East Hill: Where are the Trail Connections?

Yesterday, Vic and I got out for a spin that involved plenty of miles of paved trail riding. King County has many good trails and yesterday we were on three: The Duwamish leaving West Seattle, the Green River Trail winding through Kent Valley, and the Cedar River Trail, heading from the town Maple Valley to Renton.

While the trail system is in progress, and so for example, completely easy to lose and poorly signed in South Park and Renton, what I don’t understand is where are the trail connections in south county?

I ask this because we had the most grueling, unappealing ride we’ve had since suburban Boston trying to cross Kent’s East Hill. A series of ridges, we knew to expect a stiff series of climbs to get to Maple Valley, but I could find no route more obvious than 240th. With its intermittent bike lanes, I am guessing we’re hardly the first cyclists to attempt connecting the Green River/Soos Creek/Cedar River trails along this road, but boy howdy I’d not do it again.

It seems very short-sighted of the County to publish a map of the these trails without publishing a recommended route to connect them on the same map.