Garfield Ledges — Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2025

TICK WARNING! My mom found a tick on the back of her neck when we were driving home from this hike today. It wasn’t hard to remove (no tweezers needed) and her skin wasn’t red, so I don’t think it had started biting her. No idea how it got on her since we stayed on the trail the whole time and didn’t go bushwhacking or anything.

I’m going to submit it to WA DOH for identification, but as far as I can tell, it’s a Rocky Mountain wood tick, possibly an American dog tick. But ID help from any tick experts out there is appreciated!

Otherwise, the hike was wonderful. It is very humid in the area. Trail is clear, and the moss carpeting the ground is so beautiful. We passed a couple of people heading down when we were going up in the late afternoon. No one else at the summit; we had it to ourselves. The sun was actually warm! There were some tiny, annoying flies; I don’t think they bit me, but they kept landing on my hat. We went back down after half an hour and passed 8 people on their way up.

Most of the drive to the trailhead is on the paved Middle Fork road, which is in good shape, but as others have noted, the road over the bridge and the parking lot are full of massive potholes.