This summer, Evergreen Trail Builders Ian Robinson and Michael Fischer were hard at work refreshing the bottom of Bermy Loamax; and building two new trails, My Little Friend and Lower Bouncy House, at The Summit at Snoqualmie Bike Park. Both of these new trails are a partnership between Evergreen and The Summit Trail Crew. We have been working on My Little Friend and Bouncy House for the last two seasons. 

Michael Fischer is here with the inside scoop on the new trails that opened this summer:

" My Little Friend was a preexisting legacy trail from the original bike park and local riders. Our goal was to improve sustainability and update this trail to give a more modern flow. The upper segment uses smooth machine built flow and hand built sections to blend natural tech with enough speed to make it through the flatter segments without pedaling. Optional lines and features keep both intermediate and advanced riders engaged. 

Moving into the lower segment the trail transitions to a black tech trail maintaining a lot of the raw natural character of the preexisting line. Alignment adjustments were made to improve sustainability and eliminate the fall line creek bed that eroded the original trail during rainstorms and spring snow melt. Additionally, a ride around option was added at the most technical rock chute to make the trail accessible to more riders and facilitate progression.

This is a true Snoqualmie Pass classic with steep, rooty and rocky lines beneath the thick canopy of mountain hemlock. 

Building this line presented many challenges. Steep terrain and abundant bedrock made for difficult digging in the excavator providing some precarious scenarios. Patience and persistence was needed to complete this segment and keep the excavator rubber side down. As always, the endless amounts of rock at The Summit would challenge hand work. Evergreen completed construction in the fall of 2023, allowing the deep winter snow pack to help compact and bed in this trail before receiving heavy bike park traffic. In the Summer of 2024 The Summit Trail Crew hand milled and completed the bridge allowing riders passage over the creek. "

" Bouncy House is a great example of partnership between Evergreen and The Summit at Snoqualmie Trail Crews. The upper half was built by the Summit crew and the lower built by Evergreen. This partnership is a key component of the development of the park allowing for faster build times. 

Bouncy House is a blue flow trail with a mix of rollers, berms and the occasional sneaky gaps and jib. The layout and usage of rollers is exciting for riders intermediate to advanced. The trail progressively becomes steeper and faster as you travel down hill. As speed increases so does the size of the berms. These are some of the most supportive berms in the park. 

Overall the terrain in this zone is much steeper than we typically look for in building a blue flow trail. Extra time was spent with clinometers making adjustments to the flagline. A few key alignment changes were made to reduce speed through the corners in an effort to reduce maintenance. 

Another highlight of this build was the usage of a custom ordered sifting bucket on the excavator. This allowed us to remove large amounts of rock from the soil and create a smoother riding surface. The common Snoqualmie Pass challenges of steep terrain and rocky soil make flow trails very difficult to build. Our crew worked very hard to make the most of this challenging build. In the end the excitement of riders made it all worthwhile. "

Shout out to Michael, Ian, and all the Evergreen and Summit at Snoqualmie staff for their hard work all season at The Summit at Snoqualmie bike park! 

A big thanks to everyone in the community for supporting us and the bike park, and enjoying the trails.  It was a great season together!

Video by Bailey Villalovos