The sunny weather in North Bend enticed me. I hardly ever hike in the Middle Fork area because it's so rainy, so the extraordinary run of sunny days drew me in. I grabbed a buddy and sold her on two short, steep view-centered hikes: Garfield Ledges and Stegosaurus Butte.

The paving of the Middle Fork road is a wonder that I feel keenly grateful for. Whenever I head down the road, I am vividly reminded of the washerboard dirt road, the painful slow driving, and the suspect people camping/living out there. Some friends used to warn me to be aware that I was going into a bad neighborhood. Well! All that is in the past.

We rolled in to the Middle Fork Trailhead to find only two cars in the parking lot. The glories of mid-week hiking.

We followed the charming Middle Fork connector trail to the Garfield Ledges trailhead. The connector trail takes you to sweet riverside spots and grand views of Garfield Mountain. Then we crossed the bridge over the river and started looking for the outhouses behind which the Ledges hike begins. It's a new trail, carpeted in fresh gravel. Right away you see the crack from the water run off. It looks like there will be on going maintainence to keep this trail open.

It's a short, lovely climb studded with jewel-like views to Quartz Mountain and the Middle Fork valley. You know you've reached the top when you see the sign that warns you not to fall to your death. 

We enjoyed the long sweeping view, Grouse Ridge in the mid ground is the moraine from the continental glacier. Beyond that on the left Cedar Butte is a conspicuous bump. And if you look carefully at the left edge of the long ridge at the end of the valley, you will recognize Rattlesnake Ledge.

Stegosaurus Butte is a warty knob right across the river to the south. People who say they can see Mailbox Peak, I'm venturing a disagreement there. I think Russian Butte is the conspicuous horn.

We had a wonderful sunny spot on the rocks and the duff. We were happy to have our small thermarests for parking our rear ends. 

Then we scampered down and retraced our steps to the parking area and wandered across the Gateway Bridge. Gorgeous. There was ice on the Pratt River Connector Trail. It wasn't hard to navigate, just beware. It's cold and icy in the shade. In a long 1/4mile we found the unsigned footpath up Stegosaurus Butte. Thanks for the excellent, accurate trail description. Happily we didn't have muddy conditions due to the dry spell. I was happy with my trekking poles both going up and going down. The trail is easy to follow and I didn't find the scrambling hard at all. Going down was also just fine. I wouldn't take just anybody up this trail, though, only footsure, strong, uncomplaining companions.

When we got to the top we were greeted by the salal meadow. Maybe it was coming out of the gnarly climbing onto a large open flat meadow that enchanted us. We wandered on enjoying the south facing side of Garfield that was aglow. The weather had warmed up, as had we, and there was only a light wind. We ambled all around the meadow, admiring the vantage points, the vistas, and the views. We noted the Yellow Cedars dominated there, with weeping foliage. We were delighted to see so very many beautiful Lodgepole Pines. They are known by their short needles and small, thorny cones. It was like wandering into a ballroom, meeting one after another charming and distinguished new friend.

We met one person coming down Stegosaurus Butte as we were climbing up. He looked just fine, but it's not a trail I would do one my own.

What a great new trail!  Three years ago you had to know which tree limbs to duck under to find the old trail and I came away with many scratches.  Now it's a well built trail with a fairly easy grade.  The forest is beautiful and there's three great views including the climax of the trail.  So nice to see how this valley has developed into such a great close in destination.  It was a good way to introduce a new hiking friend to this area and the baby giggled the whole way.

We decided to do this trail since Sally had not been up it yet and when I hiked it a few weeks ago, it was all cloudy with no good views. Today was much better. We parked in the Gateway Bridge parking lot and hiked the Middle Fork Connector Trail over to the start of the Garfield Ledges Trail. This way you get our leg muscles warmed up before starting the up hill trail. About 50 yards up the GL trail is a big crack that looks like an earthquake fault line, but is probably from rain water runoff. Just at the top of the last set of steps we took the side trail over to the lower ledge view point where we could see down the Middle Fork Valley. We could see Cedar Butte in the distance. After getting to the last switchback in the trail we had a view northwest up the Quartz Creek Valley. Quartz Mtn. can be seen to the left, Rooster Mtn. on the right, with Paper Boy Peak and Peak 4651 in the back ground. Then it is about 1/4 mile to the upper ledge view point and a good place for lunch. Since this is a new trail, it is in good shape.

We had a good view down the Middle Fork Valley with the Taylor River down below us. To the south we could see Preacher Mtn. and Stegosaurus Butte. Down the Middle Fork Valley are several more mountains to see. In the distance we could see Rattlesnake Mtn. and Cedar Butte. As we were finishing our lunch a young couple with a baby showed up and we had a nice chat about hiking. When we got back down to the steps we met two more hikers heading up. So no big crowds on this trail yet. After getting back down to the Garfield Ledges parking lot, we hiked across the Taylor River bridge and did a hike on the Middle Fork Campground nature trail. Then went through the campground and took the CCC Trail back to the Gateway Bridge parking lot where we had started out hike. This adds some mileage to the Garfield Ledges hike. So checkout this new trail up to the viewpoints on the Garfield Ledges.

We decided to visit the Mid Fork to see how the fall color was coming along. The Big Leaf Maples are unusually bright yellow this year in Issaquah and Northbend. Unfortunately they are way past prime in most of the Middle Fork valley.  

Ms Maddy has a torn CCL knee ligament but she was able to happily hop along 3 legs for the very easy Oxbow Loop.  (She is scheduled for knee surgery in November). The forest here is mature and beautiful with big maple and spruce.  There are also some humungous Doug Fir and Cedar stumps along the way.

Next stop was the just opened, brand new Garfield Ledges trail.  Ms Maddy sat this one out. Joe O from Mountain to Sound Greenway and his weekend crews did an amazing job building this trail from nothing over the past 3 years.  Having walked this route for years with out much of a trail, I have a great appreciation for how much work it took to carve this trail out of a very rugged landscape.  I kicked away a bunch of loose rocks along the way to show my appreciation. The view was great in spite of the rain.

Each of the trails was 1.9 mi

Now that it is open, I tried the new Garfield Ledges trail. It was wide and wonderful, short and steep with some very nice stairs and an excellent viewpoint as a reward at the end. (And end it does: there is no additional bootleg trail that continues past the viewpoint.) I returned the way I came but wanted more so I cut thru the closed-for-the-season MidFork CG, went on the CCC trail and then up past Nordrum Lookout, up Quartz Ridge and Vista. Those narrower Quartz Ridge (bootleg) trails are a bit of a contrast to the new Garfield Ledges which looks like it is built for the masses. Don't get me wrong, I love Quartz Ridge and someone has done a lot of work and should be proud of it. With just a bit of snow lingering, I got up to about 3000' before stopping. I came back down to the valley floor the way I came but then went to the MidFork TH and then took the new Middle Fork Connector along the Taylor river. Wow! there are some great viewpoints along there, looking up at Garfield. I crossed over the bridge again and got back to the van at the TH.

For next time: Repeat the same route but add in Stegosaurus Butte for a trifecta.