Little Si, Boulder Garden, part of old Si trail, North's Road

There are only two weekends left for Trailhead Direct, so let's use one of them for a trail sampler in the Si area.

We'll first take the Little Si trail up to Little Si, where we can stop for lunch. IMO, the Little Si trail is among the prettiest in the area.

But when we head back down, we'll turn east onto the upper part of the Boulder Garden loop. From there, we'll head up the old Si trail about a third of the way, where we'll find an unsigned but obviously in-use junction with "North's Road". This will take us down to the Douglas Fir trail, where we'll head back to Boulder Garden, this time taking the lower part of the loop.

The last time we were on the lower Boulder Garden trail, we saw a path that goes up to the top of one of the boulders -- no scrambling or climbing needed.

We'll come out again via the Little Si trailhead.

Here is our approximate route. (You'll notice that Google Maps does not know that the Douglas Fir trail connects to the new Si trail...and it calls it the Timber Trail.)

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LiVnrnnmiwr97Kwu9

This is about 7 miles, 2400 ft elevation gain, but don't be fooled -- the Little Si trail isn't "easy", and the old Si trail is a rather stiff incline. By contrast, North's Road and the Douglas Fir trail are very nicely graded.

Logistics:

Bring lunch, snacks, plenty of water. There is a pit toilet but no water at the trailhead, and no running water along our route.

Weather reports say partly cloudy, a slight chance of sprinkles, about 70 deg F.

Hiking shoes or boots with good traction recommended, and you may want to bring your trekking poles if you have them -- there are some spots with annoying loose pebbles to slip on, and a couple of places where the trail is banked the wrong way.

Getting there:

We'll be on the Trailhead Direct bus that departs from Capitol Hill (southbound on Broadway just south of E Denny, near the Capitol Hill Link station) at 8:30am, gets to South Bellevue station at 8:54am, North Bend Park and Ride at 9:20am, and arrives at the Little Si overflow parking area at 9:39am.

You can catch this bus run wherever it's convenient -- South Bellevue just happens to be convenient for folks coming from either the Seattle side (now that we have Link Line 2) or Eastside, and for drivers, since South Bellevue station has a parking garage.

If you're taking the bus, you can use your favorite route planning app -- tell it you want to arrive at the Little Si overflow parking area at 9:45am. But beware if it wants you to make a tight connection.

Drivers -- I recommend strongly not driving to the Little Si trailhead and trying to park there. There will not be parking. Seriously, I mean it, no parking at all. Just fugeddaboudit. Instead, drive to South Bellevue station, or the North Bend Park and Ride -- be there in enough time to be waiting at the bus stop 10 minutes prior to the times above.

Use comments to coordinate.

(Apologies for the late posting!)