Walking From North Bend to Bellevue

We finally walked from North Bend to Bellevue. Well, not all at once. The trip up and over Squak was the final piece to the puzzle.




Last December we hiked the length of Rattlesnake Mountain and we’ve hiked the Preston Rail Trail from Preston to Snoqualmie. With the exception of a few road miles, those trails join North Bend to Preston. We’ve also hiked the Preston Rail Trail up to the summit of Tiger Mountain, as well as continued the old railroad grade from Preston to Issaquah.



Last January we hiked up and over Cougar Mountain, starting from the eastern side of Cougar in Issaquah and dropping down to the Bellevue side at the Red Town trail head.

Two weeks ago we hiked ‘up and over’ Tiger from the High Point trail head to the Paragliding landing area near the east side of Squak.



The only remaining section in this admittedly disjointed set of hikes between Bellevue and North Bend was the Squak mountain section. Squak Mountain sits between Tiger and Cougar Mountains. It’s one of the Issaquah ‘Alps’ (or Issaquah ‘Blobs’, depending on your view point).

We began the trail at the 'Sycamore' access in Issaquah.  That access is right from a neighborhood with virtually no parking at the trail head.  We were the only car there.  The trail starts to go up the East ridge of Squak.  With no points for creativity, the trail is named 'East Ridge Trail'.  We hiked roughly two miles up, gaining roughly 1100 feet or so in elevation and then rather than go all the way to the summit, we took the right fork on the trail to hike around the east side of the mountain.  Again, with zero creativity, the trail was named 'East Side Trail. 

The trail is fairly well maintained and there are peek a boo views of Tiger and the surrounding areas.  Not any single view to knock your socks off, but we only saw 2 other people on the first 4 miles of the hike.  The last mile or so we saw probably a half dozen people.  Nothing compared to the hoards on Si or Rattlesnake Ridge.  The trail is quiet and the aesthetics are pleasing.

We even found a geo cache quite by mistake.

We ended the trail at state route 900 where we had dead headed a car.  The nice part about this hike is that it both begins and ends within a couple of miles from Issaquah -- and where we needed to do some shopping.   Hiking and completing some chores.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.