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LMacD
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LMacD
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PostSat Aug 12, 2006 6:44 am 
We're planning a through hike tomorrow from the Middle Fork Snoqualmie up the Pratt River to Pratt Lake and out towards I-90 at the Pratt Lake Trailhead. Has anyone done this recently? If so, how brushy and how hard to follow is it at the Middle Fork end? How about the routefinding between Tuscahootchie and the Pratt River trail? ??

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Dante
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PostSat Aug 12, 2006 11:11 am 
How are you going to cross the MFK? Wade? Dingford Bridge? Or is there a bridge downstream from Dingford now? I'll be interested to hear about the trail conditions. It's been years, but last time I was up there, the Pratt River Trail near the MFK was good from the MFK to a spike camp a ways up the trail. IIRC, it petered out pretty quickly after that.

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moosefish
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moosefish
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PostSat Aug 12, 2006 1:08 pm 
Dante wrote:
How are you going to cross the MFK? Wade? Dingford Bridge? Or is there a bridge downstream from Dingford now.
There's a bridge just downstream from the Taylor junction at the beginning of the Middle Fork trail. The new campground is pretty much right across the road, I think. I'd love to see your route once you cross the river, though. Heading downstream from the Middle Fork bridge I only ever saw the Rainy Lake trail. If there's a real trail I'd be inclined to make that trip. I was at Pratt Lake yesterday and the blueberries are almost there... close enough to munch on, anyway.

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whitebark
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PostSat Aug 12, 2006 4:08 pm 
There is a connecting trail between the main middle fork "Gateway Bridge" and the Pratt river, but it is pretty sketchy in spots. The route is clear enough from the bridge to Rainy Creek. Just before the main trail heading to Rainy Lake fords the creek, look for a creek-bed like trail peeling off to the right. This is the start of the trail to Pratt River. After crossing Rainy Creek, the trail follows a rugged sidehill above the river for awhile. Eventually the route reaches flatter ground, and there is a fairly easy section following a surviving bit of the old trail that once went to North Bend. At a rockslide, the route gets rougher again. The trace of the old trail is lost, and the present route, marked by flagging and blazes, climbs away from the river. Upon reaching a high point, the "trail" drops through a dense thicket of second growth trees onto an old brushy logging road, which gradually descends to the mouth of the Pratt River valley. I took me about one hour and 45 minutes to get from the Gateway Bridge to Pratt River. Wading the Mid Fork offers a much more direct way to the Pratt River trail. Should be doable now with all of the dry weather. The start of the Pratt River trail is really brushy at first. Watch out for ribbons making the start of the trail. Last year, I went a few miles up the trail, to where it reaches the old rr grade. The trail was in pretty sorry shape, but it looked like some minimal maintenance work had been done. Well you should be in for an adventure!

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Dave Workman
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PostMon Aug 14, 2006 10:42 am 
moosefish wrote:
Dante wrote:
How are you going to cross the MFK? Wade? Dingford Bridge? Or is there a bridge downstream from Dingford now.
There's a bridge just downstream from the Taylor junction at the beginning of the Middle Fork trail. The new campground is pretty much right across the road, I think. I'd love to see your route once you cross the river, though. Heading downstream from the Middle Fork bridge I only ever saw the Rainy Lake trail. If there's a real trail I'd be inclined to make that trip. I was at Pratt Lake yesterday and the blueberries are almost there... close enough to munch on, anyway.
Dante: I'm particularly interested in this report about the berries. I've been up in the high country south of I-90 and down in Kittitas and Yakima counties in the past month and I've been alarmed at the lack of berries. Black bear, grouse and even coyotes and other animals benefit from a good berry crop. Were thre "lots" of berries?

"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted." - D.H. Lawrence
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moosefish
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moosefish
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PostMon Aug 14, 2006 11:04 am 
I'll say that the berries were fairly plentiful, but I've seen better.
Walking quickly down the trail I could reach into a bush and pull four or five without paying much attention.

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Dante
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PostMon Aug 14, 2006 12:11 pm 
moosefish wrote:
Dante wrote:
How are you going to cross the MFK? Wade? Dingford Bridge? Or is there a bridge downstream from Dingford now.
There's a bridge just downstream from the Taylor junction at the beginning of the Middle Fork trail. The new campground is pretty much right across the road, I think. I'd love to see your route once you cross the river, though. Heading downstream from the Middle Fork bridge I only ever saw the Rainy Lake trail. If there's a real trail I'd be inclined to make that trip. I was at Pratt Lake yesterday and the blueberries are almost there... close enough to munch on, anyway.
Oh yea! I completely forgot about that one.

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LMacD
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PostMon Aug 14, 2006 5:01 pm 
We were successful in making our way from the Middle Fork Rd to I-90 despite the fact that we missed reading the suggestions on this site especially those from Whitebark. While we thought about making that ford, we did not know exactly where to do it to come out in the right place, therefore we decided to cross the Middle Fork at the new Gateway bridge, then turned downstream to thrash about looking for the Pratt trail. Armed with bush knife (think small machete), we whacked our way along. This is not a hike to be done in shorts. As far as routefinding, do NOT cross Rainy Creek at the first opportunity which is the main trail to Rainy Lake. Rather cut right into the brush just before the creek and follow a gravel water channel through the salmonberry til you meet the river. It took us two hours to get from the bridge to the river. The trail then cuts inland and soon you meet a ribbon signed trail 1007. The pink tags continue, sometimes ribbons on trees and occasionally little bits on the ground Hansel and Gretel style. From there the route continues brushy and muddy in places up out of the creek bed to a sign that says "Big Trees" at about a mile from the river. Do not go this way. Rather head up the hill where at last you break out of the worst of the brush and intersect the old railroad grade which goes on practically forever (in fact 10 miles) til you hit the Pratt River. The grade is gentle and easy to follow, passing by many artifacts of logging. It becomes more brushy again at it's upper end. Another ribbon is the signal to thrash down the hillside to the Pratt - actually this is the first real view of the river at this point. We hopped on rocks across the river with only one of us getting wet (I imagine this would be a difficult ford earlier in the spring). Then thrashed about some more til we finally located the route and more pink tags. We followed the trail up to Pratt Lake, then followed the lakeshore trail around, up over the ridge and out to I-90 at the Pratt Lake trailhead. We think it was 18miles altogether. It took us about 12 hours. A very long day.

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Backpacker Joe
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PostMon Aug 14, 2006 5:14 pm 
I've done that hike. You can park on the side of the road (long before the new bridge) and cross the river right across from the Pratt Valley trail. It takes 10 minutes to cross and climb the bank and find the trail. You'd have saved two hours and much brush doing it that way.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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LMacD
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PostMon Aug 14, 2006 6:05 pm 
We knew you could do it and certainly the ford didn't look hard at this time of year, but we didn't know where would be the best place since the river is a bit away from the road at that point.

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whitebark
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PostTue Aug 15, 2006 3:44 pm 
Congratulations on a great through hike in a rarely visited river valley! I'll probably give this a try some time. That "Big Tree" trail sign had me confused, too. Wasted about ten minutes following that no-longer useable trail. The Forest Service wanted to build (or technically rebuild) a trail from Gateway Bridge to Pratt River, but that effort seems to have been shelved for now. Survey ribbons for the new trail can be seen cutting across the Rainy Creek trail.

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