The wait is over. Saturday the Ice Caves Trail Bridge is open, and after almost three years since floods washed it out, hikers can once again trek one of the most popular trails on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest to the base of Big Four Mountain.
The new $425,000 aluminum bridge spanning the South Fork Stillaguamish River is higher, longer, stronger and lighter than the one the 2006 floods washed out, according to Peter Wagner, bridge engineer for the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. "We hope these attributes will keep it from being damaged in any future floods," he said.
Several delays plagued building the replacement bridge. Wagner said funding was not available until last year, when the work was contracted and the structure designed. Last winter's floods further eroded the stream bank, forcing engineers to adjust the design, adding 16 feet to the span. It is now 224-feet long. Then the late snow melt kept work from starting until late May.
"The structure was prefabricated in Florida and trucked to the site in June. A helicopter flew the seven bridge sections into place and workers assembled it in about a week," Wagner said. The entire construction took about five weeks. Funding for the repairs is from the Western Federal Lands Highway Division of the Federal Highway Administration under the Emergency Relief to Federally Owned Roads program.
The one-mile Ice Caves Trail crosses the river about one-third mile from the trailhead and continues beyond the river to the base of Big Four Mountain, where the ice caves form. The easy hike gains 200 feet, and ends at the 4,000 foot tall north wall of the Big Four Mountain featuring the lowest elevation glacier in the lower 49 states. It is a designated National Recreation Trail.