Dingford Creek #1005,Hester Lake #1005.1,Myrtle Lake #1005

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!