Outdoors -- Iron Horse Access Is On Right Path, Most Groups Say

A LONG-AWAITED trailhead and parking lot near Rattlesnake Lake should help hikers, riders and bikers find the Iron Horse Trail. -----------------------------------------------------------------

NORTH BEND - The cross-state snake is finally getting a head.

The snake, Iron Horse State Park, is Washington State Parks' truncated, cross-state railroad path stretching from North Bend to the Idaho border. The head is a long-awaited, soon-to-be developed parking area and trail access at Rattlesnake Lake, southeast of North Bend.

Not everyone is pleased with the fit. One critic says State Parks is giving up a prime section of Iron Horse railroad right-of-way in exchange for a trailhead and parking lot on a now-contaminated waste site.

But most trail groups support the project, which is steaming forward. When finished next fall, the trailhead should provide an answer to one of the most-asked questions of local hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers: How do I get on the Iron Horse Trail?

Today, the answer is rife with complicated directions to one of a half-dozen rather obscure trail-access points along Interstate 90 between North Bend and Snoqualmie Pass. Next year, it'll be simple: Drive to North Bend, drive east to Rattlesnake Lake, park and enjoy.

The Seattle Water Department, which owns the land around Rattlesnake Lake, plans a new, 100-car trailhead parking lot east of the lake, where trail users will follow a single-track trail a short distance to the Iron Horse Trail. The trail, also known in some eastern portions as the John Wayne Trail, follows the old Milwaukee Road right-of-way east through the Snoqualmie Tunnel to Lake Keechelus and beyond. One major obstacle in that path - a washed-out trestle at Hall Creek, near I-90 Exit 38 - is being studied by the state and could be repaired by late next year.

The new parking lot is expected to give the trail two things it needs: high west-end visibility and plenty of parking.

The trailhead is part of a larger Rattlesnake Lake development by Seattle Water, which also will build an enlarged lake parking area and a $3.8 million visitor center for the Cedar River Watershed.

The city sought to build its visitor center and access road on state-owned railroad right-of-way immediately south of Rattlesnake Lake. State and city managers proposed a deal: Seattle Water gets an easement to one-third mile of the Iron Horse Trail for its building project; State Parks gets land to build an Iron Horse Trail parking lot adjacent to a new, larger parking lot planned for Rattlesnake Lake.

State Parks Commissioners have approved the swap. It's a done deal once the Seattle City Council approves.

Most trail users call it a win-win. But Fred Wert, a local rail-trail advocate and guidebook author, is fostering opposition.

Wert maintains the city could just as easily build its visitor center on one of four other sites without occupying the right-of-way, which he says is a key link to a proposed trail through the Cedar River Watershed on another railroad route south to Landsburg or Kangley.

City and state officials say Wert's access complaints are a red herring: The portion of the Iron Horse Trail used for visitor-center construction will be replaced by a more scenic stretch of trail, following Cedar Falls Road along the lake's south shore. (Traffic will be rerouted south, on a new access road to the visitor center and Seattle Water offices at Cedar Falls.)

Links to existing trail systems connecting to the Iron Horse (such as the Snoqualmie Valley Trail) and any future systems (such as the proposed Kangley connection, which is off-limits to hikers under current watershed-access rules) will be maintained, Seattle Water's Marie Ruby says.

"(Wert) comes very strongly from the unalterable viewpoint that the existing railroad right-of-way is sacrosanct," Ruby says. The changes he seeks, she says, can't be made "without redesigning the entire project, which we can't do."

Ruby notes that other trail groups, such as the Issaquah Alps, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and various equestrian clubs, support the land exchange.

Wert says the one thing State Parks is gaining - "new" access to the Iron Horse Trail - isn't new at all. There's already an unofficial (but widely used) single-track connection from Rattlesnake Lake.

Wert's primary concern is that the new access trail, like the current one, would be on Seattle Water property and subject to closure if the city felt a need to keep people out - not inconceivable in a carefully guarded watershed. The state should get guaranteed access written into any land-exchange agreement, Wert says.

State Parks commissioners agree and will seek written trail-access guarantees in the final legal agreement with Seattle Water, State Parks spokeswoman Susan Zemick says.

Nobody is arguing Wert's other contention: that the land being traded to the state is a toxic-waste site. The parking-lot land was the primary staging area for the former Mountain Tree Farm, a logging operation run by Scott Paper and Weyerhaeuser. Heavy equipment parked there over the years leaked oils, fuels and other contaminants into the soil. It's being cleaned up under supervision of the state Department of Ecology.

The project will cost about $500,000 and will be complete by the end of the year, said Tom Spring, the city's watershed projects manager. Water tests of Rattlesnake Lake and nearby wells indicated the contaminants had not spread from the site and pose no threat to the city water supply, Spring said.

City and State Parks officials said the cleanup won't be an issue for trail users, either: The site will be cleaned before parking-lot construction begins.

Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Bjorhus contributed to this article.