Rock on road

The recent heavy February rain has done more than make the river rise and get the snow pack closer to normal. All the small side streams have more than their normal flow and as the ground gets saturated, things get loose. This huge rock rolled out of a spot 15′ above the road just a little before the Island Drop river view at MP 4. Always pay close attention while driving the Middle Fork road as rocks, and especially trees come down regularly.

Big rock falls on the Middle Fork

Another reason to keep your speed down

Speed Kills

An unnecessary tragedy occurred on February 8, 2014 when a Toyota Land Cruiser going too fast heading up the Middle Fork road veered out of control, shearing off trees and coming to rest on boulders ten feet below the road bed. Car parts were scattered throughout the area indicating a particularly violent collision. 17-year-old Calvin Hancock was sitting in the rear passenger seat and was killed, pronounced dead at the scene. The three others in the car were brought to the hospital to be treated for injuries. The group were on their way to rescue other friends who had vehicle trouble further up the road.

This road in particular is not safe for fast driving, if any are. Calvin’s mother expressed appropriate grief and anger in response to this accident as a comment to a Snoqualmie Valley Record story – “The boy who died was our son. I hope all of his classmates learn from this tragic event. Too much speed and lack of driving experience are the sole reason for what happened. Your parents aren’t trying to bother you. Your parents have experience. The next time an officer pulls you over and yells at you for being an idiot, remember that he may have just seen one of these horrible, horrible accidents and another dead teen.” Amen to that.

Site of accident at MP 6.4

Memorial photo and flowers

Related coverage

Calvin Hancock memorial

2014/02/10 Teen killed in weekend crash near North Bend
2014/02/10 Valley teen killed in SUV accident along Middle Fork Road
2014/02/12 Memorial service is Friday for teen killed in Middle Fork accident

Rhodies Smokin BBQ is leaving

A staple for hikers and rafters after a hard day in the Middle Fork is leaving. Rhodies has been housed at Ken’s Gas and Grocery at Exit 34 for many years, but as that business closes they are losing a home. Rhodies will most likely relocate somewhere near Exit 22 at Preston, 12 miles closer to Seattle.

Ken’s Gas & Grocery

Closed gas pumps

Skier injured in fall by Snow Lake

Cliff and slope where skier fell

A backcountry skier in the vicinity of Snow Lake divide was badly injured when he slid hundreds of feet down the north side of the ridge towards the south end of Snow Lake, coming to rest in the trees about 100 feet above the lake. According to his skiing partner JPH at nwhikers.net, “he’s pretty banged up, but in the end it was a broken arm, stitches in the face and lots of big bruises – definitely not as bad as originally anticipated.” A more detailed account is in a post on Turns All Year. Fortunately he was wearing a helmet or this could have turned out much worse. A nearby party of three at Snow Lake saw the accident and came over to help, speeding the call to SAR and avoiding leaving the injured skier alone. King County’s Guardian 2 search and rescue crews hoisted the injured man to safety and transported him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Seattle Mountain Rescue also participated in the rescue.

Hikers, climbers and skiers in the Snoqualmie Pass area reported the development of a hard icy crust at relatively low elevations. On anything except nearly level ground crampons were necessary for safe travel. The Northwest Avalanche Center issued an unusual non-avalanche hazard alert 3 days before this incident. The party was aware of these conditions and had all the necessary gear along. It underscores how unusual these conditions were where what would normally be a minor slip turned into an uncontrolled fall.

January 22, 2014

On 13 January a heavy local freezing rain event occurred in the Snoqualmie Pass area above about 4500 feet, covering the surface with about a 2-3 inch ice crust. This crust should break down over time but a fall on a slope on this surface could result in a long and dangerous ride!

A climber on nearby Low Mountain the same day descends crusty ice using crampons and an ice axe

Related coverage

2014/01/18 Snoqualmie Pass area ice crust alert
2014/01/25 Skier injured after fall from cliff at Snow Lake
2014/01/26 Saturday heli-evac from Snow Lake
2014/01/26 Back Country Skier Falls off 400 Foot Ice Cliff Near Snow Lake
2014/01/27 Mountains Prove Treacherous over Weekend: Snoqualmie Woman Dies, Two Men Injured
2014/02/01 SMR – February 2014 newsletter with an account of this incident

Painted Sign

Graffiti is not uncommon along the Middle Fork road, but it’s rare that it’s done so elaborately and results in such a cryptic message. Between the USFS and others, defacement of signs, bridges, trees, rocks and other objects doesn’t remain in place for long. That’s a good thing because graffiti contributes to a perception of disorder and permissiveness, and that can be reversed by timely removal.

Around New Years day of 2014 vandals removed the sign board, spray painted the frame in two shades of blue and painted the enigmatic word “Tree” along with an arrow pointing to the right.

Within two weeks of being vandalized, the graffiti has an obscuring layer of paint

This particular sign board has been in place since 2011, featuring several different messages all related to fire prevention.

Before the fall of 2011, this location had a simple “No Target Shooting” sign. The new sign allows for a changing message, in this case “A Beautiful Forest Is A Matchless Sight”

A year after this sign board was erected it got a new message — “Wanted, Your Campfire DEAD-OUT”

The third message on this board appeared in the spring of 2013 — “Protect And Enjoy Your National Forest”

January Storm Damage

Living Snoqualmie called it a one-two punch from Mother Nature. A warm front brought heavy rains and high winds to western Washington on January 11 and a flood watch was posted. But there has not been enough low elevation snow so far this winter to produce dangerously high volumes on the Middle Fork river and the flow peaked at a safe 7.76 feet/6,560 cfps at 1am on January 13. Fortunately there was no significant damage to the road surface. As expected, trees were downed, but all of them were already passable by mid-morning on January 12.

Double whammy on the straights before the concrete bridge with a young douglas fir from the right and an alder from the left.

Trees rarely fall alone, and one medium size alder brought down a smattering of smaller ones with it.

Puddles of water colored with valley bottom clays fill up near Big Blowout Creek bridge

Alders are the first trees to grow back after logging and weaken when deprived of light by maturing firs and cedars. This spindly alder was growing behind a large douglas fir stump. Expect the white-barked alders in the center to fall in coming years as well.

Not all trees fall during the storm. This section of road was clear in the morning after the storm, then a large maple uprooted mid-day and brought down an alder with it. A spontaneous crew of hatchet-wielding visitors blocked by the fallen tree cleared a path wide enough to get vehicles past.

A jumble of fallen trees triggered by a large uprooted maple, neatly slicing another tree in half on it’s way down.

Three days later a volunteer chain saw crew has cut back the larger branches. Much of the large debris will probably be salvaged for firewood.

Mailbox Switch

The 11th transition of the mailbox on Mailbox occurred between Christmas 2013 and New Years 2014. This has become a regular back and forth contest between the majority of people that think the mailbox-on-Mailbox is fun and a few that think it somehow diminishes the summit. If you are in the latter camp, be aware that when the mailbox was removed, there were three parties on the trail to replace it on December 29. The first one up placed theirs, then on the way down alerted the others that the mailbox had already been restored and they could lighten their load and enjoy the hike without hauling a new mailbox to the summit. That means the peak was mailbox-less for less than 4 full days.

Missing mailbox on Christmas afternoon, photo by Russ Kula

5 days later … new year, new mailbox

The new mailbox was placed in pristine condition, but within a day the cryptic epigram “DBT 4962” was applied to the door. If you know what that means, email me!

Busy rescue year on Mailbox Peak

Summit register page

Despite a steep indistinct trail and 4000 feet of gain, Mailbox Peak has become one of the most popular day hikes in the central Cascades. On Sunday, June 30, 2013 over 100 hikers signed the summit register and many who hike the peak regularly don’t bother with that formality. The Day Hiking Snoqualmie Region guide book leads with “Wimpy hikers, turn the page. This trail offers nothing for you but pain and heartbreak”, and yet thousands each year test themselves.

Mailbox, February 2013

Mailbox, June 2013 by masterqhuy

Mailbox, November 2013

Mailbox, September 2013

Unfortunately some come unprepared, get lost, start too late, or suffer an unfortunate slip and can’t get down before dark or on their own power and that happened a lot in 2013. Stranded hikers enjoy good cell phone coverage on this trail so they generally call 911 and get routed to the King County sheriff’s office who coordinates with Seattle Mountain Rescue to respond. Even if the hikers don’t know exactly where they are, SMR is able to triangulate an approximate location based on cell tower timings. Their records list these missions, and you can bet that lots of others didn’t call them and limped down on their own. Reading these can be useful to help other parties plan better, use caution, and come prepared for a significant effort on a hard trail.

April 15, 2013 – At 5:30 pm a hiker injured herself 1 1/2 miles up the trail and was carried down in a litter, reaching the trailhead at 11:30 pm. There was a mix of snow ice and slush on the trail which contributed to the injury and also made it difficult for the rescue team.
May 3, 2013 – A women injured her ankle while descending and called for help at 5 pm from a spot 2 miles up the trail, then continued walking slowly down. She did not need to be carried and SMR members assisted her down the trail, arriving at 8:30 pm.
June 30, 2013 – On a hot day an experienced hiker on a training hike was running down the trail following the white diamond trail markers. Then there were no diamonds. He continued down hoping to intersect the trail lower on the mountain, but he was on the south side heading for the Fire Training Center. There are some old trails on that side but they are faint and one could cross them without even noticing. He called for help at 6 pm and the SMR team was able to find him with the help of a GPS signal from his phone. Ironically, heading in the right direction they were able to make it down to the cars in only 11 minutes.

Where’s the trail?

October 5, 2013 – Near dusk, a hiker lost the trail called for help at 7:38 pm. Triangulation placed him just below timberline and south of the trail. This is the hardest area to follow the “trail” because it splits into a myriad of paths down a wide area covered in ruts and roots. There are white diamonds but not that close together and it takes some effort to follow them. The hiker was instructed to respond when he heard the searcher’s voices or saw light. They reached him at 10:40 pm and got down just before midnight.
October 6, 2013 – One day later a similar incident occurred. A lost hiker called near dusk at 7:39 pm and was reached by the rescue team at 9:07 pm. The location isn’t specified, but based on the time to descend it was likely near the same confusing spot as the day before. They were down to the parking at at 11:05 pm.
October 26, 2013 – Two lost hikers called for help at 8:08 pm, probably after dark. Sadly, they were told by friends to hike Mailbox because it was an “easy beginner’s hike” and that made them think it was ok to start at 1:30 pm. Having lost the trail they ended up making a signal fire at about 1600′, which helped keep them warm and in good spirits. They were reached at 10:30 and got down an hour later.
November 24, 2013 – A young couple Googled “Mailbox Washington” for their beta, but found it “was harder than it said!”. That’s a stretch because none of the first few results mince words about how difficult this trail is. They had no flashlights, lost the white diamonds, and ten minutes later called for help at 5:30 pm. Via multiple phone calls they were found at 7:13 and down in only 20 minutes. They didn’t realize the white diamonds are only present on the upper parts of the trail, and without a flashlight couldn’t easily follow the trail down.

It’s pretty obvious why the DNR, the Sheriff and SMR put up the warning sign at the trailhead, installed the white diamonds, and put in railings at critical points along the trail to keep people on track. Even better will be the new trail currently being constructed by the DNR — look for that to be ready in the fall of 2014.

White diamond

Trailhead warning

Dingford trailhead upgrade

In October 2013 the Forest Service completed a badly needed upgrade to the Dingford Creek trailhead. When the Middle Fork road was permanently gated here in June 2007 the Dingford trailhead absorbed the users that previously drove farther up the road to Goldmyer Hot Springs or the Dutch Miller Gap trailhead, in addition to those heading up the Dingford Creek trail or down to the bridge over the Middle Fork river to the Middle Fork trail. On sunny summer weekends the parking was often maxed out, and without any restroom facilities the surrounding forest was becoming a smelly mess. Besides a new prefab Cascadian Vault Restroom the parking lot received a thick layer of gravel and concrete parking bumpers. The bumpers increase the capacity encouraging diagonal parking on both sides of the trailhead area.

Panorama of upgraded Dingford trailhead

This change did not come out of the blue. It was part of the Access and Travel Management decision 8 years ago in 2005.

The Decision: Dingford Creek Trailhead
In conjunction with the conversion of Road 5600 past Dingford Creek to trail/private road, sanitation facilities will be provided at the Dingford Creek Trailhead. Additionally, the current capacity of 10-12 cars, parking will be expanded to up to a maximum of 30 cars. Cutting and grubbing alder and brush that have encroached into the parking area and into the south shoulder of Road 5600 just prior to the trailhead will accomplish this. Once cleaned, the area will be graded to provide the expanded parking.

Mossy Dingford Creek trail signboard in January 2011

Updated Dingford Creek trail signboard in November 2011

Dilapidated Dingford Bridge trail signboard as of January 2011

Updated Dingford Bridge trail signboard in November 2011

A busy Dingford trailhead with parking maxed out in September 2012

Dingford trailhead parking on a typical winter day before the upgrade

Temporary Dingford trailhead parking during trailhead upgrade

Temporary road closure for Dingford trailhead upgrade

Digging a pit for the badly needed Dingford trailhead restroom

The dirt from the toilet pit was trucked down the road and dumped by the gravel wash at the wash of Garfield’s Great Canyon

A new restroom in two pieces. The structure is constructed to look like wood, but is actually made of concrete

Many truckloads of gravel were brought in to resurface the parking area

Dingford trailhead upgrade with lots of new gravel

Rock slide clearing

Sometime in the spring of 2013 a rock slide blocked the Middle Fork road about one mile before the Hardscrabble trailhead. As explained in the linked post, the USFS is committed to keeping a 40″ wide path open. So on September 18, 2013 a Forest Service crew spent a full day blasting the bigger rocks and rolling the smaller ones to clear the rock slide. This movie was made with two cameras mounted near the the blast site with additional audio edited in from the radios used to coordinate the closing of the trail for safety concerns.