On July 17, took Dingford Creek trail with Hester Lake as destination, trail is outstanding until junction to goto Hester or Myrtle Lakes. From there, the Hester Lake trails becomes difficult quickly, with stream crossings, blow-downs, a very muddy or flooded trail in places. After Crossing Dingford Creek, the way is okay for about one-half a mile, before it opens up into a marshlike meadow, braided by streams and melting snow. Multiple slabs of snow at varying depths cover most of the basin on either side of the meadow. From here, the trail completely disappears. It was not at all clear where to go. For this reason, I turned around. There was nobody else on the Hester Lk trail that day.

As is the case with most reports on Hester Lake, it is a mess...and is advisable only if you like a muddy/flooded trail with multiple blowdowns, stream crossings, and plenty of routefinding. It is generally an unmaintained trail. Once you cross over Dingford Creek(expect to get your boots wet here) the trail is Okay..until you reach the marshlike meadow which is covered by a braided stream, and frogs, and still has lots of snow. It becomes very clear that if you don't have previous experience with the trail, you don't know where to go, because when I was up there on 7/17/08 the trail disappears completely. As a newcomer to Hester Lake, I turned around, after searching for some sign of a trail(no sign!) and went back. It would be better to wait until the snow melts. Myrtle is a better option at least while the snow is on the ground.

This weekend I did an experiment to see if I could do an overnight backpacking trip in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness without a car. Caught the Metro 214 from Seattle to North Bend and brought my mountain bike and a very pared-down overnight pack along (but with everything I needed to be safe). Biked to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie car campground Friday night (a very lovely camp, especially the walk-in sites with views of Garfield Mt.).

Next day, I biked up to the Dingford Creek trailhead. That stretch of the Mid Fork Road is rutted but I did it in under an hour and a half. Locked my bike near the Dingford gate and started hiking! Trail was in good shape to the junction at about 3 miles (lots of grand old growth Douglas fir and hemlock just beyond wilderness boundary).

My original destination was Hester Lake. That spur trail is in very bad shape, very faint, brushy and at certain point skunk cabbage was growing in the middle of the trail...not a good sign for drainage. Lots of boot-sucking mud. The trail continued to be hard to find as it crossed and recrossed the creek. Then at some high meadows, I lost the trail in snow, probably at about 3,600 feet elevation about .75 mile to a mile short of the lake. I wasn't interested in routefinding as I was on my own. The wildflowers on this crumbling trail were actually quite nice: lots of Jeffrey's shooting star, one of my favorite flowers.

So, with Hester inaccessible, it was back down to the junction and then up to Myrtle Lake. That trail is muddy in spots, but snow free. The lake itself has about 2, maybe 3 feet of snow surrounding, making finding snowfree camp somewhat challenging, but doable.

The setting is lovely, with Big Snow Mountain towering above this clear gem of a lake.

On Sunday, I hiked back down, rode down the Mid Fork Road (much more dusty with more traffic, not exactly ideal biking conditions). Got to North Bend about 4 p.m. and thought about camping at Valley Camp, but instead made the trip all the way down.

The trouble with my bus-bike-hike plan was there's no bus service from North Bend to Seattle on Sundays, so had to do a very long and complicated ride from North Bend to Issaquah (at one point, reduced to riding on the shoulder of I-90 from Snoqualmie to Preston--yuk). Whew! And it was HOT. But I made it to Issaquah in late evening in time for dinner and the 9 p.m. Sound Transit 554 back to Seattle.

All in all, a tiring but rewarding trip that cost me all of $4.75 in bus fare and $14 bucks for a night at the Mid Fork Campground. It is possible to hike in the Alpine Lakes without a car, but it's an adventure!

Great Hike and a great lake at the end. There is a lot of mud in parts... but not anything to stop you. Pretty steep at the end, but worth the climb. We went swimming in Hester at the end, the water was great. I have been to Myrtle in past years - and the bugs were VERY bad. But the bugs at Hester were no so bad this year. Enjoy. J