==Nice spring-like hiking.== (Feb., 2007) The snow is gone, the fallen trees cleaned up, and if you get out there on a sunny day it will seem like spring. And the 'Cedar Butte' sign has been replaced.

==No more parking fee!-- (May, 2006) State Parks finally recognized that the $5 dollar day-use parking fee was keeping users away--or at least parking elsewhere. So they have dropped it! So now you can park in the spiffy new Cedar Falls Trailhead parking lot, and not worry about getting locked in at the Watershed's parking lot.

==Mt. Washington BIKE trail.== State Parks is formulating plans for the Mt. Washington trail (up the West Ridge), the first stage of the Olallie Area Mountain Bike Trail (see below). It has been decided that this will come up the west and south sides of Cedar Butte (instead of the east side), will replace the existing Cedar Butte/Blowout trails, and will be PRIMARILY A BIKE TRAIL. Horses will be excluded. It has been agreed that the summit trail will be hiker only, and State Parks feels that twice a week visits will be sufficient to enforce this. Construction could begin as soon as next summer if budget is approved.

There are several curious aspects of the proposed route, but I am told the details will be worked out once they get the budget. Stay tuned.

==State Parks acquires Cedar Butte--eventually.== (2004) The transfer of most of Section 35 (including Cedar Butte) from DNR to Washington State Parks was delayed, for some kind of political reason. It was expected by the end of 2004; I haven't heard yet if it went through. State Parks has declined to comment on future plans for the Cedar Butte trail on the grounds of not yet having staff to study the subject.

Excluded from this transfer is the southwest corner south of the John Wayne Trail, and more or less west of the existing Cedar Butte/Blowout Trail. DNR plans to eventually transfer this to the watershed (Seattle Public Utilities), but probably not for "several" years. Note that when this goes through the watershed does plan to close access to the undeveloped (part is quite brushy) yet very nice trail on the east side of Boxley Creek. Explore it while you can.

==JWT Construction== Expected construction of a pipeline down the JWT to Boxley Creek seems to keep sliding. This is a project of the City of North Bend to tap into an unused water line from the Masonry Dam that crosses the JWT at the edge of Section 35 (about half-way between the Cedar Falls trailhead and the Boxley Creek). It is part of a complex plan to bring additional water into the Snoqualmie Valley to augment the water table.

Curiously, there seems to be no mention of this project on North Bend's website ( www.ci.north-bend.wa.us). For more information contact North Bend's Director of Community Services (Larry Stockton) at 206-888-5633.

==Olallie Area Mountain Bike Trail Study== The Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission has determined that "the long-term benefits to the public would appear to be well worth the investment" of something like $2.4 million to build 70 miles of bike trails along the north edge of the Watershed. Approximately 42 miles of that would be road-to-trail conversions of old logging roads along the ridgeline from Humpback Mountain to Mount Washington. The western end would come down the West Ridge of Mount Washington to Cedar Butte, and then to the John Wayne Trail. [See latest details, above.]

Copies of the Executive Summary can be obtained by e-mailing a postal address to Bill Sobieralski at bsobieralski@fs.fed.us.

UPDATE: I have been informed that there were only a limited number of printed copies of the main report. However, the source files can be had on CD-ROM. (But they weren't all that interesting.)