Centennial Trail (Machias Trailhead)

About 5 miles from the start of the Centennial Trail (in Snohomish) is the Machias trailhead. This is the most family friendly trailhead as it contains nice bathrooms, a play area, ample parking and a picnic area. This trailhead used to have an area where you could rent bicycles, roller blades and roller skates. That store also included snacks, trail gear and more. Unfortunately, that store has closed down for 2008 and hopefully it will come back in some form.

Here is the sign that hangs above the previous store.

So this blog is about the trail between the Machias trailhead (mile marker 5) and the Lake Stevens trailhead (mile maker 7.5). One thing I would like to mention is that there is a horse trail that runs alongside the trail for most of the distance between the Pilchuck trail head and the Lake Stevens trail head. This is great if you want to walk your dog on the dirt trail instead of the asphalt. There are a few places where the horses do come on to the asphalt trail and you may have to dodge the evidence of that occasionally.

Evidence of a horse that was on the asphalt trail previously.

The trail itself is flat, in very good shape and hosts walkers, runners, bicyclists, rollerbladers and even the occasional skate boarder. Oh and occasionally, a dog will just lay down in the middle of the road as its owner snaps a picture.

Right about the 6 mile marker, the Little Pilchuck Creek crosses the trail. There are a few areas here where you can let your dog take a quick dip in the cool mountain runoff water.

The trail ends up in Lake Stevens and that trailhead has a huge amount of parking. If you come in the afternoon, you might want to park on the left side of the lot for the shade of the trees.