Dingford Creek

There are three forks of the Snoqualmie River, the south, the north and the middle. These rivers are fed from the snow melt in the southern Cascades of the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie Forest and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. They have carved large canyons that whose mouths converge at the southern buttress of Mt. Si in North Bend. West of North Bend is the town of Snoqualmie, the river's namesake, here the three rivers become one; the north fork flows from behind or north of Mt. Si, the south fork which carved the large canyon that I-90 follows to the pass and the middle fork, which flows in fronts Mt Si and then cuts north easterly deep back up into Cascades. Their combined waters merge and flow over the famous Snoqualmie Falls. The southern fork is all but taken taken for granted because its the concourse of I-90, however the northern and middle fork are almost obscured by the fact they are only accessed via rough logging roads. Logging and mining were the reasons for the initial road building and there hasn't been much improvement since then, if you venture out be prepared for a bumpy ride. A patient slow driver can make it in a car, but a 4 wheel drive is going to make better time and be safer.

Several years ago on a rainy October Saturday, Miles and I set out to explore the Middle Fork and drove to the trail head of the Dutch Miller Gap, a pass in the eastern crest of the Cascades. This beautiful wilderness, is isolated by a 25 miles long road, 23 of which are full of gravel and potholes. Kyle, Miles and myself planned this past Saturday to return to walk the lush green path of the Dutch Miller. Kyle was excited about being able to drive his Toyota 4 Runner in 4 wheel drive. We arrived at the 12 mile split where the road gets a bit rougher and you turn right; up and over a hump and through several dips in the road where snow melt runs in the spring.

I was surprised a scant 6 miles later when we came to a locked gate. We'd not be hiking the Dutch Miller today, so instead we took the trail that was at the new "end of the road", the trail up Dingford Creek. The first mile or so steeply climbs around 800 feet until you come to the edge of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Several times the trail comes within ear shot of the creek and the rushing water. After you cross the wilderness boundary the forest changes from logged 2nd growth to old growth. The trail meanders along the ridge line through beautiful mature Douglass Fir, whose needles and tiny pine cones make a beautiful light brown path. Ferns and moss line the path in a verdant green and we saw mushrooms growing everywhere, including some very interesting black and purple ones that I named The Black Mushroom of Death, which is moniker I give all unknown plants that are edible.

Our pace was slowed by the fact that Miles, my almost 4 year old son who weighs 45 lbs, "legs were breaking" at the steep parts and I ended up carrying him. Conveniently he found new energy when we traversed along the ridge and went running down the trail, having a great time crossing the small and mostly dry creeks. We hadn't planned to hike the entire 20 miles to the Dutch Miller Gap, nor did we have a destination in mind along Dingford Creek. When we reached our turn around point based on our time window, we reversed course and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors as we made our way back to the trail head. Once again at the switch backs down, Miles "legs were breaking" and I carried him down in a fireman carry where he fell asleep and snored.

When we arrived back home I did some research at http://www.nwhikers.net on the road closure, I found several long threads on the subject, [1], [2], [3]. The most informative and straight forward answers were from Chuck. Wanting a bit more clarity I emailed

Doug Schrenk
Forester/Environmental Coordinator
Snoqualmie and Skykomish RD
MBS NF

Who wrote :

The road was officially permanently closed to public motorized
access and converted to trail for use by hiker, mountain bike
and stock user groups the end of June 2007. The closure is a
culmination of an approximately seven year analysis, which
included many public meetings and notifications (including
signing the road). Well over 1,000 individuals, groups,
organizations, and agencies commented on the environmental
document prepared for the road closure at Dingford Creek.
Over 90% of those who commented supported the closure.

Sadly, for me, access is traded for protection. In this case I'd have preferred a road maintained versus a logging road thats now a "trail". In a 100 years I suppose none will be the wiser. Either way I love the Middle Fork and look forward to the many opportunities there are for me left to explore.

Stats : 5.5 miles 1342 vertical feet

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