Forum Index > Trip Reports > Wanlick Crk/S Fk Nooksack & FR 1230 (SW of Mt Baker) June 5
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yew
non-technical



Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 1173 | TRs | Pics
Location: Bellingham
yew
non-technical
PostTue Jun 06, 2006 7:26 pm 
This was not a normal hike, just a mountain-bike-a-gated road/bushwhack/fishing/exploratory trip with “Not-a-weekend-warrior” who I met on this forum. Hardly the wildest walk in the woods I've ever had but good to get out and get some exercise and fresh air and explore a new area. Rain showers Monday morning in Bellingham so I called off the north ridge of North Twin Sisters cross-country scramble. Weather.gov showed a big blue blob on the radar running from Bellingham east-northeast to Church Mtn area. So, we headed southeast. FR 12 is drivable to about 1/5 mile east of the junction with FR 1230. There’s a large snowpatch atleast 2 feet deep at "the pass". We pushed mountain bikes over the snowpatch and rode downhill on FR 12 paralleling Wanlick Crk which I wanted to scout out for fishing since the general stream season opened June 1st. There are rocks on the road and a punky log that will have to be sawed off for the road to be drivable.
We followed a spur road down to Wanlick Crk, the only spur road shown on the Green Trails map. At the end of the spur road is an open grassy area and an actual trail runs down to the creek and the South Fork Nooksack Trail which is on the USFS road map but not the Green Trails. It is in decent shape except for one area early on where a tree fell over and exposed a massive, muddy mess. I fished Wanlick Crk but did not catch anything. It is a high and raging so too high to fish. It will not be fishable until it drops. There’s a lot of bank erosion causing trees to fall into the creek.
That’s a good thing for fish. Saw some elk and black bear sign. The trail to the bottom, maybe only a mile long, goes to the S Fk Nooksack just above where Wanlick Crk comes in.
There's a huge, old growth cedar among more old growth forest here. After going back to the car, we then walked up FR 1230. There’s a lot of snow at “the pass” but soon thins out. After the first switchback the snow again becomes continuous and a few feet deep and I really wished I had my backcountry touring skis. Alot more snow than I expected so Blue Lake was out of the question. Lots of snowmobile tracks probably from Memorial Day weekend. Several feet of continuous snow at 3500 feet! Walking on the snow was hard on feet and ankles. By now, the weather was finally looking halfway decent but Mt Baker, surrounding peaks and Twin Sister Range were still in clouds. When we turned around Mt Baker finally became cloud free and we were awarded with some fine views.

"I aint jokin woman, I got to ramble...We gonna go walkin through the park every day." - Led Zeppelin
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Forum Index > Trip Reports > Wanlick Crk/S Fk Nooksack & FR 1230 (SW of Mt Baker) June 5
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