hike. (1.25 miles, 25 minutes.)

Road 2200 (which heads due north into Galbraith's higher trails) branches off of Road 2000 (towards the Galbraith telecom towers).

Looking for Road 2300, we walk by it until we come to Road 2040 and realize our mistake. We double back to Road 2300. It's a logging road with a fresh layer of rough rock laid upon it, heading south and east from Road 2000. This area was harvested by loggers in 2011.

Not far into Road 2300, Stick trail leads to the right. It's marked by red ribbons for most of it. (1.6 miles, 36 minutes.)

Trailhead for Stick trail, off of Road 2300.

Stick is not the prettiest of trails, thanks to last year's logging. The trees have been thinned out and brush piles clutter the view for most of this route. It's a depressing sight in places, but WHIMPS has done a fantastic job restoring the single-track through this area. The trail itself is a delight: rolling switchbacks on pine-needle paths, and the occasional well-made bridge and boardwalk. 

Stick trail ends at Road 2030. We take a slight dog-leg right, then continue on Brick trail which exits to the left. (2.0 miles, 47 minutes.)

It's a sprinkly day, and the relatively sparse growth here offers little cover for it. Still, it's warm and calm, and a good temperature for hiking.

Brick trail ends at Road 2100, right near the Checkpoint Alpha kiosk. (2.8 miles, 1 hr 7 min.)

From here we bear left, taking the road through the double gates and onto Galbraith Lane. Here's a pic of this access point as it looks if you're coming up Galbraith Lane. 

Walking back down towards the trailhead, we reach the van at 3.2 miles and 1 hour, 15 minutes. Due to time constraints (another vet appointment - worms this time!), we didn't cover Straw, the other little pig trail. We'll be back before long to hike that one, and probably cover the lower part of Atomic Dog trail as well. Now, off to get medicine for the poor pup.

This route features a steep ascent on logging roads, then the return on Stick and Brick's switchbacks.