Hester Lake #1005.1,Dingford Creek #1005

My son took me for my yearly Dad's day hike - this year I selected Hester lake because it was a short drive from Seattle and because after Whitebark's writeup (June 16) nobody else would dare be on the 'trail'. Well, WE shouldn't have been on the trail. Whitebark's description was definitely an understatement of how wet this trail is. For a while we were pretty good at jumping rock to rock over the mud and creeks, but after 5 miles of this, you end up just giving up and plodding through the mud. At one point, the 'trail' leads into a swamp (even waders would not keep you dry - you might disappear) and you have to beat the brush for a couple hundred yards and pick up the trail on the other side. This trail definitely never heard of the Seattle drought this year ! HOWEVER, we had a great time, made it to the lake and had lunch for an hour on the logs at the outlet (did not go over the outlet, another crazy person was camping there and their dog started barking at us) and slogged back down to our car. There were 6 other cars in the parking lot when we returned - only saw one other person on the trail, maybe the others are lost in the swamp? My son gave thanks that there is only one Dad's day every the year !