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Navigating Fall City/Carnation Trails

2K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  jfinch23 
#1 ·
I was looking out to go out to either Tokul or Tolt tomorrow and was looking to get some advice on navigating them. Out of Tolt, Tokul West and Tokul East which would be the easiest to navigate as I have never been out there (I've heard Tokul West is the hardest to get around). I printed out a copy of both maps off of the Trail Wiki on Evergreen but that only goes so far.

Any advice on which trail system I should choose and any other info on where to park/get on the trail (more-so for the two Tokuls as Tolt seems pretty clear) as well as any tricks to getting around the systems would be much appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Good questions. East is the hardest to get lost in if you're solo and stick to the map. It's also more of a DH-oriented area with a lot of grind-up, fly-down, repeat -type trails (at least the upper trails are). Finding the trails the first time is a little bit tricky: basically take the SVT until you see the heavily trafficked trailhead to the left up a short, steep climb. The map/wiki has directions and distance.

West is much more XC, but you really need to pay attention to the map if you're ranging out solo. Charlie is leading a group ride there tomorrow at 6 if you're interested.

I think it's easy to get turned around and lost at Tolt because it's kind of a maze in the first place and I think the map is a bit dated. However, I think it's also easy to get unlost too.

Also, Soaring Eagle and Duthie are in the vicinity for other options.

Wherever you go, have fun!
 
#4 ·
Route for Tokul West

If you are riding during the Day then here are some options for ya. I have passed these on to many others and they have all been able to navigate TW and make it out. Now that the Fall City access is closed you will need to park at the small parking area on 356th. Then head West on the SVT from there.

Tokul West: #1 - Around 12 Miles with Great Flow - This is my Week Night Route and preferred route.
Riding West on the SVT until you come to a Road on your left that heads down. Ignore that and Take the first trail to the right. Climb over a log and go up.
Ignore the first trail to your right. You will climb to a Y, stay right on the old road bed. That's "Pink Ribbon".
Take that all the way up to a junction. Veer left. Another junction, go right.
As you are climbing this old road, you will see a trail on your right. Take that. "Ridge Bypass".
At the top, turn left and you will climb out to a road.
Take that road to a T and go left.
Take that to another T and go right. Ignore 30340 on you left and take the second road on your left.
You will cross a creek where the road was dug up.
Stay on that road, you'll pass two trails on your left
As road bends be looking for a trail on the left and another one directly
across from it on the right.
Take the trail on the right and it should be a tough short climb then level
off. (This Trail and the next one are not on any maps yet)
Follow it until it exits then turn right and follow the road where it should quickly turn back into a trail.
Follow this one till you exit to the road you where just on. (The trail will end with some switchbacks, no dabbing)
Turn right and ride back up the road to where there is a trail on the left and right.
Take the trail on the left -

Less than 10' in take the next Left this Trail is called Outhouse

At the Intersection go Left this is Steak House

Climb up to the road and head left back to where there is a Trail on the Left and Right

Ignore the trail on the Left (Outhouse) and stay Right

This trail is called Outback (This is where you want to pick up the pace and enjoy the flow of this trail)
When you come to a T stay to the right
The trail will then loop back with a little climb to a T
From the T turn right and follow it out to a Road.
When you exit onto a Road turn left and follow it to a T
At the T turn right and then take the first road on your left (30530)
This road should be familiar as this is the route you took up.

Stay on this road there maybe an intersection with a road to the left that doesn't look used ignore it and stay left. (Do not take any roads that are obviously heading downhill)
Follow the road straight into a trail and stay to the left (You'll see the trail you rode up earlier, don't take that turn stay left)
This trail will exit at the top of Pink Ribbon.
Turn left and follow Pink Ribbon, but be on the watch for a trail on the left (It can easily be missed when your flying down Pink Ribbon)
The trail starts off really steep, but then levels off.
You will come to a T stay straight and ride the trail all the way to the SVT
Head East on the SVT back to the parking lot.

Tokul West: #2 - This is the regular route most follow, but I don't care for it much. It is around 12 / 14 miles if I recall. When I do this route I normally ride Forest roads to get back to Bypass for that flowy downhill.
Riding West on the SVT until you come to a Road on your left that heads down. Ignore that and Take the first trail to the right. Climb over a log and go up.
Take the first right. Climb over a log and go up.
Ignore the first trail to your right. You will climb to a Y, stay right on the old road bed. That's "Pink Ribbon".
Take that all the way up to a junction. Veer left. Another junction, go right.
As you are climbing this old road, you will see a trail on your right. Take that. "Ridge Bypass".
At the top, turn left and you will climb out to a road.
Take that road to a T and go left.
Take that to another T and go right. Ignore 30340 on you left and take the second road on your left.
You will cross a creek where the road was dug up.
Stay on that road, you'll pass two trails on your left
As road bends be looking for a trail on the left and another one directly
across from it on the right.
Take the trail on the right and it should be a tough short climb then level
off. (This Trail and the next one are not on any maps yet)
Follow it until it exits then turn right and follow the road where it should quickly turn back into a trail.
Follow this one till you exit to the road you where just on. (The trail will end with some switchbacks, no dabbing)
Turn right and ride back up the road to where there is a trail on the left and right.
Take the trail on the left -

Less than 10' in take the next Left this Trail is called Outhouse

At the Intersection go Left this is Steak House

Climb up to the road and head left back to where there is a Trail on the Left and Right

Ignore the trail on the Left (Outhouse) and stay Right

This trail is called Outback (This is where you want to pick up the pace and enjoy the flow of this trail)
When you come to a T stay to the right
The trail will then loop back with a little climb to a T
From the T turn right and follow it out to a Road ignoring the trails on the left.
When you exit to the Road turn Right and ride around the dug out road.
Stay on the road to the second spur on the right. (you should see lots of bike tracks in the mud on the road)
This is the top of Full Bench.
Follow the trail until it turns to a road then comes to a T (I hope you have fenders on, these trails are chewed up by horses and really muddy)
Turn right and take the first trail on left that should be Monster
Exit that trail turn left then take the trail on the right this should be Stickerboy
Exit that trail turn right and then take the trail on the left this should be Sgt well's.
Exit this trail and you should see the next trail this one has Bra's hanging in the tree's, and is called the Bra trail.
When you exit the Bra Trail just take the trail to the right and follow it to the SVT

Turn left on the SVT and then Right on the Road Heading down back to the Parking Lot

Well that should give you some options I like the first route the best, a bit more road riding, but it offers the faster trails too. :thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
Get lost at those places? How can that happen? :)

I'll put 2 cents in for Tolt as the easiest place not to get lost with a second for East as long as you don't range far up and over the road above Mr. Hill.

Depends on your sense of direction. Some have one, I guess some don't.

Tolt: there are some leftover soup can lid signs from the 42 originally put out there so you may occasionally run into one that may help orient you to which trail you are on or just left. The main road loops around the main part of the lower tree farm section so getting on that and heading East will eventually get you to IAB in some way. There is a new road not on the maps cutting through Blair Witch. Just don't go West on it.

East: If you stay low, you are bordered by a gully, the SVT, and private homes to the East so you can't get lost. Climb Mr. Hill and session that and you hae a reference point as some trails cross it a few times.Explore above it and you will need to watch for the black and white road numbers to guide you most are indeed marked. Like 30130 at the bottom of Safety First. Take the 4th trail from the TH on the SVT quickly up on to an old access road to the power lines and then review the map for where you are. The power lines are a good reference point there.

West: Much bigger acreage and the trails are more spread out. Outback isn't as far "out back" as was thought when built but still hard for some to find. One easy thing to do is keep an eye out for the upper and lower Beaver Ponds for reference points and don't ride East of the power lines unless you want to ride around the back of the 356th homes to the Tokul East trails.

(Not sure a night ride with Charlie would be real good for getting the lay of the land simply because of the darkness. I'm sure he'd show you a great loop though!)

Edit: *chuckle* I guess Hawkwns and I were helping at the same time...
Also, per livinlife, the 39th access to T-West is "okay" if you let the owner know you are going through there or leave a business card in his mailbox or something like that. I still see people riding from teh big lot across from the Fall City Grill. But, far fewer than before that, "issue" came up.

BTW: What? No Bobsled finish after Full Bench? :) (Yeah, the lower trails like Monster, Stickerboy, and Bra can be real muddy in winter but probably frozen now.) Black Bear is real good all year around.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the help. I actually have already been out to Duthie, Griffin Creek (although I actually never made it to the trails at Griffin as my friends bike gave up the ghost on the way up the hill past the gate so we had head back... so close) and other places in the Seattle area, just haven't made it out to Tolt or Tokul.

I did want to go on a group ride for those trails and checked on Evergreen but I don't have lights so the night rides aren't going to work and that seems to be all that is going at this time of the year. I'm thinking I'm going to try out Tokul East tomorrow and save the others for the coming weeks, although I'm still a bit intimidated by getting around Tokul West.

For future reference what is Soaring Eagle like in terms of riding and ease of navigation.
 
#8 ·
jfinch23 said:
I'm thinking I'm going to try out Tokul East tomorrow and save the others for the coming weeks, although I'm still a bit intimidated by getting around Tokul West.
I will be riding out at Tokul West on the 27th using Option #2 along with Bob Sled. Kind of a large group so we are starting from the Griffin Creek trail head and taking the SVT over to TW. Rolling out of the Parking Lot at 10AM. Drop me a PM if your interested in joining us.

Soaring Eagle is easy there are maps at every intersection. All the intersections have numbers making it easy to navigate the trail system and find the way back to the parking lot. The trail is lots of rolling up and down was out there last Sunday and had a good time.
 
#9 ·
Update on the Tokul East trip. I think I have found my new favorite riding spot in the Seattle Area. Once I got into the trails and got situated I never had any problems finding my way around, just had to check my map pretty often.

I will definitely be heading back there as it definitely fits my riding style (when avoiding some of the gnarlier stuff that is) so I had a couple more questions related to finding more trails similar to the upper trails (I stayed mostly in the Flowtron area with some a little bit to the west along the same logging road that Flowtron is on).

First off is the trail on the far right of the map (past Safety First) worth the trek over there or is it more of the scenic route/ is it taken out by the clearcut?

Also I ran into a guy as I was finishing up my ride and he said that there were many trails to the west of the ones shown on the map and was wondering if anyone else could give me more information on these trails or any other good ones that aren't shown on the map (not looking for your secret trails but just a few pointers).

Thanks again.
 
#10 ·
That trail, formerly known as Gun Range, heads to the bottom of the clearcut, and ends near a gated fire road. This will ride you out to Tokul road, which is another great place to park, where you can ride a very excellent loop.

There is a few other trails, not on the map, that are in that area of the clearcut:

A new trail, Dodgeball, is out in the middle of the clearcut.
A newish horse trail/descender runs along the treeline to the fireroad, which leads to Dodgeball, as well as the last part of the old Gun Range trail, something I now affectionately call Gun Rearrange. ;)
Finally, there is a new XC trail in the trees, directly north of the clearcut, across the fireroad, known as Bandwagon. You can find it at the top of the fireroad climb, near the bottom of Safety First, where all 3 fireroads intersect. If you want, I can show you around sometime.

Glad you had a good time.
 
#11 ·
nasai said:
That trail, formerly known as Gun Range, heads to the bottom of the clearcut, and ends near a gated fire road. This will ride you out to Tokul road, which is another great place to park, where you can ride a very excellent loop.

There is a few other trails, not on the map, that are in that area of the clearcut:

A new trail, Dodgeball, is out in the middle of the clearcut.
A newish horse trail/descender runs along the treeline to the fireroad, which leads to Dodgeball, as well as the last part of the old Gun Range trail, something I now affectionately call Gun Rearrange. ;)
Good name!

nasai said:
Finally, there is a new XC trail in the trees, directly north of the clearcut, across the fireroad, known as Bandwagon. You can find it at the top of the fireroad climb, near the bottom of Safety First, where all 3 fireroads intersect. If you want, I can show you around sometime.

Glad you had a good time.
 
#12 ·
Glad you had a great time jfinch. I would definately recommend Safety First as well. Could use another patching when things dry up a little and thaw out but real fun.

Also, don't get rat holed into riding the same place over and over again. Variety is the spice of life and we're blessed with lots of options around here. T-West is indeed a little more "XC" but also has some longish fun downs and some altitude as well albeit not as steep as East.

Lastly: I wouldn't say, "many"....
 
#13 ·
Thanks again for the responses. I think I might have missed the turn off for the best part/all of safety first then... the majority of the trail i thought was safety first was a tame, straight trail with bypasses around a bunch of downed trees leading down to the clear cut. Might need to be more aware of my surrounding next time I venture out that way.

Don't worry Borneo I am already going on Hawkens' Dec. 27th group ride in TW to get the lay of the land. Even though I loved TE there are still plenty of places I want to explore... not to mention I don't think I want to do that many fire road climbs every time I ride.
 
#14 ·
Sounds to me that you confused Safety First with that treeline trail that leads down to the top of Dodgeball. Yeah, you missed out. SF is a GREAT trail. Very fun, and super zippy. Did I just use the word zippy? Yes... Yes, I did. :)
 
#15 ·
*chuckle* You went straight down the old 30130 road that parallels Safety First then. You'll see the offset 4 way intersection with Tetherball the next time you're out there at the top and figure it out.
Took a lot of chain sawing to make that ridable though. (I usually use it as the climb back up from Gun Rearrange 'cuz climbing back up SF is just not right IMHO.) :)

Lot's o' people do 2-3 or more climbs up Mr. Hill to get the goods. Remember, it's good for you and it's not nice to swear at Mr.Hill....
 
#17 ·
I've come back armed with more questions. Hopefully I'm not wearing out my welcome. Hawkens you had said that Griffin Creek is closed to the public right now. Is that true or does anyone else have any other information on this? I was planning on going out there Friday and was wondering if I need to figure somewhere else to go.

If I am in the clear I was wondering if I should follow the turn-by-turn guide on Evergreen or stick to a certain area. The guide sounds pretty good to me but I'm just wondering if all of the best trails are covered by that route/are there any other suggestions?

Again I would like to thank the wise posters of mtbr for sharing their wealth of information.
 
#18 ·
No worries. Ask away...

There have been some postings about new signage at some of the traditional Griffin entrances. The lower (northern) section have been sold off and the northernmost section was sold off last year but no additional signage went up that I know of. I believe the upper stuff like Beer Can and Conspiracy may be out of that area. Not sure. I know that's where the builders were going to be moving on to next because of the lower sale. My guess is that there are no signs farther up and just one at the bottom gate.

Give 'er a go and if you feel like you need to turn around, T-West is just up the SVT a ways or you can explore the trails around Camp Don Bosco (CYO) to the North of the clear cut area.

Didn't look at the directions over on the wiki but this is how I always ride Griffin. Let's see, from memory, it goes:

Out the road and around the gate up to the power line access trail. Pass the two roads on your left and it's about a 1/4 mile pass that. May have to push a little at first.
Down Beer Can crossing an old road right in to Conspiracy (real good fun!). Right at the road at the bottom and then hard left into the woods at the first junction on Deer Trail. Jog right and across into Dancer. Cross the road into Lancer, across the road into Cyclist (couple of confusing sections here, just stay straight and you'll be fine.) and then across another road to Eagle Perch. At the spur road, go left to the end and see Alley Ooop on your right. Take that down (wheeee!) and then right at the bottom out to a road and left and up. Here, you will come to the bottom of Magnolia. At this point, I usually cruise up the road to the north of Magnolia and take an extra lap on Spooky Hollow (pops out right by Deer Trail that you already took.) and then go right on the road then left down Magnolia. Head north, right out of Magnolia out on the road and stay straight to the end of the road ignoring spurs and the new road to the left. The road will turn into a fun down hill called Howe Now. At the bottom, turn left and take the first trail on your left. This is Bowl Trail and is a bit rocky and makes a shallow but steady climb, (One small spur onyour right after a short down at the beginning that just goes back out to the road.) and at the end of this, you are back on the lower road. Go left for a bit and catch Pete's Cambodia or whatebver they are calling it now on your right. Ignore the trail to your right inthe open as it goes over to Don Bosco. Go left there and back out to the road. Then, right out on the road to the first gate you pased or at the "T", go left then right on a faint spur past the old tank traps and out to the lower road you came in on. About 1:45-2:00 depending on pace and about 12 miles....

Dryest riding around due to the rocky soil. Some love the place, some hate it...

Make sense? ;) Enjoy!
 
#19 ·

The Property that contains Griffin was sold recently and all the Entrances have these new No Tresspassing Signs.
Some of the other Entrances have been Blocked with rocks, there is a structure being built or probably complete by now near the old Quarry. Looks like they are getting ready to do some work out there. The local Horse Club is looking into things and I plan on touching base with the new owners. If I learn anything more I'll pass it along.
 
#21 ·
Hawkens said:

The Property that contains Griffin was sold recently and all the Entrances have these new No Tresspassing Signs.
Some of the other Entrances have been Blocked with rocks, there is a structure being built or probably complete by now near the old Quarry. Looks like they are getting ready to do some work out there. The local Horse Club is looking into things and I plan on touching base with the new owners. If I learn anything more I'll pass it along.
Do they have the signs up at the gate on the main road too (not taking the lefts into Griffin, but instead continuing up the gravel road that parallels Griffin creek and ultimately can loop back into Tokul W/E)?

I like the 'proactive enforcement requested'. Maybe the paradise parking lot needs a sign like that for the snoho sherriff.
 
#22 ·
Went to Griffin Creek today. To be honest not my cup of tea. Pretty much every trail other than Conspiracy had overgrown sections and lots of raised freezing that made riding difficult.

Update on the situation at Griffin Creek: the structure in the gravel pit that Hawkens was talking about is a shooting range that is pretty much done. I ran into a local on horseback that told me he was going to be talking to the owner about keeping it open but that one of the main reasons the new owner wants to keep it closed is the liability of having people riding around with a gun range in that area.
 
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