The Taylor River Road is in good shape. The road is now only a trail (no-motorized vehicles allowed). There are no blow-downs and brush has been cleared from the sides of the trail. The river is only visible from the beginning of the trail. It's mostly an unexciting walk through the forest. There are almost no views of the surrounding mountains because of the trees. The highlights of this hike are the creeks that you cross. There was one creek (Anderson') that was flowing over the trail. Without using some care and waterproof boots and you'll have wet feet for the rest of the hike. I was very impressed with Otter Falls and Lipsy Lake. I was not expecting such high falls cascading off a smooth polished rock cliff into this scenic little lake. We visited it late in the afternoon and there was a lot of water coming down. At one point the falling water created a horizontal jet. One drawback is that there is not a lot of space to view the falls from due to the brushy lakeside. It is possible to scramble over to and up the dry part of the cliffs. The boot-beaten trail to the falls is unsigned and a little hidden. Heading east on the road, you will cross 3-4 creeks after the wooden bridge over Marten Creek before the Lipsy Lake trail. If you come to a cement bridge, you will have reached Big Creek and have gone too far. Our main goal of this hike was Dream Lake. It turned out to be more of a bad dream. We weren't stacking the odds of reaching it in our favor by not bringing map, altimeter or GPS. However, in the end, they probably wouldn't have helped much. We found a rough trail about 30 feet east of the bridge over Big Creek. It was pretty steep and a little hard to follow. The trail never strayed very far away from the raging creek and passed by some big, old growth trees. You often couldn't see the creek, but you always could hear it. We made very good time up this trail till it disappeared before a slide alder and devil's club filled valley. We bashed through it for a while. By this time, my friend already had a bloody knee. Noticing some heavier timber higher up to the west of the creek we agreed to try and cross. Well, as the name suggests, Big Creek is not very small. We spent about 1 hour looking for a suitable place and making the crossing. We eventually forded the icy waters on foot and with ski poles. The water frothed up over my knee and almost knocked me over once, but I emerged on the other side with still some sensation in my feet. For a while, the west side was indeed much better. However, after about 1/3 mile, we crossed into the nastiest thicket of cedar I can remember ever encountering. We went for a long time without our feet touching ground. This was true monkey territory. To top it off, we then ran into a steep, rock - walled, creek/waterfall gouged deep into the slope. We could have crossed this waterfall, but there was more of the cedar thicket on the other side. At this point we realized we were not likely to make it to the lake and decided to turn around.

Hiked in to Big Creek yesterday. Most of the seasonal creeks are losing their flow already, but the 4 major creeks (Marten, Anderson, Otter and Big) are all very full. Otter Falls is very impressive right now (more water than I've ever seen). Likewise with Big Creek Falls. Trail recently brushed out to (probably past) Big Creek. Seemed longer comng down...

Another prettier than expected hike. This trail is along an old road that doesn't look like an old road after the first half mile or so. Find the trailhead up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie road (not too bad and seems to have been recently graded in the middle) and then a short bit left on the Taylor River Rd to the end. The trail crosses the Taylor River on a big bridge and follows a road for a short bit until the Quartz Ck Rd heads off to the left. The trail continues straight and from this point on, you had to look closely to tell this was an old road. This was a lovely hike through moss covered trees with some very pretty creeks. There are some very impressive smooth rock cliffs with waterfalls and waterslides all along the way. The wooden bridge at Marten Ck is showing its age with holes punched through. It's still safe to cross, but you'll want to pay attention and when this bridge goes, it will be difficult if not impossible to cross. The crossing at Anderson Ck was running high enough that I waded, though there was a route across involving some wet logs that looked too slippery for me without my walking sticks for balance. We passed the cairn/rock arrow indicating the Otter Falls trail and continued another short mile to the crossing at Big Ck, another impressive creek with the water sliding over the smooth rock. There's a substantial hole on the far side of the bridge that could be dangerous if your attention is on the creek and not where you're stepping. We turned around shortly after and went back to Otter Falls for lunch. This is a very impressive falls over the smooth rock cliffs and down into Lipsy Lake at the bottom.

There is no snow on the trail to the crossing of the Taylor River at 6.5 miles. There are some windfalls, but the only ones that need to be removed are a 18"" and 10"" at 3.9 miles. The trail has been brushed out near Big Creek.

Getting there: Drive up the Middle Fork Road and park at the Taylor River trailhead. The trail: Day I Mitch, Tom and I started up the Taylor River around 7:00 am on Tuesday morning. The plan was to climb three of the Home court Peaks; Morpheus-5,432’, Cascade Mtn.-5,591’ and Mile High-(at yes you guessed it!)-5,280’. The three of us pedaled up the Taylor River trail to its junction with Big Creek (at ~1,720’). Looking like the “motleyist” bunch of “eco-challengers” on the planet we walked, rode and fell our way up the Taylor River. Being on bikes we made short work of this section and the only mishap occurred when Tom’s rear wheel came off and he partially sprained his foot. As we limped over the bridge things were looking grim… after locking up the bikes and preparing to head up the trail Tom decided that maybe he’d better bow out. But Mitch talked him into staying and we were very happy to hear that he was going to give it a go, sprain and all. The trail was in very good shape for the first mile or so but peters out at around 2,500’ in a slide alder/ vine maple “bash” area. At this point we opted to cross the stream (avoid the brush, which we did) and begin heading up in the forest towards Morpheus in a NNWesterly direction. We hit snow around 3,400’ or so and continued the slog up to the summit of Morpheus around 12:30. We brought only small packs to the summit as we had left our over-night packs around 500’ below. There was no wind on top as we basked in the warm sun on some rocks. We stayed for well over an hour or so while Mitch counted 53 home court peaks from this gorgeous locale. Eventually we descended back to our packs as we began the long ridge traverse over to our camp at the notch just east of point 5,364 at 4,840’+. Once at the notch we relaxed for a while eating and setting up our high camp before setting off to do a luxurious evening ascent of Cascade Mountain (5,591’). From our camp we traversed on the north side of point 5,196’, which began as a steep traverse but ended on nice gentle rolling “hummocky” slopes to the summit of Cascade. Again the summit afforded great views of the ALW but was a bit “breezy” as there were some clouds moving in from the west. Mitch and I hung out on top for a bit enjoying the changing scenery (with the clouds streaming in and blotting out the sun from time to time) while Tom, a bit cold and hungry, descended back to camp. From our high perch we watched as Tom glissaded down the “park-like” slopes of Cascade, disappearing in the evening alpen-glow. The view looked like a scene from heaven (now we remember why we like this insane past-time) its when you get moments like this that make it all worth while (sigh)!! Once back at camp Mitch and Tom “hunkered” down inside the tent while I collected clean snow to melt for dinner. It had become quite breezy after the sun had gone down at camp so I too joined my two compadres inside the cozy confines of Mitch’s favorite tent the “REI Dome” (you all know the saying, “…they’re bulky but they’re good!”), Mitch is the proud owner of at least two that I know about! We then drew straws and I was rewarded with the “middle position” in the tent (I am still not sure if I won or lost!). Mitch and Tom (who have been going out to the mountains together for almost 25 years, wow they should have gotten married!) then proceeded to share mountain “war stories” while we slurped down our dinner (these guys are some amazing mountaineers!). Around 9:30 or so everyone started to get tired (mainly of the stories) so we shut off the headlamps and settled in for a pleasant evening in the “Dome”. The evening went along uneventfully except the occasional light drizzle and the breaking off of a cornice nearby during the “wee” hours of the morning. Day II Excited about the possibility of another beautiful day we awoke eagerly like children waiting for Christmas… But just as in Christmas we were a bit disappointed as we looked under in our stockings and found two very large lumps of coal and in our present case out our tent (around 6:30 or so) where we had trouble seeing even the fly (as the fog had moved in thick as “pea soup” giving us a solid 2 inches or so of visibility, double ugh!!). The motivation was running pretty low at this point and I was willing to sit in the tent until I could see the sun shining but Mitch wasn’t willing to wait until July 14th …so lethargically I woke up (none too pleased!). The only thing that I had to look forward to this morning was; a can of cold slim-fast, wet soggy plastic boots and frigid damp socks none of which were things that I was looking forward to! I was the last one out of the tent after coffee and slim-fast in bed (wow this could be a new trend in Seattle!) as the “soggy dome” collapsed around me I knew that the “gig was up” and I had to get out of my warm toasty sleeping bag to brave the elements. Tom and Mitch were heading down well before I had even packed my pack. I then donned my soggy boots and frozen shells and proceeded to follow their tracks which descended into the fog towards the lake. Mitch led bravely down the steep slopes and eventually we all met up at around 4,200’… things were going fine until I took over the route finding duties! Somehow I managed to get us on a very steep rib with polished granitic slabs and waterfalls surrounding us and with no apparent place to go, uh oh! Somehow I coerced Mitch and Tom to follow me rapping off of Mountain Hemlocks and scrub Alaska Cedars, descending rain slickened rock, jumping across cliffs… now this was really starting to look like an Eco-Challenge” er, or maybe truer to form more like WE looked like the “eco-CHALLENGED”! Well we got down ferrying packs down the steeper sections and finally arriving at the safety of the gentle snowfield above Dream Lake. Thankful to be walking on horizontal ground we watered up at the lake and took a break after traversing around to the other side so that we could begin our assault on Mile High-5,280’. Tom opted to hang back make something warm to eat and get feeling back in his toes (not a half-bad idea!), on the other hand Mitch and I began the plod up to our next peak to complete the (what is commonly know as) the “Dream Lake Trifecta- A Cascade Classic”. Mitch led much of the way heading SE from the lake to a notch around 4,600’ and then along the NW ridge to the summit. As you might have imagined there were no views and Mitch forgot his pencil! There was in fact a summit register dating way back to Oct 15th 1995 when John Roper, Johnny Jeans, Dick Kegel, Eric Keeler, Bruce Gibbs and Jeff Howbert claimed a first ascent. Though we didn’t have a pencil I brought a camera and snapped a picture of Mitch holding up the summit register. The trifecta complete now it was time to get the heck out of there! Soaked to the bone (Mitch wears a Gore-tex “Marmot sponge” and I wear a Gore-tex REI “sponge) from the constant drizzle and wet drippy trees we had one awesome glissade back to the lake, where Tom was waiting patiently with warm coffee and kool-aid. After about a half-hour “shiver”, we strapped on our wet packs and headed down. The descent went very well with only about one hundred yards or so of bad brush (and it really wasn’t that bad!), and we were back on the trail and in the forest. We then had a nice descent through the forest and back to our lonely mountain bikes where we had an extremely quick exit back to the cars (it took just under a hour to go 4.5 miles), and were back at the cars at 5:45 pm. Well boys and girls this was another great one! It is always nice to get out with Tom and Mitch who are a couple of the nicest guys roaming the hills! Until next time… Everyone’s favorite (male) kitty, Pilar.