Trail:Duthie Hill

From Evergreen Trail Guide

1 Important Messages About Duthie
2 How to Volunteer
3 Trail Overview
4 How To Get Here
5 Typical Conditions
6 Current Conditions
7 Trail Maps
- 7.1 GeoPDF File
- 7.2 GPX File for Google Earth and GPS Software
8 Turn-By-Turn Guide: Cross-Country Trails
9 Turn-By-Turn Guide: Beginner and Intermediate Freeride Trails
10 Turn-By-Turn Guide: Advanced Freeride Trails
11 Local Points of Interest
12 Where to Stay
13 Duthie Hill in the Press
14 Advocacy Information
15 Other Info
- 15.1 "How to Get Here" Maps
16 Photos
17 Videos




Name	Duthie Hill
Tech Rating
Grunt Rating
Singletrack	95%
Fire road	5%
Paved	0%
Total trail	6 miles in Phase 1 mi.
Alt. change	130
Latitude:	47.57849433
Longitude:	-121.9784545
Nearest medical:	Swedish Medical Center, 2005 NW Sammamish RD, Issaquah, WA‎ (425)394-0610
Page adopted by:	mwestra2 (Mike Westra)


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Important Messages About Duthie

DOGS MUST BE ON LEASH AT ALL TIMES. King County Parks is getting complaints about off-leash dogs at Duthie and Gd Ridge. Both places are so heavily used, unfortunately it really just isn't appropriate to ride with our pooches off-leash there any more.

TRAIL CLOSURES AS OF 4/12/13: BC/DC.

MAINTENANCE WORK PARTIES will be running on a regular basis. Click here for general info on How To Volunteer

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING ABOUT PARKING...

PARKING

We continue to be blown away by the overwhelming popularity of Duthie. It's awesome, but we never expected it and it's creating a serious parking problem. It's creating a hazard on the roads and a real annoyance for the neighbors, so King County Parks is working hard to solve the problem. Stay tuned.

Please park at one of the following locations:

Duthie Hill Lodge lot on the north side of the park at 27101 SE Duthie Hill Rd, Issaquah, WA 98029
Cascade Ridge Elementary School at 2020 Trossachs Blvd SE, Sammamish, WA 98075

Please do NOT park...

In the LDS Church lot or at Endeavor Elementary School
In the clearing (unless you are working/volunteering and are specifically authorized to do so)
Alongside Duthie Hill Rd or Issaquah-Fall City Rd -- it obstructs visibility for the neighbors and is a hazard
Alongside Trossachs Boulevard -- it obstructs the bike lane and imposes on the residents of the neighborhood
On any side-streets in the surrounding neighborhoods (to maintain a good-neighbor relationship)
In any private lot.

Thanks very much for your cooperation and patience while we work on a long term parking solution.

How to Volunteer

Regular Duthie maintenance work parties have started for the build season (aka rainy season). We still need your help maintaining the trail. Here's how you can volunteer:

Join a work party -- Evergreen Calendar. Stop by and help whenever you like. Just call Mike, Brian or Kevin when you get to the central clearing (contact #s below).
Hook up with 1 of the lead builders by posting on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/54215820508) or MTBR (http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83)
Send an email to Mike mwestra@evergreenmtb.org or call Mike: 425-241-7806, Kevin: 206-335-8361, Brian: 813-476-1483

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.

High Level Trail Summary:

4 flowy XC trails that can be connected into a ~5 mile loop
>2 miles of flowy and technical freeride trails of varying difficulty levels
Progressive jump lines / flow lines, tons of practice and skill-building features
Connects to the Grand Ridge Trail System Grand Ridge
Walter Yi Videos: http://vimeo.com/10983037, http://vimeo.com/15545457, http://vimeo.com/11188398

King County has provided Community Partnership and Youth Sports Facilities and Youth Athletic Fund Grants to help fund the project. Evergreen corporate supporters, private donors and volunteers have contributed over $50,000 and 20,000 volunteer hours to the Park. How cool is that?! Thanks very much to everybody for this awesome place to ride and just hang out!

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 Cascade Ridge Elementary School at 2020 Trossachs Boulevard Southeast (<5 min ride to the north entrance -- http://www.cascaderidge.issaquah.wednet.edu/).

South Side: Maintenance Access Road (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

More actively drained and maintained than most trails in the area. All trails hold up very well in the wet; expect only marginal puddles and slop under even significant rainfall. Dry summers are actually harder on the trails than the long wet Fall/Winter/Spring.

The XC trails are mostly smooth, buff, flowy, contoured singletrack with bermed turns (particularly Bootcamp and StepItUp). Some are a bit more technical than others (Movin'On and Braveheart). All XC trails have advanced and challenging optional features including logrides, ladders, drops & skinnies.
Beginner to Extreme Expert Freeride trails with tables, gaps, drops, step-ups, step-downs... a bit of everything.
The Flowpark is the biggest concentration of freeride trails and features.
3 pump tracks... 2 in the clearing and 1 at the top of the flow park (entrance to Rehab).
Practice area with drops of varying height, skinnies, and beginner tables and step-down jumps.

Current Conditions

Trail Maps

High res version: [Click Here]

GeoPDF File

Right-Click: [Duthie GeoPDF File] and select "Save Link As..."

Use this file along with an app like Avenza PDF Maps to use it as a basemap for your iPhone GPS or iPad GPS. This file is also layered so you can turn different map features on & off. For example, to just see the newer Phase 2 trails, you can turn off the Phase 1 trails layer.

GPX File for Google Earth and GPS Software

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

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

These files can be loaded into Google Maps, Google Earth and most GPS software apps. Click on a trail in the map below for more info:

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

Click here: [for a Duthie Vicinity Map]

Turn-By-Turn Guide: Cross-Country Trails

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 four 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 pair of roller coasters 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. Closed currently - and potentially permanently - during reroute.
The end of this trail has been re-routed to wind through the bottom section of Big Tree, flowing under some decked gap jumps; stay on course.

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!

Turn-By-Turn Guide: Beginner and Intermediate Freeride Trails

Jabulani (aka 2Hi) - Blue Square

One-way downhill - find the start at the top of the Luna Air Zone, behind and to the left of the elevated platforms.
This line features alternating switchbacks and traverses, all descending.
The traverses feature jumps ranging from knee-high to waist-high. All jumps can be rolled over or rolled around, and the maximum speed is not high.
The key to this trail is to maintain speed through the turns, and then accelerate out of them, so that you can carry enough speed into the jumps to clear the tabletops and land smoothly on the transitions.
The trail ends at a clearing on the west side of the park, near the ends of the Semper Dirticus and Paramount trails.
To return to the main clearing ride up the service road. Or, if you prefer singletrack, take the last segment of the SW XC trail (Movin' On).

Ryan's Eternal Flow FR Line - Blue Square

Do not stop anywhere on this line; riders will be moving fast.
One-way downhill - find the start from either the NE XC (Step It Up - about 2/3 down the line) or from the walkup to the east of SE XC (Bootcamp) entrance.
Gateway feature is an elevated ladder drop-in (lefthand fork of the ladder) with rollin option.
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!
There are two optional step-down jumps / drops, and one optional step-up.
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.

Rehab - Blue Square / Black Diamond

Do not stop anywhere on this line; riders will be moving fast, and visibility is limited.
One-way downhill - find the start at the back side of the pump track between the Semper Dirticus and Paramount trails.
To find the upper pump track from the main clearing, head to the service road (near the trail map kiosk) and look for the sign that marks the "Flowpark Walkup" trail on your right, opposite the beginner pump track.
There is no gateway feature per se, but the first three turns are twisty enough to get your attention.
This line features a series of quick, tight, steeply banked turns, and a few jumps in the knee-high to waist-high range.
All jumps are easily rollable. If you are not ready to jump over them, try to manual them instead - let your rear wheel stay on the ground, and try to lift your front wheel from lip to lip, without pedaling.
The key to this trail is to have faith that after each corner, around the bend, where you can't yet see... there's more trail. The more you believe, the less you will need to brake.
The trail ends with a 180 degree sweeper which deposits you at the base of a walk-up trail that leads back to the pump track and the Semper Dirticus and Paramount trails. Alternately you can coast a short distance to the west clearing, and return to the main clearing via service road or SW XC (Movin' On) singletrack.

Turn-By-Turn Guide: Advanced Freeride Trails

The trails above can be safely explored by novice riders, at low speeds. The trails below cannot - these trails demand commitment, speed, and expertise. The turn-by-turn guides here are provided to help advanced riders find trails that are suited to their skill level, but it would be unwise to ride them based on these descriptions alone. Riders are advised to walk these trails from top to bottom before riding them, to get familiar with the speed and skill required by each feature. Failure to do so may result in serious injury, particularly in the case of large jumps and even moderately-sized "gap" jumps.

The gateway features on these trails indicate the degree of skill that is necessary to ride the rest of the trail. Do not circumvent them.

All of the advanced freeride trails are one-way, downhill. Do not stop on these trails.

HLC - Black Diamond

When you are consistently clearing all of the jumps and optional features on Ryan's Line and Jabulani / 2Hi, this is your next step. The jumps are considerably bigger, but since they have case guards, you can safely attempt them with less speed than they were designed for. Then, gradually increase your speed until you are clearing all of them.
The entrance is on the north side of the main clearing - the elevated ladder drop is easy to spot.
If you are comfortable with the drops in the upper clearing, next to the trick step-up, this drop is your next logical step. It is only slightly more challenging.
The drop is followed by a 90 degree left berm, then a step-up onto a wood platform (the "Banana Hammock"), and a step-down back to dirt.
After two more berms you'll reach two table-top jumps, both with wood case-guards. Carrying speed from the hammock and through the berms is critical to clearing the case-guards and landing gently.
After a very mild climb you'll reach a step-down. This may be the most intimidating feature on this trail, since you can't see the landing until you're airborne.
The step-down is followed by a step-up and two small table-tops.
Then you'll take a sharp left, bomb straight down the hillside, and sail over the largest jump on this trail (the "Happy Ending").
After one final berm, you may return to the main clearing by way of a walk-up trail on your right, or take a left and follow the (somewhat over-grown) access road to the west clearing and then to the main clearing.

Semper Dirticus (aka Dirt Corps) - Black Diamond

When you are consistently clearing all of the jumps on the HLC trail, this is your next step. Some of the jumps are similarly sized, some are considerably bigger. You'll also find some gaps, which require 100% commitment to survive unharmed, and hip jumps, which add a little bit of difficulty and a whole lot of fun.
This trail starts from an elevated platform at the top of the flow park, on the left side of the upper pump track.
To find the upper pump track from the main clearing, head to the service road (near the trail map kiosk) and look for the sign that marks the "Flowpark Walkup" trail on your right, opposite the beginner pump track.
The gateway is of course the elevated platform, which is followed by two small table-tops. Pedal hard to clear them.
The small table-tops are followed by a much larger step-down, which has case-guard.
The step-down is followed by a step-up and a ladder drop. Be warned, the drop is taller and the landing is less steep than HLC's gateway or the practice drops, which makes it somewhat harsh by comparison.
The ladder drop is followed by a hip with a gap, which has no case guard. Do not attempt this unless you are certain that you will clear the gap. The ladder drop will give you just enough speed to clear it, but a crank or two couldn't hurt.
The gap is followed by a wooden roller coaster or step-down (your choice). The step-down has no case-guard. Look before you leap.
Next is a table-top with an arched top, followed by a wall ride.
Next you'll find a series of mid-sized hip jumps and a step-up / step-down platform with gaps on either end (no case guards).
After another hip jump you'll find yourself in the west clearing.
To return to the main clearing, ride up the service road. Or, if you prefer singletrack, take the last segment of the SW XC trail (Movin' On).

Paramount (aka DWB) - Double Black Diamond

Starts from the elevated platform at the top of the flow park, on the right side of the upper pump track.
To find the upper pump track from the main clearing, head to the service road (near the trail map kiosk) and look for the sign that marks the "Flowpark Walkup" trail on your right, opposite the beginner pump track.
The gateway feature is the elevated platform, which ends with a drop to a steep landing.
This trail contains very large jumps, most of which do not have case guards.
Really, very large. Crazy big.
To return to the main clearing, ride up the service road. Or, if you prefer singletrack, take the last segment of the SW XC trail (Movin' On).

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

Phase 1 of the park was designed and built by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance with grant money from King County and aweseome financial and volunteer support from Evergreen members and the mt biking community. Evergreen is now building Phase 2 of the park. We'd love your financial support: