Friends of The Trail

Friends of The Trail We are your resource in East King County for court-ordered community service! We do trash cleanups year round in the great outdoors.

Call us to inquire about working your hours off or just plain volunteering with us! We have come to realize that there are many organizations dedicated to caring for the environment and maintenance of our hiking trails and recreation areas. But there are few, if any, organizations dedicated to cleaning up public areas that see much abuse from illegal dumping, shooting and littering, including the

heavily used recreational areas. We fill this need to return our public lands and waterways to their pristine state, in the most cost-effective manner. There are many positive effects of our work such as improved wildlife habitat and water quality, prevention of other occurrences of illegal dumping, and contributing towards a more livable Washington for all its citizens.

Our nonprofit organization, conducting cleanups on your public lands and waterways in Washington state, just got our 600...
09/08/2026

Our nonprofit organization, conducting cleanups on your public lands and waterways in Washington state, just got our 600th follower on Facebook this evening, and we coudn't be more delighted at the outpouring of public support for our efforts. And now it's time to recognize the people who make it happen: our trusty, hard working full and part time crew leaders respectively, Mark and Ed (pictured here); our founder and executive director, Wade, who coordinates everything and keeps the organization going, and his wife, Tania, our part time administrator who hauls in the grant money and does our bookkeeping and tax work, in addition to holding down her full time day job and raising their son - and they hail from (you probably guessed it wrong) Texas! - Board member Bob, who goes out and personally works on many of the cleanups, and our half dozen or so other Board members, who serve without pay; the hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers and community service folks who donate their time and effort to get the trash off the ground and out of the water; and the many, many folks from the community who opened their wallets and donated to our efforts on Reinig Road in Snoqualmie and allowed us to use their donations for our other cleanups when we had to throw in the towel on Reinig Road. You are the reason we've been keeping Washington clean and green for the last 30 years. Thank you!

Collecting and bagging the trash underneath the South Fork Snoqualmie River bridge in North Bend, Washington, yesterday ...
09/07/2026

Collecting and bagging the trash underneath the South Fork Snoqualmie River bridge in North Bend, Washington, yesterday morning - and then, voilà! We're done! Which do you prefer, before or after our cleanup?

09/07/2026

Here we are, pulling the trash out of the South Fork Snoqualmie River and up and off its banks yesterday morning in North Bend, Washington. And keep in mind, the temperature of the water in the river wasn't exactly tropical!

Here's what we found this morning underneath the Bendigo Boulevard Bridge between South Fork Avenue and Park Street in N...
09/06/2026

Here's what we found this morning underneath the Bendigo Boulevard Bridge between South Fork Avenue and Park Street in North Bend, Washington, tipped off by a community member. We hauled out enough trash to fill an 8 foot truck bed 5 feet high. This is a chronic problem spot, and most of the trash is believed to originate with an individual living in the bridge rafters. That individual was present this morning, as was a King County Sheriff's deputy, who directed the individual to vacate. The individual complied.

Friends and Supporters, by now you know that we have had to pull the plug on our Reinig Road Cleanup Project for which y...
09/03/2026

Friends and Supporters, by now you know that we have had to pull the plug on our Reinig Road Cleanup Project for which you made your generous donations, due to circumstances entirely beyond our control. We had our hearts and souls in it, and nothing could have depressed us more than having to make this announcement. We did not have to dip into your donations for any of the work completed thus far, so all of the funds are still there. We had planned to use them to continue with the project, which we now cannot do. While our work on Washington state's public lands and waterways receives funding from public grants, we always gratefully accept donations to supplement those funds, as the more we have to work with, the more we can do. Just look at the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley, where we spearheaded the cleanup of what was once a mountain slum, and transformed it into what is now a clean, safe, beautiful family friendly recreation area. Here's our founder, Wade, personally sawing up vehicle bodies in the river bed. Talk with anyone who was around before we got involved and remembers what it was like. If you want to see more of what we did there, we'd love to use your donation for our other projects that benefit the community, and remember, we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so your donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. But if you'd rather have your donation returned, just call us at 425-831-5486, with your name, the date and amount of your donation and a callback number (ignore the voice greeting, which is for people to sign up for our cleanups), and we'll check our PayPal records and get that money right back to you - every cent of it. We tremendously appreciate your support and wish we could have pulled this project off for you. But this setback won't stop us from working tirelessly cleaning up Washington state's public lands and waterways for the benefit of all, as we have for the last 30 years.

Friends and Supporters, it is with a heavy heart that we share with you the incredibly sad news that after a promising s...
09/03/2026

Friends and Supporters, it is with a heavy heart that we share with you the incredibly sad news that after a promising start, our Reinig Road Cleanup Project has had to be terminated and cannot proceed further, and that the site will have to be left as is, trash, eyesores and all. Read the word from our Executive Director below. We will be making a separate post with instructions for claiming a refund of donations by anyone who wants their money returned to them.

Tired of seeing this eyesore on Reinig Road in Snoqualmie? So are we. Our followers and friends may be wondering, are ...
08/24/2026

Tired of seeing this eyesore on Reinig Road in Snoqualmie? So are we. Our followers and friends may be wondering, are their donations to the Reinig Road Cleanup Project being diverted to other projects? Has Friends of the Trail given up on Reinig Road? The answer is a resounding NO! Reinig Road is a special project completely separate and apart from Friends of the Trail's day-to-day operations, which are conducted on Washington state's public lands and waterways and are funded by public grants. One of our cleanup partners on Reinig Road, Todd's Towing, is dealing with an internal matter that is temporarily restricting them to their own day-to-day operations and preventing them from hauling out more vehicles hulks. They'll be back on the job soon. Your donations are sitting there, waiting to be used, and we are actively pursuing leads to institutional funding to supplement them. Diplomatic negotiations are continuing to clear the legal and political snags. And we were recently granted permission to tour the interior of the property, where we found 11 motorhomes and enormous amounts of trash that defy verbal description. We're in the process of coming up with an estimate of the total cost of completely cleaning up the property so that all the bad things you see from the road (and all the bad things lurking in the shadows that you don't see) will be gone. Stay tuned, and thank you for your donations and your patience!

A brief update for those of our followers who have inquired about the next step in the cleanup of the distressed propert...
08/13/2026

A brief update for those of our followers who have inquired about the next step in the cleanup of the distressed property on Reinig Road and want to know what your donations are being used for. We've accomplished most of what we can in the county road right of way. Now we will be dealing with the interior of the property. That requires that certain issues be worked out as among the very many individuals who have various types and degrees of ownership interest in the property. Also, coordinating among haulers, volunteer labor, and disposal and recycling facilities that are willing to accept this type and magnitude of trash is no small feat. Friends of the Trail has a 30 year history of leveraging resources to get these projects done in the most efficient and economical manner possible, and you can be assured that your donations will be used for the exact purpose for which you made them. And we are thrilled to report that your outpouring of support has attracted the attention of institutional funders that look as if they may be willing to kick in money to match your donations. It took us years to clean up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley so that it could become the safe, clean, family friendly recreation resource it is today. That involved much more land and waterway acreage, but most of it is owned by the federal and state governments, so we were not dealing with ownership issues. Don't be discouraged if you see a pause in activity. We are on this project, we are working out the kinks, and we will get it done so this famous Twin Peaks road corridor will once again be beautiful. Thank you again for your patience and support! And thanks again to Micah Clark of Todd's Towing and Clayton Littlejohn for partnering with us on this project!

Keeping Washington state's public lands and waterways clean - Friends of the Trail removes furniture dumped on the side ...
08/12/2026

Keeping Washington state's public lands and waterways clean - Friends of the Trail removes furniture dumped on the side of the road on High Point Way between Issaquah and Preston.

Friends of the Trail recently removed trash from a roadside utility right of way corridor in Auburn, Washington. Our wo...
08/04/2026

Friends of the Trail recently removed trash from a roadside utility right of way corridor in Auburn, Washington. Our work gives court ordered community service folks an ideal way to complete their obligations. Wednesdays through Sundays year round, we conduct cleanups like this on public lands and waterways in Washington state. We're authorized by most courts to certify community service hours performed, and since we go out for a day at a time, one day of work with us equals 8 hours of credit. Come join one of our crews! Work your hours off and help make Washington state a cleaner, more beautiful state. Call (425) 831-5486, and you could be on one of crews tomorrow!

Address

North Bend, WA
98045

Telephone

+14258315486

Website

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