[Curt]

Of all the great suggestions I received from this site (thanks again!!), I chose to attempt a great-looking route up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River to Williams Lake, up to Iron Cap, over to Chetwoot Lake, then Gold Lake, maybe Big Snow, then down to Hardscrabble and the car. Well, as it turned out, we had a little unplanned retreat of our own. We made it to Williams in great time - ran into Dante and the "Yellowjacket Incident" along the way. We didn't leave the trailhead until almost 11:30 and we were there by 3:00. Not sure of the exact mileage, but it went fast and we seemed to be passing a lot of folks. We were pretty pleased particularly because of our lame asses that hadn't been out much this summer. Anyway, we had lunch at Williams, felt great, and I was super excited to get up high. The mosquitos were a pain in the ass, but oh well. We started up the boulders and veered right to check out the mine. Pretty interesting. I was surpised at how modern the stuff looked. What's up with that? How long ago were people in there? Most of the old mining sites I've been to are obviously oooooold. So, we started to traverse across the boulders so we could head up to the "5200 foot shelf" that Beckey mentions, and all of the sudden our progress was incredibly slow. The buddy I was with snapped his Achilles tendon about 6 months ago, had surgery, and has been rehabbing it since. He thought it was pretty close to 100%, but the boulder hopping was stretching it pretty good. We continued to climb up at an angle, checking our watches often, and finally had a "meeting". We decided that if the upper part of the route was anything like this (which I imagine it is, particularly on the entrance and exits to the lake basins) it was going to be a long, incredibly slow go. Then I thought of having to get a one-legged friend out of there and the decision was made. We came down (which took FOREVER), cut back around Williams, and hiked quite a ways back down the river. We really liked the various rapids that ran over smooth rock and wanted to find a campsite right along one of these spots. Sure enough, we found a perfect one, opened up the Cabernet, ate a big meal, swatted mosquitos, then crashed out. Woke up around 6 a.m., left about 6:45, were at the car around 9. So I didn't get my fix of total alpine bliss, but it was a good trip anyway. It was nice to just get out. I'd never been there before, and it was a beautiful valley. Wow! Great trail, easy to cruise and look around at the same time, good company - everything I needed. And now I have a great trip on my "to do" list with the maps already done. Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions. Hope I can return the favor sometime. -Curt

[-lol-]

[Malachai Constant]

We did that route a few years ago in the opposite direction. There was some "mining" activity up there a couple years ago, although it seemed to be a bit of greenmail. Supposidly that is the reason for the MF road being kept open for "inholders" only.

[Dante]

Yep. At one point in the '80s there was a pallet with the components of a building on it waiting to be slung up to one of the sites by chopper. I think I saw the same building up there later in the '80s or early '90s. There's currently mining activity further down the road. We saw some of the miners on our Crawford attempt. P.S. If you want to make another attempt let me know. Even if the road is closed next year, we could do a long loop from the Dingford trailhead, up the shouth shore of the MFK to the hotsprings or the end of the road, from the hotsprings or the end of the road to Williams, from Williams to the Big Snow area (Chetwoot, Gus, Gold) and out via BigSnow Lake and Dingford Creek.