King County wasting money on trail

I was wondering just how much money the county parks department must be spending on the trail at the end of my street and the question was raised, "Why not spend that money to help the homeless?"

This street in Fall City is a dead end. (It's the old Fall City Dump Road.) There are three houses along one side of the street with two more set back on long driveways. So...there are five residences. The other side of the street is all water. At the end of the road there's a gate...and then a county-maintained, mostly gravel access road/trail that leads up the hill through private property to the main Snoqualmie trail that once was a railroad built mainly to transport lumber.

Hikers, bicyclists and horse riders use this access to the trail above. This particular, gravel trail is subject to frequent slides and erosion...just nature doing its thing. Lately, with this winter's usual weather damage, there has been a steady stream of heavy equipment, including tens of truckloads of gravel going up there to make repairs. This sort of thing has been going on for years. The King county roads department does the work along this street to the gate. From there, the King county parks department takes over. Some years ago, the roads department spent millions of dollars to replace a twenty foot bridge along the road. (A reminder...there are only five residences here!) They claimed the old bridge was at risk but it seemed fine to me.

So...back to my wondering and the question about the homeless. There are actually homeless people living right here in Fall City and countless others throughout the county. Instead of using public funds to maintain a road and a trail just for the precious few who travel from the big city to get back to nature...why not help the thousands of less fortunate? Just imagine having these millions of dollars available for those who really need it...rather than cater to a tiny minority of trail enthusiasts. In fact, there are other access points to the county trail system. If the hikers, bikers and horses don't want to cross over a few ruts or gashes on the uphill trail...they can use one of the other entry points. By the way...the trail up above...the one that used to be a railroad bed...it's just a slightly graded, cleared, dirt and gravel road now, whereas it used to be mostly overgrown with a narrow pathway snaking through the wilds.The land on each side is all privately owned, so those who use the trail are required to stay on the trail. There's no legal access to the forest. When a person goes up there, it's just a back and forth trip...no exploring...no cutting through the trees...no blazing new trails...just stay on the straight-and-narrow...might as well be on a mouse/gerbil, exercise wheel.

It's time for King county to take a close look at what in the world they're throwing away our tax money on. Maybe, consider a more humane use of our assets, eh? This money pit in Fall City is not going away. There will be no end to erosion on this little trail and the county will have to continue throwing money at it for years to come...as it has for years gone by. Stop. Let it be.