Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) Section 8 Bellingham to Deception Pass

We finally hit the red line again as we finish Section 7 and start 8. We enjoy being beside Puget Sound and arrive at the spectacular Deception Pass Bridge to be 'serenaded' to sleep by the roar of F18s! https://onefootinfrontoftheother.nz/
Our day started with a waffle for breakfast and last minute supplies before catching the 80X bus back to Alger. We still weren’t officially back on the red line though. Still, at least we were walking and moving forward again. At last, we left the lake and headed up forest roads into the hills. These forest roads were covered in pine needles and actually more trail than road. It felt good to (finally!) be back on the official PNT route and off road walking at last. The trail to Lizard Lake started off on forest roads, then turned onto the British Army Trail and started the short ascent to Lizard Lake. Lizard Lake was small and filled with tree stumps and fallen trees. The trail continued to Lily Lake, before dropping to the sea and Chuckanut Drive. The trail descended steeply to sea level but thankfully there were switchbacks. Section 7: the North Cascades was finally done.
Chuckanut Drive was the start of Section 8: Puget Sound. This section would have little elevation, being mostly at sea level, and a lot of road walking. Chuckanut Drive is a very busy road, and we had to walk almost five kilometres along it. The first part was winding and narrow. Thankfully, we were able to walk on the other side of the crash barrier on a narrow trail. We turned off Chuckanut Drive and headed towards the small town of Edison. We stopped at the local brewery, Terramar, for some beers to take away. It was after 5pm and we still had a ten kilometres road walk to reach our campsite for the night, Bayview State Park. It was a fine evening and we had our first view of the Olympic Mountains in the distance. We were the recipients of some wonderful trail magic. Passing motorists handed over two more cans of Terramar’s brew. What legends! We were making progress and finally could see Padilla Bay. At 7:45pm, just on dark, we finally reached Bayview State Park. It was a strange day, leaving the city and ending up beside the sea in a campground. It had been a big mileage day, so we were pretty tired with sore feet. We cooked dinner sitting at a picnic table, drinking our gift beer. Not a bad way to end the first day of a new section.
Now that we are in built up areas, we have less choice about where we could camp or stay. This makes it much harder to split the miles evenly. After yesterday’s 40+ kilometres, we had only 24km today and 18km the next day before another big day. The tide was out so Padilla Bay was just mud flats. We had a small section of road walking before turning onto the Padilla Bay Shore Trail. The two mile long trail hugged the shoreline at the head of the bay. The fog started clearing. Soon, we could see Mt Baker – the first really clear view we had had of it. We passed sloughs – tidal creeks – cutting channels through the mud and emptying into the bay. Just opposite the trailhead, there were three otters swimming in the slough. It was another road walk from the trailhead. Highway 20 was now four lanes of heavy traffic. This area of Puget Sound consists of barely separated islands. Anacotes is on Fidalgo Island. To reach it, we had to cross one of the arching bridges spanning the channel, our high point for the day. It was a relief to get away from the noise of Highway 20 when we turned onto March Point Road. Soon, we reached the Tommy Thompson Trail which crosses the bay on a long, pedestrian causeway then uses the old railway line to get into the heart of Anacortes. It was a day for wildlife. There were three seals cruising up Fidalgo Bay, right beside the trail. This gave us more wildlife sightings than in North Cascades National Park! We wouldn’t be zeroing in Anacortes but a (relatively) early arrival at 5pm and a late start tomorrow would give us a bit of a break and a chance to see the town.
We didn’t have a big distance to go today, but by the time we had a sleep in, got breakfast and resupplied at Safeway it was late morning. We headed through town, and then into the Anacortes Community Owned Forest, a labyrinth of trails for biking , walking and horse riding. Eventually, the trails couldn’t be connected any more and we dropped down on to Highway 20. We had a short road walk along it before the final trail leading into Deception Pass State Park. Highway 20 cuts right through Deception State Park over the spectacular bridge which uses a rocky islet as a stepping stone. The road was extremely busy but there were great views from the bridge. The tide was going out , so the sea was surging through the narrow channels under each span of the bridge. F18s from the nearby naval base roared overhead, practising touchdown landings for landing on an aircraft carrier until 10pm!