Green River Gorge Mt. Bike Ride

May 13th, 2007

Links to info about the Green River Gorge:

Middle Green River Coalition: Info about conservation in Gorge, trails, and photo gallery

"A Call to Preservation" Article about Green River Gorge by Mike Archibold, King County Journal 2003

Green River Gorge: 'There's Really No Place Like It', Seattle PI 2006, by Greg Johnston

Shangri-la and history of Hanging Gardens addition to State Parks

Another great day along the Green River Gorge. 8 riders and two huskies showed up for a 4 hour ride and tour of the Green River Gorge.

We started at the official parking area for the trails ride. The first section is on multi-use trails along the Green River Gorge rd. Then the trails skirts around a forested bog to the powerlines. From there we headed along the powerline and then back out towards the GRG road. We crossed the road and took the clear-cut trail to the road that leads to the start of the Icy Creek Rim trail. It winds along the top edge of the gorge starting in tall forest and popping out in a tree farm area. Then the trail follows an old road to the Icy Creek overlook. The overlook is an awesome look at acres of undeveloped land along the Green River Gorge that Middle Green River Coalition is trying to preserve for open space. Below in the distance is the highway 169 bridge and beyond.

Then we headed in to my favorite sections of trail. Tight single track that winds down alongside the upper hillside through the green mossy forest before crossing another logging road and heading out to the rim along Icy creek. Here the trails is very technical and tight. Great for mt. biking and hiking. Perilous for horseback riding as there are steep drop-offs to the left of the trail. It winds along the steep rim of Icy creek. All along is the sound of Icy creek crashing over waterfalls and drop pools down to the Green River Gorge. Tall hundred year old Douglas fir and Cedar line the edge of the rim. The trail then turns back in to the forest through young trees and moss covered forest floor before popping out at the top edge of Icy creek. At Icy Creek is an old dam where there used to be a trout farm around 1912. Just upstream from there is where Icy Creek, a year round spring, flows out of the ground before plummeting 300 feet to the Gorge floor.

From there we headed up the old road from the creek to the road down to the Gorge where Icy Creek meets the Green River. We decided to skip the long road climb out of the gorge for the day and head to the Hanging Gardens Connection trail. This winds along the rim of the gorge above Hanging Gardens State Park site and pops out near the Black Diamond watershed fence. From there we headed down to Hanging Gardens to introduce the riders to the beautiful and scenic river gorge. The trail is steep in places and the few bad windstorms we've had in past few years have left some huge trees across the trail. We had to hike-a-bike over and around these but it was worth it. The trail leads to a rocky beach at a bend in the river. Deep Green river is edged by 150 foot white sandstone cliffs on the north side of the river. Its one of the most beautiful spots along the river and on a hot day it is a poplar spot for a quick dip in the cold river. Also a great spot for the dogs to go for a swim. We took a break here and riders spent time skipping flat rocks across the deep green pool. Bert and Naoko were amazing rock skippers. Those rocks skipped clear across the river landing on the opposite side of the river on a beach at the edge of the cliffs.

Then its the steep climb back up out of the gorge to the Green River Gorge road again. We had to hike a bike over a recently cleared trail connection that leads to the old road nestled in the forest. Forest duff has reclaimed the road surface but just below the duff is the old pavement of the roadway. This is a great connection to trails to the southeast that head towards Kanasket State Park. It pops out near a gate where we headed for a climb up a logging road on a large section of DNR property. Next, "Primitive Trail, No Warning Signs". This is a trail etched out of the forest floor and still in need of some use to define its borders. Warning, follow your ride leader very closely or you'll loose the trail. The trail winds over the top of the hillside and down to another logging road. To the left the road climbs again to another section of trail. To the right, which is the way we went, we headed back towards our cars.

We followed the logging road to another road and followed that before turning off to another section of narrow road / trail that winds through second growth forest. This is private land and unfortunately slated for development in the near future. It winds back to the powerline. We took a couple of round-a-bout trails through the forest before coming back out on the powerline road. From there we headed northwest to the lower section of the first trail link we started on for the day. Near the GRG road the trail starts up a short slope through an open grassy area to a horse / ATV trail. A short steep climb leads to a technical rocky downhill that just plummets down to the trail near the forested bog. Its wide but technical. Then we followed our earlier trail up and down before turning off on to the lower trail that branches off the main trail. This follows the lower edge of the hill and eventually leads back to the cars. We popped off early, crossed the GRG road again and headed into the deep forest on a new connector trail that leads through older forest and eventually pops out at the clear-cut near the cars.

This was probably my favorite ride I've led so far out here at the Gorge. Everyone was relaxed and wanted to stop and enjoy the views.

Bert, one of our riders, had grown up in the Kent valley and studied archeology at Green River Community college. He knew some great history of the area. He worked on an archeological project at the old historic town of Franklin on the north side of the river. That area is rich in mining history. Franklin was once a mining town with a population of 1100 people. There was an old railroad that ran from Franklin to Black Diamond. The rail line is still there in the forest and hopefully, someday, will be a trail connection between Black Diamond and the Franklin area along the Green River Gorge. At the old townsite of Franklin is an old cemetery with some interesting head stones. There is also a 1300 ft mine shaft that is grated and fenced and the old foundations of the townsite nestled in groves of alder and maple.

Naoko	Steve	IMG_1105.JPG
Kato	Naoko	Burt
Merlin	Snack Break	Steve
Kato	Naoko	Hanging Gardens Connection
Burt	Steve	IMG_1128.JPG
Naoko at Hanging Gardens	IMG_1132.JPG	Portaging the Giant Log
Rock Skipping at Hanging Gardens - 1	Rock Skipping at Hanging Gardens - 2	Positive Appliance Sign
Primitive Single Track - 1	Primitive Single Track - 2	Primitive Single Track - 3
Kato	Whoops, Missed the Trail	Kato and His Owner
Katie and Kato	Katie Gets the Glamour Shot for the Day - 1	Katie Gets the Glamour Shot for the Day - 2