Grand Ridge is a King County Park tucked up above the Issaquah Highlands beyond the neighborhoods. We worked with the Washington Trails Association on a new trail, once completed there will be nice loop. Here is an excerpt from WTA about the park:
"This trail is a little piece of the backcountry close to Seattle and is open to hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. Winding through 1,200 acres above Issaquah and Lake Sammamish, Grand Ridge Park is the result of a unique agreement between Port Blakely, which developed the Issaquah Highlands and King County. For every one acre of developed land, Port Blakely agreed to set aside four acres of park land."
The views are long and the forest is quite nice with few invasive species that we saw. Squad split up into groups to tackle different trail-work tasks. The work included digging drainage ditches, leveling gravel, removing organic material from the trail and replacing it with mineral soil which is more stable. The stable soil was dug from a borrow pit as deep as the children! They loved climbing down into it to fill buckets and handing them out to be dumped down the trail. We also dug a few hardy sword ferns and transplanted them alongside the trail to fill bare spots.
One keen-eyed volunteer spotted a Northwestern salamander (pic below), which fortunately was picked up with gloves, as the oil on our skin interferes with their essential mucus layer. A fun find. Eric received his 5-party hardhat with his name on it, congrats to him and all of the other volunteers stock-piling their events (25 party vest and 50 work party saw!).
**Special note** at our next event 2nd Thur 4/14: White Center Heights Park, King County Parks **KC Exec. Dow Constantine will speak at 11a about the Climate Change Action Plan's Million Trees Initiative**
