Cougar/Squak Corridor Park south expansion opens to the public

Published 5:19 pm Wednesday, June 10, 2015

On Saturday, the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks opened a new trailhead and officially closed the chapter on a nearly three-year effort to turn a former campground and potential logging site into a park.

Now the County is seeking the public’s ideas for what to do with the newest 216 acres of Cougar/Squak Corridor Park.

Issaquah Alps Trails Club President David Kappler cut the ribbon on the expansion in front of more than 100 people outside of the old Issaquah Highlands Recreational Club lodge and the beginning of the new Margaret Way trail.

Representatives from the County, the Washington State Trust for Public Lands, grassroots organization Save Squak, the Washington Trails Association, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and outdoors retailer REI were in attendance, among others.

The expansion creates a south-end access point to Squak’s county and state trail network, accessible from State Route 900.

“And it’s not only connectivity for hikers, it’s connectivity for wildlife,” Kappler said.

In November 2012, Kappler found out from others in the community that the old Issaquah Highlands Recreational Club had been purchased by Erickson Logging Inc.

The park expansion’s lodge is left over from the Issaquah Highlands Recreational Club. The building is currently closed. – Photo by Daniel Nash

Over the subsequent half-year, the company applied multiple times with the state Department of Natural Resources to harvest the land’s timber, some of which were accepted. However, the Trails Club and grassroots organization Save Squak continued to lobby King County to purchase the land.

The county didn’t have immediate funds to purchase the land, but the club and Save Squak attracted the attention of the Washington Trails Association and The Trust for Public Land.

The Trust for Public Land eventually made a deal in July 2013 to purchase the land on behalf of King County for $5 million. King County acquired the land in December 2014 after completing repayment to The Trust for Public Land.

“We were lucky,” Kappler said.

On Tuesday, County DNRP spokesman Doug Williams gave the Reporter a tour of the park expansion. Hiking up the Margaret Way trail — named for late Issaquah City Parks Planner Margaret Macleod, who died of lung cancer in Dec. 2013 — Williams pointed out the evidence of the site’s former life as a campground.

Some, like electrical hookups extending several hundred feet up the side of the mountain, may be removed in the near future, he said.

Others proved to be a boon, like the camp’s backroads up Squak. Volunteers were able to incorporate the roads as particularly wide trails and branch out further trails.

“They took advantage of this old network of roads,” Williams said. “They could go up the roads, pop a trail in and get some elevation.”

As many as 475 people in 60 work parties worked on the expansion and trail over 7,500 hours, according to an article from Trails Club Vice President Doug Simpson for the club’s newsletter.

King County held an initial community meeting taking public input on Cougar/Squak Corridor Park May 27 and accepted written comment through June 5.

A second meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. June 17, at the Eagle Room in Issaquah City Hall.

Issaquah City Hall is located at 130 East Sunset Way.