Thursday, September 24, 2009

The NEW Hansen Creek Trail

This month a new high-country singletrack trail is being built near North Bend. The new trail is just the start of what will become, over the next decade, a twenty mile singletrack trail system.

We want you to be part of this historic opportunity, so we are inviting you to come and volunteer on this brand new trail. As part of the grant matching requirement we need to put in 200 volunteer hours by the end of October. We don't usually send out a broad invite to our entire membership, but this is a big deal, and an historic opportunity to take part in the creation of a new trail system.

Also in this update we invite you to be apart of our ongoing advocacy efforts on Mount Saint Helens. As one of the finest riding areas in the country, Saint Helens deserves our ongoing care and attention.

The long-awaited South Fork Snoqualmie project is underway. A few days ago a huge excavator finished taking old logging roads and turning them into singletrack designed for mountain bikers.

The first phase of the project was funded through a $75,000 grant Evergreen received last year, combined with several hundred thousand in road-removal grants that Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust received. We built the first three miles of trail this year, which combines with a road climb for a 4+ mile ride. As funding is secured, the rest of the twenty mile system of roads will converted to singletrack.

This new trail is the result of over a decade of work by Evergreen and our volunteers. The trail is located between North Bend and Snoqualmie Pass, in the Hansen Creek Drainage. To get there you take Exit 47 from I-90 and travel 5 miles on gravel roads to the trail head, which is at 3300 feet.

We invite you to join one of our upcoming trail days, and help us log our required 200 hours of volunteer work. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come, no experience is necessary. All you need are boots, gloves, warm clothes, a sack lunch, and a desire to have fun while helping us build trail. We'll provide the tools, a great attitude, and the expertise on what to do.

The trails are not open to the general public yet, but if you come to the work party you are encouraged to bring your bike and ride the trails after we're done working as a special volunteer-only preview.

Work party #1, this Sunday
Start at 9 and we'll work until 4.

Work party #2, Sunday, Oct. 4
Start at 9 and work until 4.

Work party #3, Saturday, Oct. 17
Start at 9 and work until 3.

Work party #4, Sunday, Oct. 25
Start at 9 and work until 3.

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