CCC Road: Blowout Creek Trailhead — Wednesday, Sep. 14, 2022

Began my hike at the DNR blue gate on the Bessemer Road off the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Road. It is a mile hike up this road to get to the CCC Trail. After crossing Blowout Creek on the road bridge, I came to a clearing area by the road that had two new foot bridges. The two truss bridges were built for the DNR by Contech Engineering Solutions from Arlington. When I got up to the CCC Trail I could see where one of the new bridges was going to be installed over Blowout Creek. It will replace the small log bridge put in by mountain bikers several years ago. Some of the site prep work has been done to install the new bridge. DNR had several trees cut down in order to have a helicopter fly in the new bridge and set it in place. I then crossed the creek on some rocks and headed southeast. The CCC Trail crosses several small creeks in the first mile, most still had water running in them and a couple had small waterfalls. After crossing the FS/DNR boundary line I came to another large creek (with no name). This was the site of the other new bridge. The contractor for the DNR installing the new bridges had driven in a small Kabota track hoe to do the site prep work. The pads at each end of the new bridge were in place. A helicopter would also fly in this bridge. This creek location is shown as "Difficult Creek Crossing" on the Green Trails map 174SX.

A short distance further on from the new bridge work were two more creek crossings with deep gullies. Both of these locations could use a bridge. From here the CCC Trail goes up hill crossing a steep side hill and going by a nice rock area. Looks like the CCC crews had to do some rock blasting when they built the CCC Road back in the 1930's. I then got to some views out to the south of some peaks, but they were covered in clouds today. I stopped at a large log along the trail for a snack break. From here the trail went back down hill and passed an old gravel/rock pit from the days of when the CCC Road was constructed. It is now overgrown and had been used as a camp site in the past. I saw an old rock fire ring. I then crossed over Brawling Creek which was dry. No big gully here, further on was the unsigned junctions with the Green Mtn. Trail and the Sitka Spruce Trail. Then it was about 1/4 mile to meet the CCC Road that goes 3.6 miles to meet the SE Mt. Si Road out of North Bend. This part of the CCC Road is still driveable but has a locked gate so you cannot drive on it. You could ride a bike.

I then turned around and hiked back to the Green Mtn. Trail and found a rock for a lunch time seat. It was quiet in the Green Mtn. Forest. After eating I hiked back the way I had come. When I arrived back at the Blowout Creek crossing, I saw a red Toyota SUV drive up the Bessemer Road and come back down about ten minutes later. The driver must have had a key to the DNR blue gate. There are four locks on the gate, DNR, FS, rock pit owner and one other. The only wildlife I saw on my trip was one frog and a Robin. My hike was 8.6 miles round trip. It was nice to see that the DNR is installing two new bridges on the CCC Trail. This was the first time I had hiked this section of the CCC Trail. George