[boot up]

9.9 miles RT 1332 feet elevation gain. 1561 max elevation 7hr car to car 935 feet elevation parking Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

9.9 miles RT 1332 feet elevation gain. 1561 max elevation 7hr car to car 935 feet elevation parking Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Afternoon bridge view. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Russian Butte. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Instead of adding to the workload of SAR last weekend, sliding down an icey mountain somewhere, I decided on a mellow easy hike with no inherent danger and no other people on the trail. 9.9 miles RT, but extendable to any length. 1332 feet elevation gain, but expandable to plenty more. Only 1561 feet max elevation, so snow is never a problem. 935 feet parking elevation and a mere 5miles down the potholed slimey mess of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie road, versus most other destinations being twice or 3 times that far. I guess I am an oddball. I prefer a relaxing, low stress hike, as opposed to evaluating a sketchy mountain of snow, and rolling the dice on it killing me, after digging a pit and evaluating conditions or flipping a coin and figuring its safer than the drive. I am not sure if Sitka Spruce is a Sekrit trail. I saw one person all day and that was just because I had lunch next to Bessemer road. Luckily virtually no local hikers read my non-death defying trip reports, so I don't have to worry about giving away this sekrit gem. Just park at the bridge and jump down to the left at the far end of the bridge. No signs, no facilities. Bridge has some nice views too.

Parking will be dusty in dry weather. Just muddy road today. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Morning view from the Bridge. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

The Bridge. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Sitka to CCC could be a nice short 1.5 mile family trail, except for a couple of dicey bridges and 700 feet of elevation gain all done in 3 short sections. Some awesome old trees and a real Rain Forest feel to Sitka Spruce trail.

First Bridge, and yes the water looked like that. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Dripping moss. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Big Spruce. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Me and big Spruce. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Sitka Spruce trail. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Some bridges were a bit narrow, Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Moss Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Not the prettiest bridge, but it worked. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Trees Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Trees in the mist. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Climbing Sitka Spruce Trail Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Bonus points if you can identify the brand of bike at the top of Sitka. Heck, if you can find it, you should get a point or two. Note that most of the views on Sitka and CCC will go away once the trees leaf out in Spring.

Heading Down Sitka. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Distant glow from Sitka. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Name that bike. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Can you identify that head badge? Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

I used to mtn bike CCC road a lot. Even tried keeping it open as it got choked with brush before they turned it into a trail. Its a different experience on foot. A bit pedestrian. This will never be a popular trail. The trail is the destination. It reminds you of why the Cascades got their name, as you cross a multitude of pretty little cascades. No peaks or lakes, unless you go shooting up a side road or trail to a peak. Just put it in cruise control and start your favorite mantra looping in your head. I will say that the hikers whining about the over working of the Granite lakes road to trail conversion, SHOULD love this trail. They wasted no effort to disguise its origins, as it was created out of solid granite by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Best time for this trail is winter, while Si and Tiger are packed, you have this place to yourself.

CCC, over the edge. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Lots of cascades on this Cascades trail. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

veil Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Improved Bessemer creek crossing. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Lunch View. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Mandatory Lunch boot shot. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

View Across from CCC Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Russian butte closeup. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

CCC hewn out of solid Granite. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Over the edge of CCC. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Pratt valley. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Thru the trees. You can't see this in summer. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Pratt valley. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Blue Sky for the day. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Dusted with snow. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Strata Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Russian Butte. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Down in the valley. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Valley view from Civilian Conservation Corp road. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Typical CCC Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Typical cascade Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

My turnaround for today was where the locked and gated, better than middle fork, Bessemer road shares CCC for a short bit. Funny how the huge investment of tax payer dollars went into this road that serves a couple of private chunks of land that own to top of Bessemer mountain. Your tax dollars at work....for someone.

Locked gate, but fancy road. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

Private property at top of Bessemer, but nice tax paid, locked road. Your tax dollars at work...for someone. Sitka Spruce to CCC WA 2/1/14

A mellow day of enjoying deep forest and some views. Can't complain...

[zephyr]

Great report, boot up. EastKing and I were on a part of this trail last December while en route to Moolock Peak. And when we visited Thompson Point in January we walked that infernal Granite Lakes road to trail as well. Ugh... BTW, I loved this part:

[boot up]

This trail does have some intriguing value as a jumping off point for some peaks in the area. The Sitka Spruce connector can make some of those more accessible. Although this is a relatively smooth trail, I would recommend hiking poles. Just due to the plentiful creek crossings on improvised logs or rock hopping. And coming back down the steep sections of Sitka can give you some mud glissading without poles. I consider it a mistake that I wore my Asolo 520's though. Hiking along the almost smooth, but knubbly bed of the CCC, which is literally hewn out of granite, was like hiking with rocking horses on my feet, due to the stiff sole of the Asolo's. Wish I had worn my "soft" boots. you do need waterproof footwear on the trail, due to the creek crossings. All are pretty easy, but you will be getting your boots wet.

[puzzlr]

[boot up]

[puzzlr]

You got it right. Mostly decommissioning old logging roads (they're still walkable for now), but the only trail improvement was work on the CCC trail. The only reason I know is that I've gone out to walk most of them. Having been on the upper part of the CCC road trail before and after the work I think they did quite a bit. I don't have a good feel for how far $$ go in work like this, but the drainages at creek crossings were fixed up, especially the big washout near the east end that was totally wiped out in the big 2009 storm. There's a lot of docs at that Bessemer link, but this pdf has the interesting maps in it: Dwg2-49.pdf