Sterling Hill

January 26, 2024

116m

Burlington, WA

Sterling Hill and Burlington Hill are two small, but officially-named pimples on the flats between Burlington and Sedro-Woolley. About a year ago I walked to the top of Burlington Hill. I was planning to do Sterling Hill as well but the access had private property issues. I ignored the prohibitive signs as usual, but was then asked to “get the fuck out” by a worksite manager. Apparently there was an active quarry so it’s probably not the greatest idea to trespass anyway. I came back a year later anticipating the quarry to be not active at the moment. I was lucky this time. The “no entry” sign was still there, but Kate and I parked in front and biked in. Earlier in the morning we had biked Mt. Cavanaugh so this was the secondary objective of the day.

I actually drove the Tacoma past that “no entry” sign but immediately encountered a locked gate with no obvious place to turn around nor to park, so I backed out and unloaded our bikes. To lift the bikes past that locked gate required some team work. Kate ditched the bike on the far side of the quarry site whereas I was determined to push the bike to as high as possible. The deactivated portion of the road appeared dauntingly steep so I soon had to get off the bike to push. Kate was able to walk faster. I was surprised that the road kept going on and on. In fact, the road extended all the way to the very summit but the final few hundred meters were overgrown and insanely steep. A few stretches would be pushing my limit on the descent but I would worry about that later.

This gate was a bit fancy, necessitating a hop-over

Kate decided to ditch her bike at the start of the uphills

Looking SE towards Cultus Mountains past the worksite

The start of the steep road the goes up the south side of Sterling Hill

Me pedaling towards the steepest section

This stretch was quite steep even for walking.

The last stretch was overgrown with thorny plants

Looking towards Lyman Hill from the summit. Bagged in March 2018

Anderson Mountain in the background with Butler Hill in front. Both bagged

Burlington Hill is basically a residential area. Bagged in 2023

Me and my fatbike on the summit of Sterling Hill

Kate posing on the summit with my fatbike

Another photo of Kate on the summit of Sterling Hill

Due to the clear-cutting the views were rather excellent from the top of this pimple, but we didn’t linger too long up there as I still had to work in the afternoon and evening. I was determined to stay on the bike for as much as I could, and ended up only walking the bike down one short stretch. It was a fun team work again to lift our bikes over that locked gate, and in exactly half an hour we were back to the truck. We eventually got back to White Rock for lunch so I earned myself plenty of time to take a nap before showing up at work.