Rehabilitating Mount Si trail was a labor of love

NORTH BEND — Each year, about 200,000 pairs of boots plod up the Mount Si trail, making it the most-popular hike in this hike-loving state.

All that love carried a cost: eroded trail beds, muddied switchbacks, exposed rocks.

On Saturday, a three-year effort to rehabilitate the trail officially ended when a group of volunteers, their frosted breath rising to the orange canopy of fall leaves, cut a pink ribbon with a pair of gardening shears.

If Mount Si is a hiking highway, the work was equivalent to a major resurfacing. At least 13,000 volunteer hours helped cut the cost of the renovation to about $100,000.

"In today's funding climate, this is the way a significant project gets done, and this is a significant project," said Mike Stenger, trails coordinator for the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.

The trailhead is just outside North Bend, and the trail twists up 3,500 feet of elevation to a stunning panorama of Seattle and Puget Sound at the top of the mountain's iconic knob.

The rehabilitation work, conducted through summer heat and winter snows, allows the eight-mile-round-trip trail to better accommodate its heavy use. The trail was widened in spots for two-way traffic. Rock steps were added at steep inclines. And retaining walls shore up switchbacks that had drooped.

The work was coordinated by the trust, a nonprofit group that stewards the leafy beltway that hugs Interstate 90 from Cle Elum, Kittitas County, to Seattle, and by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Many of the volunteer hours were clocked by the Washington Trails Association, one of the largest enthusiast clubs in the country. And AmeriCorps crews camped for months at a time to do heavy excavation work.

Peter Kingham, a DNR crew supervisor, spent six weeks in 2005 and a month this summer camping and working on Mount Si. On Saturday, he admired some of his crew's work as he hiked up the trail.

After about a half-mile, he stopped at a rock stair that twisted around an old Douglas fir. He'd finished the stair last week; rain had not yet washed construction dirt from the steps.

"This was just a way to spend a lot of time in the woods, and doing good work," said Kingham, 28.

Kelly Heintz, a manager with DNR, said the Mount Si trail was cut in 1973 by the Mountaineers and last renovated in 1990. The popularity of Mount Si and other Puget Sound hikes means more than just routine maintenance is needed to keep the trails safe and accessible.

The first large-scale trail renovation, of the 2.6-mile Rattlesnake Ledge near North Bend, was finished in 2004, she said. A similar renovation is under way at Rattlesnake Mountain.

Each year, the Mount Si trail draws the equivalent of three sellout crowds at Qwest Field. Renovations meant more than 8,000 feet of trail being excavated and widened, 22 switchbacks reconstructed, 280 steps installed and 816 feet of rock retaining wall laid.

All that work was done without closing the trail.

Saturday morning, Charlie Ang, a tourist from Cleveland, stretched at the trailhead as he prepared to head up. He said he had hiked the trail last week and appreciated the quality of the work.

"It doesn't help me get up that trail, and it's steep," he said. "Maybe they can put an escalator, no?"

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com