I thought i'd celebrate my independence out on a lonely trail. I drove up the Middle Fork Road which ends now about 5 miles after the Mailbox peak trail, at the Middle Fork Campground. The bridge is out. I was assuming I could cross the river there somewhere and get on to the Taylor River trail up to Snoqualmie Lake. No such luck. I couldn't find a place to cross that didnt involve a waist-deep wade. There was some pink flagging that lead into the campground, but there were a lot of campers and it was early so i didnt want to go wandering through there to look for a crossing. So I went back to the Middle Fork trailhead and started my run there. It was nice and peaceful all the way up to the Dingford trailhead. There are several large washouts, some right along the shore of the river. All of them are marked with pink flagging, though just allow some extra time to crawl over logs & rocks. No water crossings of any significance. On the return trip I encountered lots and lots of hikers who apparently had the same idea as me! Beautiful day for a run.

Road to trailhead is open with only a few potholes. NW Forest Pass required, or park at one of the turnouts along the road before the trailhead. Middle fork trail is clear from bridge to about 1.5 miles in where a few major slides have taken out / covered several hundred feet of trail. Follow the pink ribbons through those areas - no problem to get through. At about 3 miles where the trail gets close to the river a few sections have been washed out. Again, it's not a problem to get through. The rest of the trail to Dingford Creek is in great shape. I made it up about 1 mile the Dingford Creek trail. Spent about 20 min clearing a big blowdown (I carried a little folding saw with me) in the first 1/4 mile of the trail. Was told by other hikers that there is a lot of blowdown higher up, but I didn't get that far. This should be a much less crowded trail this summer with the Middle Fork road closed at Taylor Creek.

The road up to the Middle Fork Trailhead is now open - and a very smooth drive after all that work and grading. The Middle Fork trail, however, has been decimated by some fairly severe washouts/avalanches. I would guesstimate from mile 2.0 to 3.0 (where the trail comes back down to the river) that there were three major washouts. The first one requires scrambling over downed timber and rocks while the next two are simply traversing the sand and boulder strewn new creek beds. There is one bridge out that has a safe detour around it. All are marked as of today with pink tape to help hikers navigate back to the main trail. At the approximate 3 mile mark we could not find a way through the brambles and mud to circumvent the eroded river bank or a particularly large downed tree. It was disappointing to turn around as we had planned to continue on the Dingsford trail.

This is a magical time to enjoy the area: the road is still gated at mile 5. So, this Memorial Day was peaceful and uncrowded by the usual rowdies with beer-laden coolers and radios who camp on the side of the road. The floods washed out the road in places, and also washed away a lot of the litter that usually mars the roadside scenery. My daughter and I hauled our camping gear in by bike and we marveled at some enormous moss-covered trees that we usually whiz by in the car. The river crossing without a bridge is treacherous, even though quite a few hikers found places to cross. We stayed on the road side of the trail and found a spot by the river just before the trailhead to camp. Late last week, the road crews were working and had promised to open the trail by Memorial Day, but as of Tuesday afternoon, the gate is still closed.

The road to the middle fork trailhead is gated about 5 miles back- meaning we never made it to the actual trail. From the gate you can continue along the service road that follows the river. A few miles past the gate, you can follow a trail to the left which we didn't take, but saw wta volunteers working on the trail. Our hike was crowded and we shared the road with bikers and dogs. While not the hike we were hoping for, the scenery around the river is very pretty and perfect for a casual summer walk.