Middle Fork 6/23/2023

Stegosaurus Butte

I have been doing regular local hikes but not putting them in the blog because – bleh – good workouts but not photogenic at all.

Today I had to drive to the Middle Fork because I was scheduled to volunteer for the Washington Trails Association at an outreach event. Tomorrow, 6/24, is officially Washington Trails Day, and WTA has tables at a number of trailheads 6/23 and 6/24 to talk to hikers about getting on our Trail Action Network mailing list and, in general, talk about trails and hiking.

The event was scheduled to start at noon but I got there about 8:30 because I wanted to hike. I parked at the Middle Fork lot and cruised up the connector trail. I was going to do Garfield Ledges. But doh! I got across the Taylor River bridge and realized I had forgotten my pass so I turned around and went back and put the pass on my dashboard.

Then, having lost that time I crossed the Gateway Bridge, which spans the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River, right near the junction with the Taylor River, turned left and wandered down the Middle Fork Trail for a couple of miles, turned around, and headed back. I waited near where I thought we were going to put up the table for the others to show up. Here is our table and my co-volunteers:

WTA Table

Note how empty it is. I doubt we talked with more than a dozen people for the three hours we were there. We were supposed to be there for four hours but we bagged it after three because of how slow it was.

But the area is beautiful:

River Deep, Mountain High

And I have no regrets about a mostly fun day.