Alert 9/16-10/4: Snoqualmie Valley Trail closed north of Rattlesnake Lake

Map from King County Parks.

King County Parks will close the Snoqualmie Valley Trail between the Riverbend neighborhood and Rattlesnake Lake from September 16 to October 4. Unfortunately, there will be no official detour or temporary biking and walking route.

The closure is needed so crews can repair a timber trail bridge structure memorably named bridge 2178-44. The Snoqualmie Valley Trail is a rail-trail that uses rather old railroad infrastructure. Parts of the timber trestle structure have areas of rot and need to be replaced for safety," King County Parks noted in their announcement.

The bridge in question in a remote and particularly beautiful section of the trail, and there are no nearby route alternatives. The best option from what I can tell may be to hop off the trail at SE 145th Street in Riverbend (first street after crossing the river heading southbound) and then wind through the neighborhood to take Cedar Falls Road SE to Rattlesnake Lake. Cedar Falls Road has significant sections without shoulders, and I have never personally ridden on it so I cannot vouch for how safe it feels to bike there. It pretty much only goes to Rattlesnake Lake, so it can't be that busy, right? If anyone else has experience biking there or has a better route to suggest, please let us know in the comments below.

Not the exact location of the closure, but nearby. It's a beautiful place to walk or bike.

As a side note, the detour policy for trail closures needs some updates in our region (I'm looking at you, Spiketon Ditch Bridge team). First, a trail-like temporary route should be priority number one for any closure in which crews cannot safely allow trail users to travel through a work zone. But even in cases where a trail-like temporary route is not feasible, project teams should still be required to sign a detour to help folks who are just trying to get around by bike and perhaps have not read every post on Seattle Bike Blog before leaving home. Imagine an information sign at each closure point that not only outlines the detour route but also includes descriptions or even photos of the detour conditions. Caution: Detour route includes arterial roads without shoulders. Discretion is advised." Something like that. People can decide for themselves if they want to attempt the detour, but at least they will have a route to follow if they need one. This seems safer than relying on people to figure it out from a map or, worse, try to find a route that goes through using trial and error.