The plan was to hit the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail. I always see the trail crossing across Preston-Fall City Road and have been curious as to where it goes on either side. I wanted to check this out. To start over in Preston by the soccer fields, and walk the trail up to Snoqualmie Falls. The trail description indicates there is a section of the trail closed, a bridge that is out of commission. This was a hinderance. I wanted the whole experience, not one cut short. While waiting for Karann to meet me in Preston (I’m always early) I decided we should switch up our plans and hit the Snoqualmie Valley Trail toward the Tokul Tunnel. Nothing special but it added a little something to check out on a fairly standard trail.
Karann was on board. We hopped in my car and drove to the small parking lot along the SVT. We were in the minority as plain old walkers (or hikers?). It always feels weird calling walking on a relatively flat trail hiking. Even though it can be considered hiking. Somehow I was on fitness TikTok for a bit—my algorithm was off from not watching in a while—and these two fitness buffs, all muscled up, were talking about how walking is not exercise. Ugh. All these self-proclaimed experts online. Funnily enough, a few videos later, another fitness expert talked about how walking is exercise. I’m no expert, but I would argue anything where you’re intentionally moving your body is exercise. And I have personal experience from losing weight by walking on the trail. But what do I know, I don’t have a TikTok channel or an oversized microphone to make myself look like I know what I’m talking about. I just do that on here, haha.
Okay, apparently she’s a doctor. But, bell curve. There have to be bad doctors and good doctors, and of course average doctors. I’m putting her in the bad doctor category. And it also seems she deleted the original video… but not soon enough before others made stitches. Like this doctor, whom I know nothing about other than I like what he says in his rebuttal to their nonsense. I’m also on micro-feminism TikTok, which I’m loving. And it comes in handy when hiking. Or walking. I still kick myself for that one time, maybe 10 years ago. I was running on the trail—on the right, like you’re supposed to do—when a man was walking toward me, in front of me. He was walking on his left side. I was instantly annoyed because trail etiquette. But I moved. I freaking moved and ran around him. Oh how I wish I had TikTok back then to teach me not to move out of the way of men when you’re in the right of way. I do this now, and I can still see the looks on the faces of three men at Costco. I was walking on the main aisle—on the right!—when these three men rounded the corner from one of the aisles from the right side. They turned in front of me. I didn’t move. They had to quickly move out of my way. They were not happy by the looks on their faces. Like it was my fault and I was in their way. Screw them. To be equal, there was a woman walking up the aisle on the wrong side just this last week. But she said sorry and moved. Men rarely apologize. Rather, the men who would apologize are not the men who don’t move. Pushing carts in stores is much like driving. You stop at the end of an aisle, look both ways, and then pull out. Why is this hard? Then there are people who randomly stop in the middle of aisles. I digress.
The other cars in the small parking lot had empty bike racks. And I know this is a fairly popular biking area, Blaise’s mountain bike team meets here often for rides. We parked and set out on the trail toward Tokul Tunnel. If we had gone the other way, we would have made it to Carnation. I also want to do this. When I head up the trail from home, I’ve only even made it about 3.6 miles toward Fall City. After the 3.6 miles, it becomes even more secluded—or so I think?! I already call the section between 3 and 3.6 miles the cougar area. When I head toward Duvall on the SVT from home, I’m be perfectly fine being on the trail all the way to where it ends at Taylor Landing. Or where SVT starts?!
Except that one early morning when a pack of coyotes were going crazy. Not that I was scared but it did make me cautious to keep going. It was a summer morning, maybe 5:30am, and Mel and I were on the SVT heading toward Duvall. The left side of the trail is lined with trees and then there’s an open field. A pack of coyotes started howling like crazy. I’d guess there were maybe 10 or so based on the noise level?! I hesitated for a second but decided to continue on. I’m not terribly concerned about coyotes; I see them all the time on the trails around here. But I’ve never encountered a pack larger than three. Even the three didn’t bother me. But this summer morning, I was a bit wary as I continued listening to the howling. A cyclist had passed me going the opposite direction before the howling started. Not long after the coyotes started going crazy, the cyclist was riding back toward me to make sure I was okay. He was a dad-like man—slightly older than me—and I felt like maybe if he was concerned, I should turn around. I told him I was all good and that I’d turn around, and I thanked him for checking on me. We both continued on in the opposite direction of the howling. I’m sure I would have been fine, Google tells me only two humans have been killed by coyotes, but I had Mel. And just today, I read a Reddit post about a small dog being snatched by a coyote in Seattle and another in Kirkland.
Coyotes, eh. Now cougars, cougars scare me. Bears don’t but should. That’s the other TikTok I’m on, asking women if they’d rather be in the forest with a bear or a man. Most women say a bear. I agree. (Unless we’re talking Brian as the man, then Brian all the way. Or Brian-like men.) But cougars! They concern me. I’m always on the lookout for cougars even though the chances of actually seeing one is slim. I’m sure they see me though. I tend to look up for cougars; I figure they’ll be up in a tree, ready to pounce down. But I’m not a cougar expert so I have no idea if this is where I should be looking. I tend to look all over my surroundings though, because that whole being a woman thing. A week later, we may have seen a cougar. The following Saturday, a group of women cyclists were attacked by a cougar—on the trail somewhere near where Karann and I had been on the week before. These women are amazing. I’m even more aware now. Not that I think cougar attacks are common but they happen, close to home. I carry spray but in all honesty, I don’t think I would have the best reaction time if I were attacked alone. And I’m often alone on the trails around here. On the flip side, if I were with someone being attacked, I’m confident I would react well. Funny how that is, or probably not funny.
Thankfully Karann and I didn’t encounter any cougars. Or bears. Or packs of coyotes. Walking from the parking lot toward the tunnel, it wasn’t long until we passed a mountain bike area just off the trail that looks pretty amazing. If you like mountain biking. There were different trails and jumps, and we saw a few mountain bikers taking advantage of this area. That was the most amount of people we saw along the trail going toward the tunnel. And by most, maybe three? And one super cute pup! Off-leash but he was a good boy who listened to his mountain biker dad.
Past the mountain bike area, we had the pleasure of hearing all the gunshots. At least the view from the trail was nice. There is a shooting range that I’ve known about but never thought much about it other than, eh, guns. This day, the shots echoed so loudly along the trail. It was weird how we heard nothing, then all of a sudden we heard the loudest gunshot echos. And then further up, we heard nothing. Funny how traveling sound works. We quickly talked about any concern being shot by stray bullets—which I worry about along one section of the SVT close to home—but I wasn’t worried here. We were much higher up than where the shooting range is below. A friend of a friend was killed by a stray bullet while running on a trail. I know it happens. Even a Google search tells me it happens. Maybe not often, but more often than it should.
While listening to the echoing of gunshots, we came across this fun bridge. I like bridges. The view was pretty and we paused a bit to enjoy the sights. Not the sounds. Guns, ugh.
Bridge, check. Next up, Tokul Tunnel. My Apple Watch history tells me we walked (hiked) 6.8 miles this day. And we went a bit further than the tunnel, so the tunnel must have been maybe three miles from where we started. It was a tunnel. Nothing impressive. Not that I was expecting impressive but maybe something a bit more?! It’s literally a tunnel under the road above. At least it had some graffiti, giving it some color and character. Although, a thought just popped in my head how cool it would be if the inside of the tunnel was painted a metallic hot pink. Why metallic hot pink? I have no idea. But that would really add some pizzazz.
We tunneled through the tunnel to find more trail and sign saying the trail ends ahead. Not fully believing the sign—because I know the SVT goes from Duvall to Rattlesnake Lake—we continued on. I mean, I knew the sign was there for a reason but wanted to check things out. The trail on the other side of the tunnel narrowed, and then appeared to be less traveled. There was much debris on the trail, like sticks and leaves, things that would normally be naturally pushed aside with high use.
Sure enough, the trail ended a bit after the tunnel. There’s a gate with a sign that indicates it’s private property. Now here is where we would likely get shot if we continued past the gate. We turned around and noticed a small trail leading up to the road. We started up it and found another private property sign. We went back toward the tunnel. It wasn’t until we were walking back toward the tunnel from this side that I noticed stairs to the left. I imagine you need to get on that road a bit before finding the SVT that continues on to Rattlesnake Lake.
The walk (hike) back was uneventful. The gunshots started and then ended again, and then we were back to the parking lot. There were some cyclists heading out as we made our way back. And a couple with an off-leash dog. Because, some people. We still had some time before it started getting dark. And since we were just a bit up from the Lower Snoqualmie Falls area, we decided to go there. Maive and I had just been earlier that week.
We pulled into the Lower Snoqualmie Falls parking lot and while the sign to the cars on the left says to yield to incoming traffic, the cars were not yielding. I pulled out my California driving and managed to make my way into this line of non-yielding cars. It was odd. We then realized there was a person recording this line of cars circling the parking lot and we were now in the video. I have no idea why they were recording but they were, and after each car circled the parking lot, they parked. Then they all got out and it was quite a large group. I imagine some Instagram thing?! Eh, whatever. We parked and got out, and noticed how busy it was. Even busier outside of the circling car people.
When I was there with Maive, we didn’t take the trail up to the falls. Karann and I decided we’d do this. We turned left and started up the trail. It was busy. I think this is why I typically avoid popular trails on weekends. People everywhere. And this is Snoqualmie Falls. People come from all over because of its popularity. And, it’s a relatively easy hike so anyone can take it on. Going up wasn’t so bad. Sure, there were people galore. But most people were respectful of trail etiquette.
At the top, crowds. Selfies and Instagram shots were being curated. There were adults, kids, grandparents, couples, tourist groups… so. many, people. Karann and I quickly took in the view—that we both have seen several times before so it wasn’t as impressive to us—and then decided to head back down to the boardwalk to see the Falls from below. Going down was fun.
More people. These people didn’t understand trail etiquette. At least not one woman. A group—a dad, mom, kids, and another family they were with—was taking up the entire width of the trail. Like just standing there. Maybe moving at a snail’s pace. The dad saw us coming and tried to get his wife’s attention (go, dad) but she was caught up chatting and didn’t hear him. Nor did she hear me saying, “Excuse me,” as I approached her on the left. There was no space for me to pass her, this is how close to the left of the trail she was. And on the left was kind of a dirt wall. I’m non-confrontational and I rarely do anything that would upset others—at least I try not to, that damn people pleasing in me that TikTok tells me is childhood trauma, maybe—but after she didn’t hear her husband or me after several attempts, I bumped into her; there was no avoiding this with her not hearing me (or her husband). She seemed shocked. Eh, we continued on to deal with more groups of people taking up the entire width of the trail. I took the lead and we managed to get though everyone to a more open space, without needing to bump into anyone else.
Open trail, great. Creepy old guy, not great. This was a first. Well, not a first in that a man walks just a little too close. But the first time a man admitted to doing so. Kind of. Karann and I were walking down and we could feel this man behind us, just a bit too close for comfort. Like maybe five feet behind us. I got the ick vibe and stopped. Karann knew what was up. This man. He said, “No need to stop! You’re going at a great pace for the both of us.” Okay, maybe he didn’t admit he was too close but he was clearly wanting to be that close behind us. I was slightly worried he’d stop with us but he continued on. Which annoys me that we had to even stop in the first place. I suppose I could have called him out, but that’s not me. Maybe with a few more years I’ll get there. I can feel all the fucks fleeing from me with age.
After that man continued on a bit, we started back up. To the best woman enjoying herself. There is a hollowed tree trunk, and this young woman—who was large, this is important—was squeezing herself inside. I wish I could remember what exactly she said, but she said something about fitting inside this trunk at her size. And then she had her partner take funny pictures of herself. She was loving life this day.
Nearing the bottom of the trail, we set out on the boardwalk to view the Falls. It was busy. There were people all over. And everyone seemed to understand how to walk on a boardwalk. Yay, people. We took in the Falls for a few minutes and then turned around. Walking back there was a solo angsty teen—at least by the look on his face—who clearly didn’t want to be there. I recognized that look. He had the current teen boy hair trend going on. I hear people call it broccoli hair but I once heard it called the Blanche Devereaux hair and I like that better. Cute kid, and I hope he had a nice time despite not wanting to be there.
That was a day. We left for Preston, where Karann’s car was parked. I drove her back to the Park and Ride where we met, with the original plan to start on the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail. We parted ways and I debated about getting Brian Rhodies but I didn’t stop. Sorry, Brian. I did stop at Sam’s though, and brought home food for Brian and me. I felt like an ass the day before. I had gone hiking with another friend in Issaquah, and stopped at Sam’s on the way home then also. It was almost noon. I had called in my order about 20 minutes out, and when they said it’d be 20 minutes, I said, “Perfect. I’m just leaving Issaquah now.” When I walked inside to get my order, the nice young guy asked me if I was on my lunch break. Without even thinking, I said, “Oh, no. I don’t work.” Then he asked me what I was doing in Issaquah, to which I replied, “I was hiking.” In a restaurant with other people waiting for their food, clearly on their lunch breaks. Dumb. Not that there aren’t plenty of other people who don’t work and hike during the day, but I should have been more aware of my surroundings and phrased it differently. Carnation folks can be tricky when it comes to outsiders moving here. Even if this outsider has lived here nearly a decade. And they tend to blame outsiders for all the problems, like unaffordable housing. I get it but I also know nothing stays the same and change is going to happen—whether they accept it or not. And, that whole capitalist greed thing is more likely the cause of problems than outsiders moving here. But hey, what do I know. I’m just a liberal outsider.
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