Until we get significant snow the middle fork valley offers some great late season hiking and the Garfield Ledges is just one of the many options. Although the hike is quite short you can make it a longer half day option (around four miles), by starting from the main parking lot and taking the connector trail up and back. Doing that gives you a nice warm up and a great view up to Mount Garfield, and it's fun to spy your destination from the bottom up. Although the temps in N Bend were headed into the 50s the top end of the valley was only mid 30's when I arrived. It's not unusual to drop ten degrees on the drive in. Although it was a chilly start I knew with the sun out the ledge would be a warm place to aim for, unlike the trails on the shady south side of the valley.
There has been some work on both the connector and the ledge trail with the addition of significant amounts of gravel. Drainage has also been improved, and despite rainy weather the usual slick spots were holding firm. Views from the ledge were great, clear and expansive. You can can see all the way over to Rattlesnake Ledge to the east. Although the parking lot was fairly full the trail wasn't busy, most folks are heading up or down river. After coming back down I intended to have lunch at the big bend pull out on the drive out, but it was full. It seems the valley has been "discovered". So I drove on to the Oxbow loop lot which also has car views up to Russian Butte. It's good to see people out enjoying the valley, I passed many cyclists on the road and a large flotilla of rafts getting ready to launch too.
As the temperatures and snow level drops the upper end of the valley road can become quite icy and the road snow covered with minimal thaw so now is a great time to explore this area. It's a beautiful drive down.
Looks like the forest stewards are going to be kind with us this year and not just lock all the outhouses. I stopped to use the single open one at Camp Brown, clean and stocked, but noted one at the bottom of the ledge trail is also still open.
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