Just you and the trees

It’s wide, level, mostly tree-lined and often opens up to great views of Skagit Valley farmland, the river and mountains.

It sounds nice, and most of the time the Cascade Trail is, with just a few drawbacks.

The trail follows an abandoned Burlington Northern railroad grade for 23 miles between Sedro-Woolley and Concrete. Constructed mostly of dirt and hard-packed gravel, it’s open for walking, bicycling or horseback riding. No motorized vehicles allowed.

We threw our bikes on the car rack and drove to Sedro-Woolley, parking at small lot at the intersection of Highway 20 and Fruitdale Road. It’s one of three spots along the way that have portable toilets available.

And we were off, pedaling parallel to noisy Highway 20 for a short way, before the path veered a little farther south toward the river. Pleasant views along this stretch included farmland with mountain backdrops and typical lowland forest scenery.

One surprise was an interesting farmhouse built in a French chateau style. The trail also runs by a working sawmill.

Frequently crossing farm access and local roads, the trail continues by Minkler Lake and then close to the Skagit River for a short distance before passing by the small community of Lyman.

Past Lyman, and just before Hamilton, we came to our first puzzling moment. The trail appeared to end at a barrier at a wetland area, with no sign or indication of where to go.

Some clever detective work, namely asking two boys walking dogs along the Lyman-Hamilton Highway, led us a hundred yards or so down the road to two large boulders marking the re-entry point for the trail on the other side of the bog.

Past Hamilton, the trail crosses Highway 20, probably the most dangerous part of the journey, and continues the rest of the way to Concrete, never very far from the road and the traffic noise.

Another detour to look for comes after crossing Baker Lake Road, where the old rail bed obviously disappears into the brush. Again, no signs or indicators. The trick here is to navigate Highway 20 from Baker Lake Road to just across a bridge, then look for the trail access just past that. Best plan is to walk the bikes, staying on the left side of 20.

It’s all trees and traffic noise after that, with a pleasant break as you pass through the vineyards at Challenger Ridge Winery, about three miles from Concrete. Your last obstacle is a washout about a mile from town, but there is room to walk the bikes around the edge.

The trail ends at the Senior Center in Concrete, just below the Upper Skagit Library, where we caught a Skagit Transit bus back to Sedro-Woolley. The very accommodating driver dropped us right by the car, though it wasn’t a regular stop on the route.

Aside from the traffic noise, which you’re going to find on a lot of bike routes, anyway, the most tedious aspects of the trail are stretches where the surface is less hard-packed and you tend to get bogged down in very loose gravel and sand.

One area was particularly bad where flooding had obviously deposited a lot of silt across the path.

Overall, it’s worth the trip, and at midweek, it was a very solitary trip for us. We encountered four walkers, two other bikers and one runner. We were glad of the bus connection, though. It’s not a round-trip I would have relished.

Ron Ramey: 425-339-3443; ramey@heraldnet.com