45.6mi
Nooksack Loop
Bellingham · Everson · Lynden · Ferndale · Nooksack River Trail · Bellingham
Bellingham Bay → Mount Baker · 74 miles
Finish
the line.
The Bay to Baker trail has been a plan since the early 1990s. Most of it still isn’t built. We mapped every parcel along the old Bellingham Bay & British Columbia rail line to show how to close the gap, and how to link every town in north Whatcom County while we’re at it.
01 — The line
The railroad already chose the route.
Bay to Baker follows the grade of the old Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railroad, later the Milwaukee Road. Trains needed gentle slopes, so the line threads the valleys: north through Everson to Sumas, then around Sumas Mountain to Kendall and Maple Falls. Between the built pieces it never climbs more than about 600 ft.
MP 0.0
Bellingham
The built trail climbs from Little Squalicum Park up Squalicum Creek. Past that, the old rail bed runs northeast through farmland. The city bought a key parcel at Hannegan Road in 2024 and is working to acquire the grade out to Dewey Road.
Status First mile built · next miles in acquisition
MP —
Goshen
A spur once split here for Deming and Welcome. Much of the grade has gone back to farmland, and in places it became the road. Those are the stretches where landowner conversations will matter most.
Status Unbuilt · mostly private land
MP —
Everson
A short piece of the trail is already open in Everson. It shows the trail can get built a town at a time.
Status Short segment built
MP —
Sumas
North of Everson the original line is still working BNSF track. Here the trail runs beside the rails, a rail-with-trail, to Sumas, where the old branch turned east toward the mountains.
Status Beside active track · needs a railroad agreement
MP —
Kendall
The grade curves through the Columbia Valley on the north side of Sumas Mountain. WSDOT is advancing a Kendall Trail along SR 547. In late 2025 the county won a $475,000 state grant to plan and engineer the trail from Kendall to Horseshoe Bend.
Status In planning · funded east of Kendall
MP —
Maple Falls
The built Maple Falls–Glacier segment starts here: wide, forested and well used. Beyond Glacier, the 74-mile plan continues to the Mount Baker Ski Area on logging roads and other existing corridors.
Status Built east toward Glacier
- Miles unbuilt between Bellingham and Maple Falls
- 35.9
- Share of that gap on the original rail grade
- 58%
- Private landowners the line crosses
- 267
- Years since the trail was first proposed
- 30+
02 — Beyond Bay to Baker
Town to town, not just in town.
Most people here can ride within their own town, but not between towns. Five new links turn Bay to Baker into a network. They reuse the existing Nooksack River Trail, follow the river and the shore, and go around the Lummi Reservation unless the Lummi Nation chooses to partner.
68.7mi
Birch Bay Coastal Loop
Bellingham · Everson · Lynden · Ferndale · Birch Bay · Cherry Point · Bellingham
03 — The working map
Every parcel, every mile.
This is the research tool behind the plan. Turn on parcels to see who owns the land each route crosses, and compare routes by how much uses the old grade, how much is public land, and how many landowners we’d need to talk to.
| Route | Miles | On old grade | New trail | Public land | Landowners crossed |
|---|
04 — How we mapped it
Open data, shown work.
Ownership
Every tax parcel within 500 m of each route comes from the Whatcom County Assessor’s public parcel service. We classify owners as public, tribal or private, and count the landowners each line actually crosses.
Routing
Routes are planned across the land itself, not along roads. Running beside highways, crossing buildings, steep grades and unbridged rivers all count against a route. The old rail grade, existing trails, the riverbank, the shoreline and public land all count in its favor.
Limits
These are planning lines, not surveyed alignments. Ownership comes from tax records, not title searches. This is a citizen project, not an official county or city plan. It’s meant to start conversations.
Sources: Whatcom County Assessor parcels · OpenStreetMap contributors (roads, trails, historic rail, coastline, reservation boundaries) · AWS Terrain Tiles elevation · Cascadia Daily News, Jan 2026 · BB&BC Railroad history
05 — Get involved
Trails get built when people show up.
Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Northwest are already working on Bay to Baker. The fastest way to help is to add your voice to their work, and to bring this map to the conversation.