Henry's Ridge
Info
Overview: Trail system being developed in cooperation with King County Parks. Similiar to Lake Sawyer system with somewhat more climbing/descending. Good drainage soils and tree cover. Currently about eight plus miles of trails plus new trails being built by Black Diamond Trail Coalition in conjunction with Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. Connects to Black Diamond Open Space (BDOS), Summit Ridge, and Lake Sawyer across the road.
- Site Name: Official KC name is “Maple Ridge Highlands Open Space”. Some call it Maplewood’s. The neighbors call it “Henry’s Ridge”.
- Site management: This is a 4 to 1 set aside area. This means a developer had to put 4 acres into KC owned open space for ever 1 acre that was developed. The property is owned by KC Natural Resources and managed by KC Parks and Recreation.
- Size: This is actualy an unknown at this time. We have heard various acreage, 260 acres and 305 acres and 377 acres.
- Constraints: As an open area, the improvements on this site can take up no more than 5% of the total area. This includes trails, parking, storage, etc. We should plan on using no more than 4% of the site for trails to allow for parking, access roads, etc. Existing access roads may push the available portion of the site down to 3%.
- Narrow (singletrack) trails are considered to have a 6’ wide impact. 1 acre = 43,560 sq. ft. 1 mile of singletrack with a 6’ impact area = 31,680 sq. ft. Using 260 acres at 4% usage, as an example, we could build 14.3 miles of trail.
The project has broad community and King County staff support. King County staff has expressed praise of the trail construction done to this point.
The area is open space set aside from a housing development. Designated for mountain biking and foot traffic.
Ride Reports
Parked at the boulders TH SE 281st Way. Rode the clockwise loop; Iron Brigade, Anaconda, Python, Snake and sat in the sun by the "ponds". I was amazed to see that the trail crew removed the carpet of fir branches from Iron Brigade already, very tidy. On Anaconda, some rece...
Rode Master Link up to Iron Brigade, Anaconda, Python, Snake, return on Rte 66. Henry's Ridge trails are in descent shape with a carpet of doug fir boughs. There are two notable live trees down blocking Anaconda and it was some work getting past them with a bike. This is g...
Rode the reptile loop (Stinger, Viper, Python, Anaconda, Iron Brigage). Also rode Once Upon a time, derailleur and Upper Beaver Trax. There are two blowdowns to note, one 4" Dia across Derallieur and one 12" dia across UB Trax. Saw some freshly cut trees off Anaconda; than...
Thank you again for the continued trail maintenance. This time Stinger and Viper have a 5' nuking with the track blown off as well. The Anaconda clearing work from last week was finished as well with a nice blow off, no thorns on the track any longer. (Sir Mix Alot says thanks!)
Thank you to whomever nuked Anaconda and Iron Brigade with a nice 6' swath of brushing. Unfortunately, the way it was done, there are now berry stalks and thorns crossing all over the trail so others watch for the thick ones. In the past, I've poped tires over this kind of stuff...
Had not ridden Henry's/Black Diamond since last spring, so was happy to see the trails in good shape. Not too dry and not too wet.
So many trees down though. I probably had to lift the bike over 10 trees. There was a two person crew out trying to clear the trails.
Over on th...
Henry's Ridge snake trails are riding very well! The rains did a great job of firming things back up that had become so loose due to lack of moisture. Edges have stabilized and only light debris. Feel free to push it hard roots are not slippery at all at this time.
King County have started what they call Forest Stewardship work ( logging ) on Henry"s Ridge & have closed access into the all trails north of the ponds & east of the water tanks while they do the work .Effectively , though, all the trails in the original Henrys area are either destro...
Trails on both sides of Hwy 169 in Black Diamond in good shape despite rain.
But beware. Two out of 5 vehicles broken into and items stolen. We returned to the east side parking area about 7PM to find broken windows and missing items. Mostly dry clothing for the drive home. Looked around...
As a FYI, the following trails have been cleaned up:
1) 7 Bridges
2) Peace
3) 3rd Line
4) KC Parks has cleaned up most of the trails on the west side of Maple Valley HIghway (new parking lot) between the highway and the creek.
5) toy...
Not a drop of mud despite the recent rains (though that's probably changing as I write this on Monday morning). Some trails are covered in solid layer of maple leaves but I haven't noticed any major traction challenges. Fun area with plenty of variety and no major hills to climb if you're tired o...
Amazing trail system of non technical and technical trails for hiking biking and horseback riding. But I gotta say, Full Suspension is the way to go when tearin' thru the endless sections of...
First time riding Henry's Ridge. Entered the trails next to the Water Tower. Went up trail (name unknown to me), then went on Anaconda, Python, Snake, Connector, BeaverTracks, then Beavertracks Loop. Ended up at an intersection at end of Beavertracks loop that also had a trail called Lil Red (whi...