We headed up the Middle Fork Road out of North Bend for a hike on the loop trail around Oxbow Lake. We started from the parking lot with the rest rooms. They are open while the Forest Service ones further up the road are all closed. Hiking the connector trail over to the loop trail where we found three larger trees fallen over the trail. Part way on this trail we had a good view down to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River and Russian Butte. This time we did the loop part of the hike clock wise where we found many trees that had fallen over the trail. Most you can step over, but one we had the crawl under. The side trail down to the river did not have any fallen trees on it. When we got to the big bridge over the outlet of Oxbow lake, we saw that one huge Cottonwood tree had blown over, luckily toward the river. If it had come down the opposite way, it would have taken out the bridge.
Further along the trail we passed one really large old growth Red Cedar stump left from the days when the North Bend Timber Co. logged this part of the Middle Fork Valley between 1922 to 1924. The logs were hauled out by their logging railroad. Along the trail you have nice views of Oxbow Lake and the mountains to the north. We stopped at the log bench for a snack break to enjoy the view. While sitting there we spotted two otters in the lake, they climb up on a log in the water, and walked down it and jump back into the lake. First time we had seen any otters in Oxbow Lake as we had hike this trail a few times in the past. There were more fallen trees to get over before finishing the loop park of the trail.
We met a few other hikers out enjoying the day in the sun and the 37F temp. One guy was trying to find his dog who was running up and down the trail. The dog almost knocked Sally over as it came up behind her.
After finishing this hike, we drove up the road to Camp Brown for our lunch at a picnic table by the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River with a nice view of Garfield Mtn. Since it was cool, we had hot soup and cocoa.
We sent some photos to Sam and Ben at the DNR showing the blown down trees around the Oxbow Loop trail. They will need a chainsaw to cut them out.
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