Naughty Nellie:
Making the Clearcut Sing

See trail map at right. Click here for GalbraithMt.com Map Set Index.

Click here for Driving Directions from Interstate 5 to Galbraith, plus MapQuest maps and live WebCam shots of Galbraith and the main freeway exits for Galbraith.

Wonderland connects to Naughty Nellie which connects to Keystone -- providing riders a sweet and direct singletrack route from the North Side to The Towers. Better yet, the Wonderland / Naughty Nellie / Keystone combo rides well both ways, which is why it is the premier singletrack route for climbing to The Towers.

In fact, if you are going to climb to The Towers on singletrack in 2009, you've got to climb Naughty Nellie. The only other climbable alternative -- The Woopsie Woodle -- brings you up on the south side of the mountain, with no single track connection from there to The Towers, which means you have to climb the last 100-plus verts to the top on the 3000 and 3300 Rds.

Despite its name, Naughty Nellie is not very naughty at all. In fact, it's just about as safe as milk. There used to be one interesting log punchup about half way down, but now all the traffic uses the route-around. Apart from this, the only technicalities are a couple tight switchbacks and an area at a where the trail is unstable near the bottom.

Nellie does have some great views, though. It snakes through a clearcut that is a fireweed fantasy in late summer, and provides some great, sweeping views of Mt. Baker, Lake Whatcom, Bellingham, Bellingham Bay, Lummi Island, etc.

Built by the WHIMPs's volunteers, Naughty Nellie is a nice piece of work. You probably never thought a clearcut slashpile could sing such a sweet song! And Nellie's very much a Galbraith-style trail in that it uses natural terrain to create interesting and challenging trail features, not 2x4s.

The following are some of the scenes as you descend Naughty Nellie. Click on the thumbnail images to view a larger version...