King County Cancels Trailhead Direct For 2020

SEATTLE, WA — After months of delays, King County has officially decided to cancel the Trailhead Direct 2020 season.

Trailhead Direct is a shuttle service that takes hikers from cities straight up to the trails in the Issaquah Alps, like Mt. Si and Mailbox Peak. Normally, the shuttles start running in April every year, but this year they were delayed by the pandemic's travel restrictions and lockdown on nonessential business, and now they've ultimately been canceled.

"We believe that the outdoors should be enjoyed by everyone, and we recognize the cancellation of this year’s service means reduced accessibility to trails and nature for many members of our community," wrote the county in a statement announcing the cancellation.

King County Parks and King County Metro say the decision was made in part because they don't know when the county will enter Phase 3 of the Safe Start plan, and because the service winds down in September anyways, meaning that by the time they could safely resume the shuttles, it might be too late. It could be some time before King County moves on to the next phase: the county is in the middle of a spike in new coronavirus cases, and the governor recently ordered a pause on new phases that could be extended past the end of the month.

The move may also come as a reaction to a new limit on gatherings. Thursday, Gov. Inslee announced that gatherings in Phase 3 would now be limited to 10 people or fewer, down from 50. In their post announcing the program's cancellation, King County Parks directly cite concerns about social distancing on the shuttles:

"Given the unknown timing of Phase 3 in King County and the social distancing and public health protocols that we’d need to implement, we don’t believe that we would be able to provide timely or sufficient service to Trailhead Direct passengers, which would lead to significantly longer waits and potential congestion at trailhead waiting areas."

Trailhead Direct started in 2017, and had just added a series of new routes to help expand their services last year.

Read the full statement on the cancellation here.