Back in 2006 my wife and I made a trip to Bellingham up from Portland looking to see if this was a place we wanted to call home. We did a ride up on Galbraith and we knew after that ride we found the town we wanted to call home and raise a family in. A place with great northwest quality trails a short ride from town was exactly what we were looking for. So naturally when the logging started a few years back we were upset about it. The uncertainty of what Galbraith would look like in the coming years was daunting. As change can be sometimes.
From my perspective though the change up on Galbraith and in the mountain biking community as a whole in Bellingham and Whatcom County has been anything but negative. The trails up there are more diverse than ever offering up classic northwest old school trails, new school flowing trails and plenty of free-ride trails to give those looking for air-time. The light certainly is much better up there of course and now there are even more views. Win, win, win all the way around.
Of course, this was all made possible by the amazing volunteers who make up the trail crews and the WMBC. The Trail Adoption Program (TAP) was started this year to help keep trails maintained while trail crews are going to be putting more effort into other areas such as the Chuckanuts and the recent Reconveyance land. More trails! This year Noble Chiropractic adopted the trail Prison Love. Perhaps not the best name to have associated with our business but it was one of my favorite trails to ride. Unfortunately just after the papers got signed on the adoption logging started and the upper half of PL got obliterated to the point of doing a rebuild is questionable. We resigned some new adoption papers for Bottle Opener. More change.
Galbraith has always been a place in constant flux. That is the nature of a working forest. Trails come and go. Sure we get bummed when our work gets rolled over but that has simply created a new canvas on which to design. And the trail builders have taken these canvases and built some amazing fun trails in the last few years. Both bermy flowy type of trails and the old school XC trails. In the time we have been in Bellingham there has never been so much diversity of trails up there. And how fun is that? Cross-country or Trail bike today? Regardless, I am going to have some fun up there just like I did on my first ride on Galbraith back in 2006.