Description for Snoqualmie South Fork
South Fork Snoqualmie captures the area along the south side of I-90, east of Exit 38. As of 2009, some trails are under development as part of a road decommissioning project. This could grow into a longer (even epic) route, but progress will depend on funding from grants and may stretch over many years.
Previously, this project area was often called "Olallie"; we now use that name only for the State Parks trail project near Cedar Butte.
September 2009: The first segment of road has been converted to singletrack!
Summer-Fall 2009: Work has started on the project, and the contractor is on-site with a huge excavator turning old logging roads into a trail network for mountain bikes. Work is expected to be completed in September or October depending on fire conditions or any unexpected conditions on site. This is a time and materials contract. We will get at least 3 miles of trail, and there is a potential for a bit more in this phase if things go well.
A huge thanks needs to go out to the Evergreen volunteers who worked tirelessly on this project for almost fifteen years. If it wasn't for the work of, among others, Art Tuftee, Brian Jones, Preston Peterson, and more recently Doug Walsh and Justin Vander Pol, this project never would have happened. We still need to work towards getting approval (a new ATM plan) to build new singletrack to compliment the 20 mile road-to-trail system, but we've taken a huge step in the right direction thanks to the years of work of these key volunteers.
Funding has been secured, including a $75,000 grant written Evergreen (thanks Doug!), to build the first 3+ miles of what will eventually be 20 miles of road-to-trail conversion. Additional funding was secured by our partners, the Forest Service and Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust. If the project goes quickly, it is hopeful that more than three miles can be built with the allocated funds.
This first project will be up in the Hansen Creek Drainage, which is the very eastern part of the South Fork Mountain Bike Area. To access the trailhead (which is at 3400 ft) you will be able to ride or drive up a forest road to a high elevation trailhead, and the loop will begin there.
Hansen Creek has been chosen by the Forest Service as the first trail section to build for several reasons. First, it will be possible to create a loop trail with the funds available, so it will be a nice stand-alone project until funds are secured for the next phase of the project. Second, other portions of the conversion process will be quite a bit more expensive and require additional funding to even access the sites with machinery.