Dual missing bridges to Bear Lake…

It’s unfortunate that the first bridge closure has been there since 2020 adding 4.2 miles one-way to the original trailhead, now 12 miles round trip.
With all of the defunding going on, I wouldn’t expect it to be fixed any time soon.

The trail to Dorothy had 4 blow-downs relatively easy to step over. You can tell the diminished trail traffic as vegetation is slowed to do its thing again, peaceful and humbling.

I haven’t been to Bear Lake in a decade and since the bridge at the Dorothy inlet is decommissioned. The crossing was uneventful, but I’m 6’4 and the water came to my thighs. I couldn’t imagine how fast the water would be flowing had I attempted this hike a month ago.

Dorothy had tons of campsites with two wilderness shit boxes. I camped at either side and went to overnight up at Bear for a few nights.

A ton of people were trail running from the Dorothy TH through the Snoqualmie Lake TH. I saw at least a dozen and only 3 overnight trips.

The fishing at Dorothy sucked like it did 10 years ago, however, the fishing at Bear and Deer was exceptional with fish with Bows and Cutties ranging 11” to 18”!

Overall it was a great early season backpacking trip!

Great hike. Recommend bringing a bike for the first 3.75 miles as it is simply a walk on a road. We didn't lock bikes...but there isn't much to lock one to. Hike is not easy, though it is relatively short. The outlet is just ok, not a lot of room do do much beyond a picture, though it is absolutely gorgeous. Recommend going around the lake to the inlet. 

This hike would be no joke w/o a bike or way to get to the beginning of the trail...

The road has a couple rough patches before you reach the closure point. There are permits to sign, and maybe they'll encourage the road to be repaired? I saw 4 parties on the road/hike sections. 

I mountain biked the road, which is mostly uphill and gains nearly 800 feet in under 4 miles. It was hard work uphill but great downhill! The vehicle ford was deep enough to really soak my lower body as I cruised through. A few downed trees to go around and one to lift the bike over. No great way to lock the bike up, with a longer lock maybe the picnic table would work. I used a tree. 

The hike has a few blow down that aren't hard to navigate. All are before the bridge which had spectacular water features. 

Once at the lake I hiked about halfway around to a campsite across the lake from the outlet stream of lake pugsley (my goal for the day). The site was still pretty moist so might not be good for camping yet. I inflated my packraft here and stepped into the cold shallow water to launch off. 

After paddling across the lake I found the outlet of pugsley. There's a campsite just to the right of the outlet where a decent pullout for a boat is but it is not a good place to head uphill, lots of annoying tight trees. I floated a bit farther to the right where the forest looked more open and pulled up again. It looked more promising so I secured my rafting gear and headed up. 

The route up to pugsley was a bushwhack that I made a bit worse than it needed to be on the way up. Stay first in the more open forest and then make sure to catch a minor rib that stays near the outlet stream, sometimes right next to it. I found a very faint bootpath in places but not enough to reliably follow. It's pretty steep when it's steep and there are definitely bushes to push through even when on the "path" (I feel it's over generous to use that word but eh). A TR I read before this trip suggested that it would be necessary to cross the outlet below the waterfall but I was able to continue without doing that and I was glad because it looked a bit sketchy with the amount of water coming down. 

As the route levelled out closer to the lake I hit snow which was welcome because it wasn't bushes. The snow was mostly consolidated and okay with my trail runners. I tried to stay on snow as much as possible. 

When I reached the lake I found it was mostly melted out although much of the shoreline was snowy. I was quite happy to tag this, my 220th lake in the alpine lakes wilderness!  No campsites on this side of the outlet, which is thickly forested with brush. It looked flatter on the other side of the outlet, although quite snowy and I didn't think it was worth wading across. 

The way out was uneventful and I managed a somewhat better way down and even ended up right by my raft. I changed back into my sandals for another chilly wade and launch. This time I stayed on the cliffy shore of Dorothy, weaving around islands and enjoying the scenery. I pulled out at the day use area near the outlet of Dorothy to deflate my raft and repack in the filtered sun. 

The hike out went very quickly and the bike ride even more so! I got 14 miles 2300 vert total, 6 hours with all 3 modes of transport included. 

I had been watching the weather and waiting for a rain-free weekend that wouldn’t go down below 38-40 f overnight, so I could do an early season overnight at Lake Dorothy. I also figured by now there'd be no snow left at 3200 feet.

The last 2 miles of road to the washout at a bridge has a lot of potholes, as typical. I wouldn’t do it in a low clearance vehicle but YMMV. Potholes and rocks stress me out enough in a high clearance vehicle. There were no cars at the ‘new’ trailhead at 9 am on a Friday morning. There is a sign with Alpine Lakes Wilderness passes to fill out for overnights and some helpful person(s) left 3 varnished wooden hiking poles. Here begins the 3.85 mile gravel road walk, which is a pleasant, shady, warm-up. At 1.7 miles in, you hit the “water across the road” section. I was surprised this was an intentional engineering design, like a 'wash'. I got my feet a bit wet, but not too bad. It’s maybe 4 inches deep, and I avoided the slimy algae area (which might have been shallower?) as I didn’t want to slip. You can totally ride a bike up this road section. Maybe 1 or 2 smallish logs to lift your bike over, the rest have gaps or go arounds.

At the original trailhead, the bathroom was unlocked, but I didn’t like the inside much – the pit toilet seemed to have water up to the concrete level.

On the trail proper, it is about 1.6 miles to the lake. The trail conditions seemed to be the same as described previously. Maybe 4 or 5 logs down before the bridge crossing, and the smashed crib stairs and cut out log after the bridge. Yeah, a lot of crib stairs. Nice on the way up, tedious on the way down.

The highlight of this section is the bridge over Camp Robber Creek and the confluence with a part of the East Fork Miller Creek. The water was gushing and gorgeous!

Keep in mind that once you get to the lake, it will be a while before you reach the campsites (assuming that is your goal, or a longer day hike) which are towards the flatter inlet area. It seemed like a very long 1.5 miles to the first campsite, with a bit of up and down and some bouldery stuff to get there. The lake itself is 2 miles long!

After I set up camp, I headed further up the lake and saw better campsites. I wanted to reach the inlet water crossing to see how deep it was. I only went as far as the point where the snow got deeper and I was postholing. There wasn’t any other noteworthy snow until that point. I caught a glimpse of the inlet from a distance and the water crossing looked wider than I had imagined, and I have no idea how deep as I didn’t get right up to it. But it was flowing heavy, for sure.

I hiked up on a Friday and saw no one. I was the only one there overnight. If there had been any day hikers (dubious), I didn’t hear them and they definitely didn’t venture down the lake. I had the entire 2-mile long lake to myself! Immense solitude, and the lake was extremely beautiful and peaceful! I shared that evening and the next morning with an osprey, a couple ducks, and the soothing sound of the falls across the lake.

On my way out Saturday I passed 4 day hikers and 1 backpacker hiking in. This is the perfect time to year to camp overnight…no bugs!

     Saturday morning we set out for Lake Pugsley, to be reached by hiking 2/3 of the way around Lake Dorothy. Miller River Road is in good condition suitable for all vehicles. Parked at the end of Miller River Road by the closed bridge. Took mountain bicycles from the parking lot 4 miles to the original Lake Dorothy trailhead. Several down trees have been removed from this part of the road (thank you!) but there is still one large tree we had to carry the bikes over.

     Trail to Lake Dorothy is in good condition. Many of the campsites on Lake Dorothy are snow-free. Near the south end of the lake there is snow covering the trail. There is a ford at the south end of Lake Dorothy-- water shoes were really nice to have, and I rolled up by pants to the knee.

     We left the trail where it turns away from Lake Dorothy. We kept low along Lake Dorothy to the Pugsley outlet stream. Then hiked up the south side of the outlet to Lake Pugsley. The undergrowth was dense and slippery and there was lots of snow. Snow still covers most of the lake, and there was 2+ feet of snow along the lake edge. We had to ford the outflow stream (thanks water shoes!), then camped in a small snow-free spot under the trees. It rained overnight. Early morning we heard from woodpeckers and varied thrush.

     Sunday morning we hiked out. There was an osprey calling from the south end of Lake Dorothy.