[CS]

http://trailheaddirect.org/2022/05/12/trailhead-direct-2022-update/ This year’s Trailhead Direct season will serve Mount Si, with buses originating at the Sound Transit Capitol Hill Link light rail station and service every 30 minutes to Mount Si, Mount Teneriffe, and Little Si. The season will launch on Saturday, May 28th and run through Sunday, Sept. 11th.

[mosey]

That's a pretty big service reduction from running all the way to mailbox and having a second Issaquah Alps bus. Guess I'll have to keep waiting for a mid fork trailhead shuttle.

[Kim Brown]

[SpookyKite89]

The other buses (the ones other than the Si bus) seemed fairly odd to me. If I remember correct, the Mailbox Route originated in Issaquah and the Issy Alps bus originated in South Seattle. I always felt like getting out to Issaquah to catch a bus to Mailbox seemed like a lot of work (if you lived in Seattle) and I assume not many people in Issaquah need a ride out to Mailbox. Before I had a car, I wanted to try trailhead direct but I always just opted for an urban hike because the logistics seemed too much for me.

[Kim Brown]

I think the point from Issaquah was folks would park at a big lot there, and not have to deal with clogging the Mid Fork Road. I think the South Seattle choice was to serve that demographic.

[dixon]

This will be interesting to see because since last year there are more parking restrictions along the middle fork between Mailbox and Granite lakes TH to prevent the madness that occurred last year. Now that there's less parking and no bus, perhaps people will finally learn about the 2 other hikes in WA state .... Nah!

[JonnyQuest]

[CS]

I wonder if they’d consider a service like Pingo in North Bend for the last mile to the THs. It’s similar to Uber but a city bus that can pick up a lot of people and has more flexibility as to where it can go. I think the problem with bus routes is they’re expensive unless you have consistent riders, where as Pingo only runs when there are riders and it doesn’t run around a circuit wasting resources when no one is using it. I’ve used it on Bainbridge Island to get to Gazzam Park and it worked great. Only downside is it doesn’t run on Sundays.

[SpookyKite89]

Yeah, I understood where the ideas were coming from but it just didn’t seem to make too much sense to other people in the end. The hoards of people going to mailbox can’t even be bothered to get the right pass or park in the right spot, let alone think ahead enough about possibly carpooling/using the TH Direct. I am honestly bummed they canceled the Issy/South Seattle route but I can see why it’s not the best option.

[Kim Brown]

[Cyclopath]

[SpookyKite89]

Well, clearly not enough people were doing that to keep the bus worth running.