Lookout Shootout Pass (level 3, 3 hours)        

As with all of the rides we start at Whatcom Falls Park.   From there we hit the road for 25 minutes and end up near the end of Lake Louise road in Sudden Valley. 

The rainbow below is landing in Sudden Valley.  Lake Whatcom is in the foreground.  Lookout Mountain is the biggest hill in the center.   The Galbraith Towers are on the top of the hill to the right.

A 50 - 60 minute logging road climb now awaits you once in Sudden Valley. The end of the climb ends up at the upper towers on Lookout Mountain.   Sweet views of MT Baker and the Twin Sisters can be seen near the top of the climb.

Just below the upper towers, on the near 150 degree corner, just below the final climb is the top of Shootout Pass. 

You have to follow the old road for a bit, then over a pile of logging debris, then a really steep section of the pass is in your face.  Steep as in DOWN steep.  This is a clear-cut visible from I-5. Once you ride it, you'll always think of Chuckanut Pass a bit different when you drive through it.  If you can ride and clear the whole section, well, you hammer.  This section takes only about 15 minutes, but is very memorable.

After the steep section dropping off of the top of Lookout you then are in the woods winding around the mountain for around 20 minutes to finally pop out near the top of the Rifle Range fire road.  Thus begins about 15 minutes of hellasiuosh downhill high speed fire road flying.  Please remember to ride within your limits so you don't smack into something or someone.

Just as you start to descend there is a fire road to the right off of a left turning hairpin corner.  A steep and hurting at this point 7 minute climb away is a sweet view looking down on the Galbraith Towers, Arsenio and Lake Whatcom. The views below are well worth the pain and suffering don't you think?

As you fly down to the Rifle Range fire road you'll come across a fairly new clear-cut on the right near the bottom.  Go down the new cut's road and keep climbing once you hit the bottom.   Eventually on the right you'll see the bottom of the Rifle Range trail that'll take you up to the Galbraith Towers.  You'll also see where the new logging road has cut the old sections of the lower Rifle Range Trail.

The Rifle Range Trail climb is technical and sometimes steep single track with many enjoyable moments to be had.  In the wet it tends to be really sloggy and sloppy. No fears, sliding and slipping in the mud is good.  On a dry day, you can rip up it in 30 or 40 minutes, add 15 or 20 if it's sloggy.

From the Galbraith Towers a favorite route of mine is to do Wonderland, Dirty Sock,  Keystone, Oly, Candy, Ridge and finally the Miranda to end up back at Whatcom Falls Park. 

The real Lookout Mountain has been done.  The riders are well done.  Time for a beer.

Route History

On December 4th, 1998, Robert Winterman and myself re-busted open the Shootout Pass route.  After a day of trying to punch a route through from the top of the Rifle Range Logging Road to the top of Lookout we stumbled across the Shootout Pass route.  We could tell by the berms it was an old motorcycle trail.  We learned later that Horsemen had built the trail initially.

Since then we have done Shootout mainly as described here, but sometimes do the route backwards.

In the real Old Days, well before 12/04/1998, it was custom to ride out Lake Louise Road then up to the top of Lookout to the towers, then fly back down the way you came, there was no other route.   A lot of rides would base at Lake Padden in those days, so going over Galbraith each way was part of the plan.

The view above is looking at ground level in-between Alger and I-5 looking towards Lookout and Galbraith.  The tallest point, the Lookout towers are the bump almost directly in the middle of the image above.

Oh, when I say fly, rip, or hammer type adjectives I always mean 'fly, rip or hammer' within your limits AND respecting all other trail users.

For a bit, going to the Lookout Lower Towers and off the Samish side down the fireroads was in vogue.  I haven't heard of anyone taking that route in eons.