Alert 9/2-10/10: Snoqualmie Valley Trail closed north of Mount Si Golf Course

Map of the closure from King County Parks.

A short section of the Snoqualmie Valley Trail is closed until October 10 north of Mount Si Golf Course in Snoqualmie. Longtime riders of the trail will be very familiar with how to get around the trail closure since it is the same detour used back when the Reinig Bridge (of Twin Peaks fame) was burned back in 2014. Many riders choose to skip this section anyway since getting up to the Reinig Bridge requires carrying your bike up stairs. However, the detour does require on-street biking.

King County Parks is repairing two trestle bridges near the Three Forks Natural Area, noting in an email alert that the trail will be fully closed during this time" and no detours are available."

There's a short and already-well-used bike route around this section of trail. Heading south, instead of climbing up to the Reinig Bridge, travel southwest on SE Reinig Road a few hundred feet to the Meadowbrook Bridge, which is a one-lane bridge controlled with a stop light. You can either ride on the road or hop up on the bridge sidewalk, just be careful because visibility is poor near the north end of the bridge. Then head south on SE Park Street. You can either turn left toward the dog park to follow the path there or stay on the road a little further and turn into the golf course driveway. Both options will get you to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail south of the closure, and both also work in the northbound direction. In my experience these roads have been low-traffic, but it's possible there are busier hours that I haven't seen (such as school pickup and drop-off).

I don't know why King County Parks is not signing this detour. There are cases when a trail is closed and there is no reasonable detour, but this is not one of them. Sure, there isn't really an easy way to create a separated trail-like detour, but they should at least sign it as an on-street detour. That would not only help folks who don't read Seattle Bike Blog and arrive at the unexpected closure, but it would also help alert people driving that they should expect more trail users on the road. Many people may also not know that the path near the dog park connects to the trail, so it could be helpful to point that out.

In the end, though, this is a pretty nice area to get lost. I wouldn't cancel any ride plans because of it.