North Bend

[+MtnMutt-ProDuckShins]

Trailheads in the North Bend, Washington are CLOSED! 

 

YAHOO!!!! No place to park & vehicles will be Towed away.

[+The Jester]

A little more info would be nice.  How far out is still North Bend?  Does that cover all State, County and local trails?  I know the parks in Kent are closed, but the regional trails are open.

[+MtnMutt-ProDuckShins]

3-28-2020, numerous cars along Mt Si road common to the trails were towed away. 

[+The Jester]

So you were just talking about Mt Si/Little Si area THS?  What about Rattlesnake Ridge and John Wayne Trail THs?  And other THs along the Middle Fork road?

 

And I can't figure out, are you happy or sad about this?

 

[+MtnMutt-ProDuckShins]

To align with state and local stay home to save lives measures, trailheads, campgrounds, and day use areas* within the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest will be temporarily closed.  These closures are based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. “We are following CDC and departmental guidelines regarding COVID-19, are closely monitoring the situation and will evaluate potential impacts to the Forest and respond as needed.” said Jamie Kingsbury, Forest Supervisor with the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.  The closure order is in effect through September 30 unless rescinded earlier.

 

Forest Service offices are currently providing virtual services and staff are available to answer questions by phone or email.

 

*Day use areas include trailheads, visitor centers, OHV staging areas, viewpoints, boat launches, interpretive sites, and picnic areas.

 

PCT is closed, John Wayne Trail closed, Rattlesnake Lake area closed, Mailbox Peak closed, the roadway closed yet the groups of Kayakers are still going out & not following the CDC guidelines & Gov Islee guidelines.

I watch the Kayakers go by on Weekends. People are think they don't have to follower rules. They go around road blocks, gates & signs.

 I'm glad of the closures yet sad for the youth who think they are invincible & can do what they want, they must feel Rules are meant to be broken.

 

[+The Jester]

Thanks for the clarification, it's hard to keep track of everything going on in our world today.

 

[+Sol seaker]

Actually, depending on how you get there, kayaking can be one of the safest activities you can do.

 

If you run a shuttle only with someone in your household and keep your kayaks distanced, then it's a great way to get outside. It's important to be able to get outside.

 

Solo hiking, or hiking with someone within your immediate family is also one of the safer activities available.

 

The guidelines have stated that it's fine to go out and get exercise as long as you keep moving and keep within guidelines (such as hiking only with your family group, and not joining with others for a picnic, etc.).

 

I have been very unhappy that they closed the trails while saying you should get out and exercise. This shifted all activity locally. This may have been fine for some, but if you live in a big city it did not work out well. They also closed the parks in big cities and then you only had your neighborhood. I tried walking in my neighborhood but the streets were packed with people. It was very unsafe.

 

I could have gone to a rarely used trail on Cougar Mtn and ran across maybe 4 people in 6 miles, where instead I walked 3 blocks and ran across 30 people.

 

Very disappointed in their shutting down parks.

 

It seems like most parks have been opened at this point. I hear Cougar Mtn has been opened. Carkeek park has not opened to car traffic, although you can walk in. I'm not minding this as much now that we have options like Cougar and Tiger Mtns.

 

Does anyone have a report on what is open around North Bend at this point? Are there any parks still closed? (yes, I know, subject to change)

[+Sol seaker]

On 3/30/2020 at 4:55 PM, MtnMutt-ProDuckShins said:

To align with state and local stay home to save lives measures, trailheads, campgrounds, and day use areas* within the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest will be temporarily closed.  These closures are based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. “We are following CDC and departmental guidelines regarding COVID-19, are closely monitoring the situation and will evaluate potential impacts to the Forest and respond as needed.” said Jamie Kingsbury, Forest Supervisor with the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.  The closure order is in effect through September 30 unless rescinded earlier.

 

Forest Service offices are currently providing virtual services and staff are available to answer questions by phone or email.

 

*Day use areas include trailheads, visitor centers, OHV staging areas, viewpoints, boat launches, interpretive sites, and picnic areas.

 

PCT is closed, John Wayne Trail closed, Rattlesnake Lake area closed, Mailbox Peak closed, the roadway closed yet the groups of Kayakers are still going out & not following the CDC guidelines & Gov Islee guidelines.

I watch the Kayakers go by on Weekends. People are think they don't have to follower rules. They go around road blocks, gates & signs.

 I'm glad of the closures yet sad for the youth who think they are invincible & can do what they want, they must feel Rules are meant to be broken.

 

 

 

 

we were told it was fine to go outside. We were told activities with social distancing were fine. We were told we were supposed to get exercise.

 

This has been a problem, for different messages to be getting out to different people, and the messages have changed a lot.

 

I suspect that as this thing continues this problem of information changing and getting out to everyone will continue to change too.

 

I hope the problem of them closing all the parks does not continue. they say it's okay to get outdoors and exercise, yet they don't allow us into our parks to do so. Doesn't make sense.

 

Being outdoors with just your family unit is one of the safest activities you can do (as long as you're not in a crowded area). To keep crowds from happening, we need to provide more area for activities, rather than less. We need to keep people spread out, not compact them together.

 

What ended up happening is people were compacted together around their homes. They thought this sounded like a bright idea, but turned out to be really bad if you lived in any city area.

 

I couldn't walk 3 blocks without running across 20-30 people on the sidewalks. The streets are too busy here to walk in. I was having to drive away from my home to go for a walk and get a little exercise. Parks and trails were closed, so I would have to drive to other areas of the city, which made other people's neighborhoods more crowded.

 

When we were not supposed to leave our house, this was not a problem. Then there was a point when they told people to go out and exercise.

 

I hope they learn from this, but I suspect it will be the same again as winter comes.