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.
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