Step back in time 1,000 years at Canyon Lake
Two steps back on this lakeside trail and the temp's fine; two steps forward and I can see my breath.
Sure, the cedars here are dense, so there's who-turned-out-the-lights shade. But the real coldness culprit is the horsetail of icy meltwater plunging down the hillside. These intermittent waterfalls that pop up here and there along this still-under-construction trail provide the real reason it suddenly feels like Mother Nature just opened her refrigerator door.
In a sense, Canyon Lake, the namesake of the recently opened Canyon Lake Creek Community Forest, and this hillside are still under construction themselves. Until about 150 years ago, this pocket in the foothills about 25 miles east of Bellingham was just a big, forested canyon with a creek snaking through the bottom. But in the mid-1800s an earthquake caused much of the canyon's west wall to collapse and, with its attendant forest, slide into the creek, creating a natural dam in the process. Thus was Canyon Lake born. Today, evidence of the slide can be seen in the hundreds of cedar snags that poke up through the lake's surface like raised hands in a classroom.
"The creek will someday erode down through the landslide and drain the lake, but not for many hundreds of years," says Wendy Walker, a Western Washington University professor who teaches environmental education classes at Canyon Lake Creek.
A long-standing forest
Walker is also president of the Whatcom Land Trust, which was instrumental in the formation of the 2,300-acre park. Whereas the lake is relatively new, what the organization was drawn to preserving was something that was uncommonly old.
In the early 1990s, the Whatcom County development firm that owned the land planned to log a 700-acre stand of old-growth timber about three miles up the Canyon Lake watershed. Before it did, however, the Whatcom Land Trust arranged for a forest ecologist to determine the age of the forest, which was made up of mostly Alaska yellow cedar, hemlock and Pacific silver fir. It was presumed that the trees were about 400 to 500 years old, the age of most Northwest old-growth forests. Core samples, however, revealed the trees to be at least 800 years old, with some more than 1,000.
As the ecologist's report read: "The Canyon Lake Old Growth parcel is one of the oldest forest stands known in the Pacific Northwest and one of the largest intact stands of its age."
Logging plans were halted, and the scramble was on to find the $3.6 million needed to purchase the watershed so that the forest could be preserved. Eventually, through private and public donations — half from the Paul Allen Foundation — the funding came through and Canyon Lake, the ancient forest, and 1,500 acres of rejuvenating forest opened to the public last summer. Whatcom County Parks, Western Washington University and the Whatcom Land Trust jointly manage the land.
Past young trees to the old ones
To reach the ancient trees from Canyon Lake requires a three-mile hike on a retired logging road with a gentle grade. (It's not the hike to Mount Si, by any means.) Ever-expanding Nooksack Valley views and the chance to spot palm-frond fossils in the Chuckanut sandstone rock faces along the trail help pass the time.
Much of this old road passes through forest logged 20 to 30 years ago and, truth be told, right now it's got a bit of that post-logging wasteland feel to it. In time, the young forest should blend in well with the ancient forest. Speaking of which, after about three miles, go right on the newly constructed trail that quickly ducks into the old, old growth. Things get dark in a hurry.
The 1.2-mile, needle-strewn dirt trail snakes through trees that were just getting their start in life at about the time Leif Ericson bumped into North America. Because of the relatively high elevation of the forest — about 3,800 feet — the wonderfully gnarled trees, despite their age, are not the giants one might expect. Still, they're stately, grand and super-tenacious — they've had dibs on this place for 1,000 years.
"When you stand in the presence of thousand-year-old yellow cedar trees, you know that there is something bigger, more enduring, more whole and harmonious than you are," says Rand Jack, a Whatcom Land Trust board member who was instrumental in the acquisition of the forest. "You experience a new understanding of your relationship to other living things, of your place in the scheme of things."
So, to recap: Canyon Lake Creek Community Forest boasts a peaceful, tree- and waterfall-rimmed lake with some recent natural history to it; an ancient forest with some of the oldest trees in all the Pacific Northwest — its only shortcoming would seem to be its lack of a mountain vista, right? Not so fast.
Once you reach the end of the ancient forest trail, you pop out onto a ridge at 4,500 feet that offers spectacular front-row views of Mount Baker — only 10 miles away — plus the Twin Sisters Range and all three forks of the Nooksack River. While there's still snow on the ground now, it should be gone shortly.
After ogling the views as much as one can ogle, return via the forest trail or consider taking the retired logging road down. Views north include the Nooksack Valley and eventually Canyon Lake. That is, until the creek erodes the landslide and drains the lake away. But that shouldn't happen for a few hundred years.
Mike McQuaide is a Bellingham free-lance writer and the author of "Day Hike! North Cascades" (Sasquatch Books).