Duthie Trails

From Evergreen Trail Guide

Trail Overview

Evergreen is proud to announce the Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park. This park is located on the Issaquah Plateau, just north of Grand Ridge Park.

The park is a nicely wooded 120 acre forest with rolling terrain and well draining soils. There is a 2.5 acre clearing in the middle, surrounding by second growth forest. Duthie Hill connects with Grand Ridge Park, which already has a 6 mile singletrack trail that connects all the way to I-90 in the south.

Duthie Hill is officially open with phase 1 complete! It includes:

• 4 flowy XC trails that can be connected into a single 5-6 mile loop
• 1-2 miles of flowy and technical freeride trails
• progressive jump lines / flow lines (VIDEO By Walter Yi: http://vimeo.com/7497151)
• tons of practice and skill-building features

King County has provided a Community Partnership Grant and a Youth Sports Facilities Grant to help fund the project. Thanks very much to King County for this awesome opportunity! We will need to find additional funding to fully build Duthie Hill out to its full potential... so your contributions -- financial donations, materials/tools donations and volunteer time -- are vital to the success of the park. We have built a fundraising feature in the center of the park where you will be able to have your name engraved on a tile; see Advocacy below for details.

How To Get Here

Duthie Hill Park is located on the Issaquah Plateau between Issaquah, Sammamish and Fall City. Here are a few maps: How to Get Here Maps. Here is a file you can load into Google Earth and most GPS software: GPS and Google Earth Files.

NORTH SIDE: MAIN PARK ENTRANCE AND DUTHIE HILL LODGE. The main entrance, parking and the Duthie Hill Lodge address is: 27101 SE Duthie Hill Road, Issaquah, WA 98029. Google maps will get you there. Park in the upper lot -- the lower lot is now reserved for King County staff. To get to the center of the bike park, take the trail that starts across the road from the southeast corner of the parking lot. Follow that dirt trail south as it winds behind the lodge, next to a nursery and to the boardwalk. Continue on the awesome new 600 ft long boardwalk built by Evergreen's awesome volunteers. :) That will lead you back into the woods... just keep following the trail and you'll end up in a large clearing or meadow.

On weekends, overflow parking is at Endeavor Elementary School at 26205 SE Issaquah Fall City Rd (<5 min ride to the south entrance -- http://www.endeavour.issaquah.wednet.edu/) and Cascade Ridge Elementary School at 2020 Trossachs Boulevard Southeast (<5 min ride to the north entrance -- http://www.cascaderidge.issaquah.wednet.edu/).

More on parking

• Park at the Duthie Hill Lodge lot on the north side of the park (aka Duthie Hill Lodge) at 27101 SE Duthie Hill Road.
• Overflow parking on weekends is at Endeavor and Cascade Ridge Elementary Schools.
• PLEASE DON'T PARK IN THE CLEARING.
• Please don't park alongside Duthie Hill Rd or Issaquah-Fall City Rd -- it obstructs visibility for the neighbors and is a hazard.
• Please don't park in the Montaine-Aldarra Neighborhoods to maintain a good-neighbor relationship. On-street parking is not allowed per their HOA and you may get ticketed and towed.
• Please don't park in the LDS Church lot (please don't park in any private lot for that matter).
• Please don't try to find any other access into the park - you will be trespassing on private property.

Thanks very much!

SOUTH SIDE: MAINTENANCE ACCESS ROAD -- for King County Staff and Volunteer Trail Builders Only. For volunteers attending a work party, there is a gated maintenance access road entrance at: 26660 Issaquah-Fall City Road, Issaquah, WA 98029. Google maps will get you there. There is a large steel gate and 2 concrete blocks. During work parties, the gate is pulled shut, but is unlocked. Just pull the gate shut behind you and head north up the gravel/dirt road. You'll end up in the main clearing in the center of the park. This gate is locked at all other times - if you are not attending a scheduled work party, do not use the maintenance road as you will be violating the usage agreement and may be locked in!

Warning: There have been break-ins reported at the main Duthie Hill Park Parking lot (north side / boardwalk entrance) and along Issaquah-Fall City Road (south side / gated maintenance only entrance). Please take all valuables with you!

Other Access Options

• Ride the Grand Ridge trail Trail:Grand Ridge all the way north and it'll take you to the maint access road.
• Take the ST #554 or Metro #927 bus to the Issaquah Highlands Park & Ride -- then it's about a 3 mile ride to the maint access road.

Please respect the neighbors and don't try to access the park any other way. Please don't use the church parking lot off of Duthie Hill Rd. Thanks very much!

Typical Conditions

Smooth, buff, contoured (flowy!) singletrack with bermed turns. All XC trails have advanced and challenging optional features including logrides, ladders, drops & skinnies.

Intermediate FR lines with medium-sized drops, tables, step-ups, step-downs, and gaps.

FR/DH flowpark with advanced drops, jumps of all shapes and sizes, wallrides, and a pump track.

Practice area with drops of varying height, skinnies, and beginner tables and step-down jumps.

All trails/lines hold up very well in the wet; expect only marginal puddles and slop under even significant rainfall.

Current Conditions

Generally, very good. However, a lot of damage is being done to sensitive downhill sections on Ryan's Eternal Flow and a few of the XC lines. Watch for brake bumps, broken shoulders, and loose tread! R1de 11:30, 13 August 2010 (PDT)

Turn-By-Turn Guide

Bootcamp (SE) XC Trail - Green Circle

The main line:

• One-way CW (clockwise) - find the start at the top of the array of drops, head back and to the right.
• Flowy, mostly buff with no significant climbs, mostly wide turns with a couple tight climbing turns.
• Beginners will be challenged, but will have fun riding the entire 1.5mi main line.
• More advanced riders will find challenge by learning how to pump and carve the entire line without braking... improving turning skills.
• There is an optional long, skinny logride to the right of the entrance.
• There are three optional ladders - the middle of which has a challenging exit - to the left of the main line in the first part of the trail.
• There is an optional challenging skinny up and over a switchback further down.
• The high point of this trail features the optional Mother Of All Logrides - a (very!) long, twisting, multi-segment logride that can be very challenging to clean in one pass. There is a second entrance to it at the midpoint for beginners to build skills.
• There is an advanced optional line to the left towards the latter end of the trail, featuring some small jump/drop options and a ladder.

Movin' On (SW) XC Trail - Blue Square

The main line:

• One-way CW (clockwise) - find the start directly across from the end of the Bootcamp trail (across the maintenance road).
• Flowy but with more technical sections and some tighter corners.
• Optional sequence of elevated ladders with steep rollout/drops to the left in the first section.
• Numerous optional low-lying logrides and skinnies throughout the trail.
• Larger Schleyer-style optional drop and elevated ladder sequence to the right at the mid-point - don't cut the corners between this optional line and the main line!
• Optional roller coaster on the right.
• There is a break in this trail between the first main section and the last climb back up, at the bottom of the flowpark. Follow the gravel trail back into the woods to the right (don't go up the wrong-way of the flowpark lines!) and take the switchbacks back up to the clearing.

Step It Up (NE) XC Trail - Blue Square

The main line:

• One-way CW (clockwise) - find the start directly to the right of the toolshed area in the clearing.
• Flowy and very fast, with a number of banked turns and undulations. Some drops.
• Start of this trail features a few small non-optional drops.
• Watch for an optional skinny log drop to the right after you flow down a ways.
• Large, well-elevated optional ladder to the right - hit this to build up speed for the clockwise berm at the bottom!
• On the first climb, there is an optional ladder to the right, that transitions to a skinny.
• Watch for a series of three optional downhill logrides to the left, each of increasing challenge. You can bail at the end of each segment, or hit all three and skip the switchbacks.
• Towards the mid-point of the trail, watch for an optional detour on the right, featuring a tight ladder to elevated logride - this can be tricky.
• As you climb back up, keep a look out to the left for an optional CCW (counter-clockwise) detour into the "Toilet Bowl" line - a short, challenging, flowy line featuring drops and jumps.

Braveheart (NW) XC Trail - Black Diamond

The main line:

• One-way CW (clockwise) - find the start to the left of the advanced HLC ladder drop across the WTA trailhead in the clearing
• Tough climbs with technical sections, tight corners and fast downhill flow.
• Start of this trail features an optional rock garden waterfall!

Ryan's Eternal Flow FR Line - Blue Square

• One-way downhill - find the start from either the NE XC (about 2/3 down the line) or from the walkup to the east of SE XC entrance.
• Gateway feature is an elevated ladder drop-in (lefthand fork of the ladder) with rollin option. Please don't cut around this feature; it is intended to filter out riders not yet ready for the difficulty of the line.
• This line features a table, step-up, small and medium-sized drops, and ladders. All drops are optional.
• The middle of the line swoops up and down the sides of a gully, for maximum flow and speed - very fun! Don't stop anywhere on this line; riders will be at great speed.
• Towards the end of the line there is an optional gap step-down.
• At the bottom, head left to get back into the clearing, or right to pick up on the NE XC 1/3 from the start.

Local Points of Interest

Grand Ridge (to the south)

Soaring Eagle (to the north)

Where to Stay

Where to stay if you're visiting from out of town:

1 bedroom ground floor for rent on beautiful 5 acre property . Borders Duthie Hill Park. Private bathroom with shower, private entrance. kitchen sink, refrigerator, microwave, TV, deck, BBQ, stereo, gas fireplace. There is a private bedroom with 1 bed, and a sofa queen in the common area. Sleeps 1- 3. Rate $75 first person, $50 each additional. Member of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. Subject to availability. For more details email sethbasker@gmail.com or call Seth at 425-391-5000.

Duthie Hill in the Press

• Sammamish mountain-bike plan gets cash, Seattle Times, January 17, 2008.
• KOMO News - "New mountain bike park 'get's it right'"

Advocacy Information

This park is being developed by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance with grant money from King County. Evergreen will design, build and maintain the mountain bike facilities in the park.

We need additional funding to fully build the park and meet our grant matching requirements. Like xc racing, freeriding or dirt jumping? We'd love your financial support.

• How to Volunteer: Click Here to Sign up for a Work Party.
• How to Donate: Click Here -- we need your support.
• Click Here Buy An Engraved Tile.
• How to Contact Us: send an email to trails@evergreenmtb.org.
• Frequently Asked Questions: Duthie FAQ

Other Info

• Design and construction process: http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Duthie_7Steps
• Duthie Volunteers-Extraordinaire: http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Duthie_Volunteers
• Original Schematic Drawings: http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Duthie_Original_Drawings

"How to Get Here" Maps

NORTH SIDE: MAIN PARK ENTRANCE AND DUTHIE HILL LODGE

SOUTH SIDE: MAINTENANCE ACCESS ROAD

New: Higher Res Maps

PDF File: File:DuthieP1TrailPlan0325.pdf

JPG File:

GPS and Google Earth Files

Right-Click Here: [Duthie GPX File] and select "Save As..."

This file can be loaded into Google Earth and most GPS software. It shows:

• North/Lodge Entrance and Parking waypoints
• South Maint Access Rd Entrance waypoint
• Clearing Waypoint
• WTA trail track from the north entrance to the clearing
• Maint Access Rd track from the south entrance to the clearing

Soon we'll be able to load .KML files -- stay tuned.

High Level Design Maps

Here is a map showing the Phase 1 high level trail concept.

• The "XC" (cross country) trails can be connected in a 4-5 mile clockwise loop that circumnavigates the 120 acre park.
• The "Freeride" (technical) trails are shorter and encompass a variety of riding styles and difficulty levels... freeride, SST-like jump lines, flowy downhill, technical downhill segments and technical climbs.

The following will give you an idea of how the 120 park compares to other parks & riding areas:

Phase 2 Plan

The plan is to build Duthie in 2 phases. Here is the plan for Phase 2:

Photos

Duthie Hill vicinity map	5 ft topo map	The Boardwalk	Options!
Practice your skinnies	Practice your landings

Videos

Check out the entrance boardwalk - very cool. It has been finished since this vid.

JVP's Mother of All Log Rides: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQkl1BIZ7g

Flowpark: http://www.vimeo.com/7497151

A little bit of everything Duthie: http://www.vimeo.com/7957966

A Dirt Corps Line Case: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/115921/