The Cascade Trail: 22 winding miles of natural wonder

SKAGIT COUNTY — About a mile and a half past the pigs, I find myself high above the snaking Skagit River and I'm not sure how I got up here. I'm mountain biking the pancake-flat Cascade Trail, a 22.3-mile gravel pathway that follows the old Burlington Northern line between towns with two of the state's odder names — Concrete and Sedro-Woolley. Like most rail trails, it's way wide and super straight so it's not that I'm lost, it's just that I don't remember climbing a hill to gain what is a truly grand viewpoint.

To the east, snow-capped and craggy-topped Sauk Mountain beckons, as do a host of her Cascade siblings, all clad in white. Overhead, a slow-flapping great blue heron, looking like a 21st-century pterodactyl, cuts the power and glides toward the river in hopes of a meal. Across the river to the south, towering foothills jostle for attention, and just behind me, mini-waterfalls, all a-gurgle, trickle down the hillside.

I could swear that just before the pigs — three of them, in a local resident's pen at trailside — I was pedaling in the river's valley, not far from its banks.

I began today's ride at the Cascade Trail's easternmost trailhead at the Senior Center in Concrete, a tiny town on Highway 20 with more than its share of rusty pickups and buildings hung with broken windows. Formerly called Cement City, Concrete boomed in the first half of the last century thanks to a quarry and cement plant that took advantage of the area's abundant limestone deposits. But the operation closed more than 30 years ago.

About a mile east of the town's huge, hard-to-miss silos — remnants of the past — I pedaled by the pigs, doing what they do best: wallowing in mud. They brought out the snorter in me and I couldn't help stopping to try to engage them in conversation. (Oddly, they didn't react to Pig Latin.)

While the Cascade Trail starts out in town within a stone's throw of Highway 20, it veers north away from the road and cuts into a forested hillside, where you soon feel like you're riding through a tunnel of evergreens. Judging by the bird's-eye Skagit River views, the trail apparently climbs, too, though it's hardly noticeable.

A trail of controversy

In 1993, when Skagit County Parks and Recreation Department purchased the rail corridor from Burlington Northern and decided to create the Cascade Trail, not all Skagit County residents were pleased. Some locals thought the land should be returned to those who owned it before the railroad. An organization to fight the trail, Citizens Against Rails to Trails (CART), sprang up. To this day at several points on private property adjacent to the trail, large signs denounce the trail as "Skagit County's Path of Corruption" and "Corridor Land Stolen by Skagit County."

The corridor is being "railbanked," however. That means that if Burlington Northern decides in the future it wants to use the land as a rail line again, it can purchase the land back from the county. Thus ownership doesn't revert to the previous owner. In the interim, the land can be used only as a nonmotorized trail. Throughout the 1990s, much controversy surrounded the trail, but most of that has died down.

Before my ride, Mount Vernon's Dave Towne, a regular trail user, noted that the Cascade Trail offers hikers, bikers, runners and riders on horseback a sampler of Skagit County's numerous landscapes.

"Outside of Sedro-Woolley, it passes through flats and farmlands," Towne said. "Near Lyman and Hamilton, it's more forested and people can walk right along the Skagit River — you can practically drop a fishing line in it right from the trail."

Because the trail follows an old rail line, the grade is never more than 1 or 2 percent and, as I found out, inclines are just about imperceptible. The trail is about 70 feet above sea level in Sedro-Woolley, about 230 feet above sea level in Concrete. This low elevation ensures that the trail is usable pretty much year-round.

"I call it an all-weather trail because it was built on railroad ballast so it drains really well," added Towne. "There aren't a lot of muddy spots."

Equestrians "love it"

The trail's west end is on the edge of Sedro-Woolley, which takes its name from the 1898 merging of two neighboring cities — Sedro and Woolley. Woolley was founded by Philip Woolley; Sedro by Mortimer Cook. Had there not already been a Cook, Wash., the town might today be called Cook-Woolley. Sedro is an approximation of "cedro," the Spanish word for cedar.

Large, horse-trailer-friendly parking lots at various points along the trail, plus the fact that the path is 14 feet wide almost the entire way, makes it especially popular with the equestrian set.

"They love it because they can ride three and four abreast," said Lou Peterson, a Skagit County Parks and Recreation ranger.

After paralleling Highway 20 for a stretch, the trail leaves the road's side and follows the Skagit River near the small towns of Lyman and Hamilton. Last year, a local Eagle Scout installed 10 benches along this stretch of trail.

"You've got a great exposure to the river there and now you can just sit there all day and watch eagles that live there year-round," Peterson said.

Just east of Hamilton, at about the 12-mile mark, the trail crosses to the north side of Highway 20, where it stays for the remaining miles to Concrete. About 4.5 miles west of Concrete, the trail passes through an 80-acre corridor of preserved land where, on many days, trail users see up to 60 elk. People call it "Elk Meadows."

Despite its controversial past, Cascade Trail has its fans among both visitors and locals. As an elderly Sedro-Woolley gentleman told me, summing up his reasons for putting in his daily three miles:

"It's good for physical conditioning, for mental activity — it clears the head — and it's a lot cheaper than taking pills."

And there's always the opportunity to talk to the pigs.

Mike McQuaide is a Bellingham free-lance writer and author of "Trail Running Guide to Western Washington" (Sasquatch Books).

IF YOU GO

To reach Cascade Trail, take Interstate 5 to Exit 230 at Burlington, Skagit County, and go east on Highway 20 (the North Cascades Highway) about 7 miles, through Sedro-Woolley. The trail has three access points with large public parking lots. They are:

• Fruitdale Road and Highway 20, Sedro-Woolley. The parking lot is on the south side of the highway, about a half-mile past the intersection with Highway 9.

• Baker Lake Road and Highway 20. From the Fruitdale Road parking lot, continue east about 15.5 miles. The parking lot is on the left just before the intersection with Baker Lake Road.

• Concrete Senior Center. Just past the large silos in Concrete, turn left onto E Avenue and then right onto Railroad Street. The center's parking lot is just ahead at the end of the street.

Trail access is also possible from a number of roads that cross the trail. Users should take care not to park on private property or block traffic.

Another option is to take the bus part way. Skagit Transit (SKAT) stops at four points near the trail (see map) enabling users to walk, run or cycle a stretch of the trail, then take the bus back to where they started. Note: Fare cards must be purchased in advance at an area business or other vendor. For information, including a bus schedule (Route 717), see www.skat.org.

For more information about the trail, including a map you may print out, see www.skagitparksfoundation.com.