GalbraithMt.com -- 
'Call the Fun Police!'

GALBRAITHMT.COM was another innovative Web effort that I created -- the first electronic trail guide, as far as I know -- but it was really just a ton of fun in a good cause.

When I first rode my mountain bike on Galbraith Mt. in Bellingham, WA, in 1999, I was stunned by the incredible recreational resource there. I mean, how many American cities have 1,000 acres of forest trails located 10 minutes from the city center?

As I got to know Galbraith, I was even more impressed with the community of riders -- college kids, carpenters, doctors, retirees, unemployed waitresses, really just about anyone you could think of -- and the volunteer spirit that built the Galbraith trails and maintained them.

There was no central authority coordinating all the volunteer work done on Galbraith, which was then in patchwork of private and public ownership. People just loved Galbraith, and because of that love they did the work that needed to be done. It was like true communism -- "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Determined to help, I set about creating an electronic guide book to publicize the area. I knew Galbraith was going to come under serious attack from developers soon, and I thought the best way to preserve the trail system there was to build broad political support through public awareness of Galbraith.

So beginning in 2000, GalbraithMt.com offered the best maps of the area available, trail guides, technical notes, reviews of bikes on local Galbraith trails and chat, all for free. No one had seen anything like it before, and none of the big mountain biking venues like Moab in Utah or the North Shore in B.C. had anything that could compare.

MEANWHILE, THE battle for Galbraith came as I had forseen, but with a result I never dreamed of. In 2002 most of the mountain was purchased by a local timber company, Trillium Corp., which has actually encouraged mountain biking on Galbraith! In fact, Trilliam even put up numerous big pieces of public art at trail intersections on the mountain.

Trillium also struck a deal with the Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition, AKA the WHIMPS, to manage the mountain's trail system, with mixed effect. The WHIMPS brought some much needed order to the trail building, but the group also asserted its authority with an iron fist and a collective ego to match.

The WHIMPS had Trillium's lawyers sent cease and desist orders to prominent Galbraith trail builders who had literally built the trails and popularity of the mountain that the WHIMPS now claimed as its own. After the WHIMPS took over, you had to bow to them, or you were history.

I personally felt that this was the time that the Galbraith mountain biking community should have pushed for public ownership of Galbraith, but at the time the WHIMPS opposed public ownership, at least partly because the group's main honcho, Mark Peterson, worked for Trillium!

BUT IN THE wake of the 2007 Housing Market Crash, Trillium lost Galbraith in bankruptcy proceedings, ceding its 2,300 acres on the mountain to a holding company called Polygon Financial Corp. in 2009 "in lieu of foreclosure."

Polygon originally threatened to end all mountain biking on Galbraith, but after a tense public meeting in Bellingham where hundreds of moutain bikers showed up, Polygon relented. It was clear that GalbraitMt.com and the rest of the Galbraith mountain mountain biking pioneers had succeeded in building the broad base of popular support I set out to create at the turn of the century.

So logging and mountain biking continued in uneasy coexistence on Galbraith until 2017, when Polygon sold all but 500 acres of its Galbraith holdings to a company called Galbraith Tree Farm, which was owned by Janiki Logging & Construction of Sedro Wolley, WA.

Shortly thereafter -- in July 2018 -- Galbraith was sold again. This time Janiki sold it's 2,230 acres on Galbraith to the City of Bellingham and the Whatcom Land Trust for a reported $3 million, thereby ensuring permanent protection for Galbraith and its by now famous mountain biking trails.

The result of all these twists and turns in the trail? Galbraith is now easily the premier mountain biking venue in the State of Washington!

BUT IT'S ALSO much different than it was. I personally became less and less involved after 2010, and I stopped updating GalbraithMt.com after 2014.

Some old timers call the GalbraithMt.com era the "golden age" of Galbraith. That may or may not be true, but it certain was a ton of fun.

Call the Fun Police, as we used to say on the mountain!