Arrived to <1/4 full parking lot ~8am on a holiday (July 4th). We chose this trail to test out hiking with our smallish (~12lb) doggie with a lot of energy. We went about 2miles and turned back to over doing it. We only only saw a few friendly hiking parties (and well mannered, almost all leashed dogs) on our hike. The parking lot was closer to >50% full when at 10am. We all love this trail (even our doggie who was sad to leave) and we will be back again. 

We chose this hike because it is close to town, relatively flat, an out and back. I have a ankle injury and wanted to be able to easily turn back if it got too sore.

This hike was perfect for what we needed. Arrived at the trailhead at 10:00am with two cars in the parking lot. The day was warm, about 75 degrees with high overcast. Great walk along the river turned inland into a lovely forest with lots of 'almost ripe' salmon berries, some blueberries already and a few old growth trees! The trail is so well maintained along the 3.5 miles out we traveled, gravel and bridges over wetlands. So smooth. In a few areas the brush is getting dense, but as other reviewers have noted, the trail is easy to find. We went 7 miles total in 4 hours, including a leisurely stop for lunch. Saw 6 other hikers and 1 trail runner. Back at the parking lot there were about 10 cars.

Great hike. A long day hike but doable. We started at 8;30 and finished about 4:30 with time for lunch and pictures. The trail is 5-6 miles each way depending on what source you look at. Be sure to enjoy the Cripple Creek waterfall on the way. Also, take the river access trail at least one direction. I don’t think it adds significant mileage and it’s nice.

Now to the obstacles - several sections need brushing and one section is almost impassable so we covered our faces and bulled our way through. Two logs in the trail near the far end. Several logs on the river access loop. All manageable, but takes some effort.

The Middle Fork trailhead is an especially nice option on weekends because the lot is really big, so parking nearly guaranteed, and in general the Middle Fork gets you away from the hustle and bustle of I-90 (aside from the craziness at Mailbox Peak). The lot was surprisingly uncrowded when we arrived around 10, maybe half full and no one in the big overflow lot. Headed upstream through the quiet fern cloaked forest, for the first part of the day we mostly saw trail runners. I love the section that is the re-route along the steep hill, it's an impressive bit of trail construction!!

We got as far as the old camp loop at around 4 miles, note that at the ummarked downstream end the loop trail taking off to the left is easily mistaken for the main trail which could confuse some people. We continued to the upstream end where a sign points to "River Access" - descended it and ate lunch at a gravelly river access and then continued back to the main trail on the loop. This downstream part of the loop has some short sections that are highly overgrown with tall ferns in a few places but the trail remains obvious. Although there are campsites noted on the maps we never saw anything I would call a campsite, just one small spot along the river where there's a campfire ring but it would be hard to fit a tent in. 

Saw maybe 30 people altogether, 2/3 of them trail runners. This is a lovely quiet hike in the forest; our stats were 8.9 miles and 980 feet of gain. 

Decided to try out this longer approach to Snow Lake off a recent trip report. Ended up being a long day but the lake, as always, was stunning!

Road/Trailhead: Serious potholes both before and after the bridge heading towards the Dingford Creek turnoff. From this point on, the road is pretty rough and a couple of washouts makes me lean towards high clearance vehicles. We mostly saw SUVs and trucks both alongside the road dispersed camping and at the trailhead. There were about a dozen cars parked when we arrived a bit before 9am. Several trails start from here, so lots of options.

Trailhead to Rock Creek: You start downhill on the Middle Fork trail crossing over the bridge before continuing on. The trail is in good condition all the way up to the junction with the Rock Creek trail. There are some overgrown sections where it’s easy to trip on something hidden. We encountered 4 trail runners on this section of trail but were otherwise alone.

Rock Creek to Snow Lake: The first couple of miles are pretty standard trail. Not a ton of rocks or much else to report. Once the waterfall comes into view, the trail changes and becomes more rough. Rocky, overgrown, narrow and even some erosion categorize this section of trail. More than anything, it makes the hiking slow as you are having to be careful of foot placement to avoid rolling an ankle. As the previous report mentioned, there is some snow to contend with in the last 0.5 mile or so. The first three sections are all easily managed. The last one is the steepest and gave us the most trouble. I was able to carefully make it up to the trail but my partner slid a few feet and had to grab a branch to get back up. We bushwhacked through some plants to make it to the trail. From there it’s maybe 0.10 to the lake overlook and more snow can be found there. We stopped for lunch at one of the campgrounds and were harassed by bugs (flies and gnats, I think). Though we wanted to go down to the lakeshore, it didn’t seem worthwhile as many directions still had snow and we were pretty tired. Ended up glissading down that snow patch coming back which was much more enjoyable. Filtered water a couple of times and probably ended up going through 4 liters each thanks to lots of exposed sections going up and down.

Garmin tracked 15.7 miles and 3,816 feet of gain