Whitehorse Trail

 

In the first couple of weeks of March, Helen and I made two trips down to Arlington and Hwy 530 to cycle the Whitehorse trail that runs on the rail bed of the old BNSF line between Arlington and Darrington. The trail has existed for years but had become rundown. It received new life after the Oso Slide disaster and as of now is complete except for two sections; between the Centennial trail and Trafton and a short stretch east of the Darrington rodeo grounds.

For our first ride we parked at the old Cloverdale Farm in Trafton. It's half a mile off 530 on 115 Ave NE. This blue silo is part of the parking lot.

The trail is wide and recently re-graveled and generally follows the course of the N. Fork of the Stillaguamish River.

After several miles of farms and wetlands the trail crosses Rte 530 and the river and is paved for the next several miles through Cicero till it recrosses the highway and goes back to gravel.

The trail rises slowly passing through the small community of Oso and gradually revealing more mountain views as it head toward the Oso Slide Memorial site which commemorates the loss of 43 lives when the hillside gave way crossed the river and buried multiple homes in March 2014

Just beyond the site the trail crosses C-Post Rd. A parking lot here is the perfect place to stage for the eastern portion of the trail. This section feels a little more remote with farms replaced by cabins and evergreens the dominant trees. Multiple little bridges take you over various creeks flowing into the Stillaguamish but the river itself hides most of the time. The views now are mostly of the mountains.

After crossing Swede Heaven Rd the trail becomes more of a grassy track but remains eminently ride-able.

Finally after passing the old mill at Fortson Ponds and the fish farm we arrived at the Rodeo and Bluegrass Festival grounds. The closure is just east of here so we turned around and returned to use the festival picnic tables for lunch before the downhill run back to the truck.

So all said a great couple of days riding with about 22 miles of riding currently available. We divided it up into 2, twenty mile days. For a long one day ride, parking at the Cicero bridge and going to the rodeo grounds would probably be the best bang for the buck! probably around 32 miles.