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Topic: Middle Fork of Snoqualmie Road Access (Read 980 times)
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MJS
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Posts: 37
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Some friends and I were looking at the Snoqualmie Haute Route in Martin Volken's book. Can anybody tell me what kind of access there is into the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River? I thought I had heard that road is no longer accessible as described in Martin's book.
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Marcus
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The road is now permanently gated at the Dingford Creek trailhead, leaving a long stretch of road to get into the upper Middle Fork. I think it's a mountain-bike candidate, but there are certainly going to be some big washouts of the road that would need portaging -- other folks here have done the trek and can speak to it better.
A couple of friends tried the Haute last year and I believe they went in via the Commonwealth.
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Randy
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I think the Goldmyer hotsprings folks
http://goldmyer.org
Will have the most up to date information about the condition of the road.
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Jim Oker
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You may be able to slueth out conditions of the gated road on nwhikers. Last I'd seen, which was a while ago, the road was actually claimed to be in better condition than it had been before the gating. And at one point there was some property for sale back there with a small cabin on it - buying that would also earn you a key to the gate  .
As a slightly relevant aside, the NFS has put out an environmental assessment for the paving of the Middle Fork road (if I understand correctly, just the part up to the crossing of the Taylor River, so does not help with the gated road). But it would get you a bunch of the way to the gate a bit more comfortably...
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Pete A
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A couple of friends tried the Haute last year and I believe they went in via the Commonwealth.
I might be one of those folks Marcus was referring to... totally a personal preference thing, but our group was more interested in trying the traverse from Snoqualmie Pass and out via Mt.Daniel (ie- the Lowell Skoog option)... Martin's route going from Hinman back around to Big Snow and out the Middle fork didn't interest us due to the road shenanigans involved.
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« Last Edit: 04/05/12, 09:25 AM by Pete A »
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snoholic
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I have ridden/pushed a bike up the old road with gear. This time of year I would think you might get about to the hotsprings by bike/hike then it would be a hike/skin combo to the trailhead. The road is fairly flat till the hotspring then starts to really gain elevation after. In a few weeks you may get a bike all the way. Plan on a few hours of hard work any way you do it just to get to the Middle fork trailhead. Going in reverse on the Haute would make sense to me logistically since you may be able to ski out half the road at the end instead of having to walk all of it at the beginning. Good Luck.
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MJS
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Thanks for all of the information.
our group was more interested in trying the traverse from Snoqualmie Pass and out via Mt.Daniel
If we started in Commonwealth and then headed east to exit it looks like we would have to dump a car above Cle Elum Lake. How far back does this road go in the winter?
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Pete A
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Thanks for all of the information.
If we started in Commonwealth and then headed east to exit it looks like we would have to dump a car above Cle Elum Lake. How far back does this road go in the winter?
this time of year, i don't know...but i imagine its a very lengthy road slog. when we tried it last season, it was early July and one could drive to the Cathedral Pass trailhead.
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glenn_b
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...but i imagine its a very lengthy road slog.
Indeed. My first trip to ski Daniel(May, '85) required hiking/skiing the road from Salmon la Sac. The road is slow to melt out, more so now because of the snowmobile grooming program. Expect to drive to or close to the trail head sometime in June.
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Randy
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There is a sno-park at Salmon-Le-Sac -- past that point the Cle Elum river road climbs steadily and worse in the first few miles is on a north facing aspect -- so it takes a while to melt out. Another challenge in May / June is the Scatter Creek, crossing the creek when it is running high and swift can be problematic both on foot and while driving.
If you were doing a traverse right now -- crossing the creek and skiing down the road to Salmon Le Sac should be do able -- I think about half of the 13 miles from the Mt Daniel trailhead to Salmon Le Sac are steep enough to "stand on your skis and glide" under firm conditions, a third flat and the remainder slight climbs.
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Pete A
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semi-hijacking this thread for another question....
anyone ever tried going up Mineral Creek valley in late spring/early summer when its still got snow?
The Mineral Creek TH is accessed from a spur road off Salmon La Sac Rd and provides a fairly direct route to the northeast side of Chikamin, where one could then connect up with the rest of the high traverse towards Lemah, Overcoat, etc.
I've hiked it in the fall to access Chikamin and it seems like it could be a fast route in to start a similar Alpine Lakes traverse with a fairly short car shuttle, one at Mineral Cr, and one at Cathedral Pass.
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glenn_b
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anyone ever tried going up Mineral Creek valley in late spring/early summer when its still got snow?
Unfortunately, your access road goes over 3400' Cooper Pass before dropping to the Mineral Creek trail head. I doubt that would melt out soon enough to provide over-snow travel up to Park Lakes. A friend with a boat could get you within a mile of the trail from the head of Lake Kachess though.
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trees4me
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Posts: 465
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If you want to traverse Big Snow then using Foss River Road or Miller River Road are options to consider... then link that via Martin's route to Commonwealth/Gold Cr.
I've been skunked by the middle fork hike-bike-ski, but that was almost long enough ago to make it worth another try 
The road was severly damaged after the January 2009 flood. You can get to Dingford gate with ease again, but I don't know how the road is upstream of that. The mtb guys might know, since it's a nice loop from goldmeyer to taylor.
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chill people, skiing is fun
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