Snoqualmie Valley Trail

For weeks i had been bugging my friends about doing a ride on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. This is a wonderful trail and autumn is the most glorious time to do it.  Last year Nadine and Jeanette and i did a ride from Duvall to Tokal Road and back and we all really enjoyed the forest and the Autumn weather.

Nadine & Jeanette
(Oct 15 2010)

Jeanette & Nadine, Tokal Trestle
(Oct 15 2010)

So every time the topic of the next ride came up i've been suggesting Snoqualmie Valley Trail;  people were probably getting sick of hearing it.  

And i wanted to make it a long ride, not a quick jaunt on one section, but most or all of the trail, which starts in farmland, climbs gently through transitional forest, and then up steeply through pretty thick temperate rainforest and ends at Rattlesnake Lake in the mountains.

Yesterday we finally did it and it was magnificent!

Karen, Nadine, Mark, Emily at Rattlesnake Lake

We started just outside of Carnation, not quite the start of the trail, but about 5 or 6 miles of farmland from the start. Unfortunately i had to ride in a car to the start, and my headlight broke off in the car, but my mood quickly improved once i was pedaling in the crisp autumn air.

Karen heads down the leafy trail

We rode half an hour through the farmland before the trail entered the forest and started to slowly climb the ridge. We were all enjoying the leaves crunching under our wheels. Many leaves were still on the trees: red, orange, yellow. It was beautiful.

Alan & Emily

It was a gentle climb (rail grade of course) but we still all got pretty warm and had to stop and shed a layer.

Karen, Nadine, Emily, Alan

Once we got well into the forest, we got a warning to keep an eye open for Charismatic Mega Fauna!

Emily looks for Bears!

We pedaled, slightly up hill, for the next couple of hours through a most beautiful forest on this glorious Autumn day.  It was spiritual.


The hill was still pretty gentle.  Karen, who is generally faster than the rest of us, kept riding up next to me and saying she felt slow, that she was struggling.  It turned out that she just didn't realize how much we were climbing.  She was underestimating how hard we were working!

Near the end of the southern section of the trail is a spectacular trestle bridge. Long and curved, it goes high over the Tokal River and always deserves a stop to enjoy the view of the forest, the valley and the waterfall..

A quarter mile later, at Tokal Road there is a little tunnel under road and then stairs to carry your bike up to the road.  This section of trail ends here.  Actually it turns into a narrow hiking trail which i've always wanted to explore.  The trail would pick up again on the other side of the timber mill across the town of Snoqualmie.   However we had intended to leave the trail here anyway because we all wanted to visit Snoqualmie Falls -- and Karen had never been there!  It's only about half a mile away, and only about 2 tenths of a mile off of the trail detour route, so it was easy to get there.  The falls were astonishing.  Majestic, beautiful.  Since we've had a little rain lately there was more water than the narrow chute you can find there most of the summer (although not as much water as during Spring runoff!)

Alan, Nadine, Karen, Emily at Snoqualmie Falls

To connect up the two sections of trail, one option is to cut through the little town of Snoqualime, but both Nadine and i were looking forward to the other option, Mill Pond Road, on the other side of the river from the town.   It was a lovely, quiet, fast, couple of miles, and when we got to the steps to up to the bridge where the trail started up again, Nadine urged us to continue on the road.   It was worth it!  The tree lined Reining Road is wonderful.

Reining Road

This brought us via the back way into North Bend, right along the abrupt slopes of Mount Si.  We were all very hungry and stopped at Scott's Dairy Freeze.   This is a stop i frequently make when riding out here, and from the outside i always think, 'Do i really want to eat here?'    It doesn't look like some place you could get something good.  You can!  Everything is great!   And we actually sat outside at picnic tables!!

Emily celebrating a good lunch!

We ate quickly because it does get dark early these days, and i was really wanting to make it all the way to Rattlesnake Lake.  Everyone else was skeptical, but i really wanted to enjoy that section of trail as it gets higher and to accomplish the climb to the lake.  We were all worried about the time and some were getting tired. Before we left our lunch spot i filled my shirt pocket with french fries -- the other pocket always has dark chocolate covered almonds in it, so i can feed myself as i ride.  Got to keep the fuel handy!

From North Bend, the trail crosses under the freeway, and then turns upwards and climbs more significantly.  This part of the trail had fewer colored leaves, it's more native northwest temperate rainforest, big cedars covered with ferns and moss.  I love it.  The riding was a bit harder up hill and there were some voices suggesting we stop and turn around.  We did have to stop and get some more food in us (my pockets supplied me!) part of the way up to the lake, but we did make it all the way and everyone was very happy.

SUCCESS!  Alan, Karen, Nadine & Emily -- Rattlesnake Lake & Rattlesnake ridge.

I walked over to the water -- the lake was VERY low, in early summer feet would be wet where they are standing in the photo above.  The lake was formed when the reservoir for the new Seattle City water system was built 100 years ago.  The water leaked through the gravel hill next to it and flooded Rattlesnake Prairie and the town of Cedar Falls.

I did have a moment of panic at the lake.  With my cellphone off, and my cyclometer over by my bike, i checked the time on my camera.  It said it was ten after three!!!  That's only an hour and half from sunset!  I panicked and rushed everyone back on the bikes. It was probably 15 minutes later that i looked at my cyclometer and realized that my camera was an hour fast -- i had neglected to change the time on it last week!

Heading downhill was fast.  It was a big change from our pace up the hill!

A few miles down the trail down the trail Alan got a flat tire, and we all stopped while we fixed it.  It didn't take too long before we were cruising again.  This time we didn't take the loop through North Bend but stayed on the trail, which eventually bisects a golf course.  The section after the golf course was one of the nicest sections, straight and leafy with a tunnel of trees down the trail.

We walked down the stairs from the bridge back to Mill Pond Road and then just as we started up the hill to Tokal Road again, Karen got a flat tire.  This one was more difficult and it took three attempts to fix it.  Now we were a bit worried about sunset.  After going through the Tokal Tunnel again, i looked back and the lighting on the trees made it look like an animated cartoon at the other end of the tunnel. It was magical.

Here comes Emily through the tunnel!

And more easy, fun, pretty down hill riding.

We got back to the cars right as the darkness was closing in. In the last mile of this 47 mile ride, i reached 4,000 miles total for 2011, which was a nice milestone.

Here's a map.