Backpack - Middle Fork Snoqualmie River to Salmon La Sac via Dutch Miller Gap

Trip Report

This trip was part of the Seattle Intermediate Backpacking Program.  The motivation was to become more familiar with the further areas of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness that are reachable from our local trailheads, specifically North Bend and the Middle Fork.  Having done day hikes in the Middle Fork area for years, we wanted to answer the question, "What if, instead of turning around at the end of the day, we just kept going?"  From this came the following goals:

1. To walk the full length of the Middle Fork all the way to Salmon la Sac.
2. To visit and hike over Dutch Miller Gap, the only major east-west pass in the Washington Cascades that does not have a freeway running through it.
3. To visit La Bohn Gap, a north-south pass that connects the southern Alpine Lakes (Snoqualmie Pass/I-90) and northern Alpine Lakes (Stevens Pass/Hwy-2).  La Bohn Gap is a key part of many longer north-south routes that connect the Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass areas, so we wanted to become familiar with it in anticipation of possible future Intermediate Backpacking trips.

The trip consisted of a four-day walk from the Middle Fork to Salmon la Sac plus a one-day side trip up to La Bohn Gap, for a total of five-days. On the weekend before the trip we staged a car at Salmon la Sac so that we could do the entire trip as a one-way car shuttle.

Day 0: Car Staging at Salmon La Sac

On the Sunday before the trip two members of our party staged at car at our exit trailhead in Salmon La Sac.  The Sunday drive was pleasant but unremarkable, except that it was especially fun to visit the Sunday Farmers Market in Roslyn along the way.

Day 1: Middle Fork to Hardscrabble Horse Camp.

Instead of starting from the Middle Fork trailhead itself, our plan was to start from the Dingford Creek Trailhead because doing so reduced our first day's hike from 13 miles to a more manageable 8 miles, and because most of us were already familiar with the first few miles of the Middle Fork Trail.  The road to the Dingford Creek Trailhead is notoriously rutted and bumpy, requiring true high clearance vehicles.  We had anticipated that, and had scouted the road a couple weeks beforehand.  Our pair of Outbacks made it no problem, albeit slowly.

We immediately crossed the excellent bridge over the Middle Fork itself and proceeded east along the Middle Fork Trail with the intention of having lunch at Goldmyer Hot Springs just to see what the place looks like.  On our arrival at Goldmyer we found that no food was allowed (in order to keep from attracting animals), so we left Goldmyer and at lunch a few hundred feet further along the trail at a pretty spot next to the Middle Fork.  After lunch we continued without incident to our day's destination, Hardscrabble Horse Camp.  All in all our first day's hiking was pleasant but typical of most Middle Fork and most lower elevation I-90 hikes.  It was pretty, but nothing new to use.  Still, it got us closer to our ultimate destination.

Hardscrabble Horse Camp (named for nearby Hardscrabble Creek) used to be a car camping site, and primarily consists of a oval loop (that apparently used to be paved) with a few tent pads off to the side.  However, there was also one very scenic tent site next to the Middle Fork River that we used as our cooking area.

Day 2: Hardscrabble Horse Camp to Williams Lake

Soon after we started hiking it started to rain, and continued to do so through most of the day. So, alas, no pictures.  Much of the trail ws through trees as per the previous day, but some sections were through some striking meadows and along some impressive boardwalks.  We were surprised to encounter boardwalks so far away from any trailhead.  Simply carrying the building materials there must have been a lot of work.

We arrived at Williams Lake camp soggy but otherwise without incident.  We appreciated that the sign to Williams Lake was decorated with mining artifacts, presumably as an an homage to Dutch Miller, an early 20th century miner for which the area is named.

Day 3: Williams Lake to La Bohn Gap

The highlight of our trip was an exploration of La Bohn Gap, located above Williams Lake.  The route to La Bohn Gap is almost completely off trail, and largely consists of a large boulder field.  It was by far the most scenic day of the trip.

In the following picture our ascending route is marked in blue, and our descending route is marked in green.  On our way up, we also visited one of the Dutch Miller mines, circled in orange.

Having arrived in the rain the day before, this was the first time we had visited the far side of the lake.  As we started walking among the boulders the view behind us was fine indeed.

We were surprised to find a pair of railroad tracks coming out of the mind and disappearing over the end of a pile of tailings.  We had fun conjecturing about the history of the mine and taking some pictures of the tracks.

After our initial ascent through the trees we came out into the upper section of the boulder field.

As we ascended the view behind us kept opening up further, providing an ever changing perspective of Williams Lake and revealing more peaks to the south.

About two hours after leaving camp we finally topped out and reached the bowl containing Chain Lakes.

  

The sun finally came out so we took a lunch break while trying to dry our socks and boots from the previous day's rain.  Here a barefoot Kendall takes in the views and the sun in a natural granite recliner.

After lunch we continued into the upper basin on our way to La Bohn Gap.  We were pleasantly surprised to find brightly colored flowers lining some of the upper lakes.

As we got near the upper basin the boulders were replaced with a single solid sheet of rock, which made walking MUCH easier.

La Bohn Gap was again covered in boulders.  Here's the view north into the Stevens Pass area of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Necklace Valley and the East Foss River are directly below.  The West Ross River and Big Heart Lake are down and to the left.  The three major peaks are Silver Eagle Peak, Bald Eagle Peak, and Shroud Mountain (partially shrouded by clouds, appropriately).  A tiny sliver of Gunn Peak, used as a reference for Seattle Navigation field trips at Heybrook Ridge, is visible behind Bald Eagle Peak.

Here is the view south from the exact same point at which the previous northbound picture was taken.  These are peaks of the Snoqualmie area of the Alpine Lakes, including Bears Breast Mountain and Little Big Chief Mountain.  The Middle Fork River (not visible) is down and to the right.

After lingering at La Bohn Gap for a few minutes we reached our turnaround time and started heading back down to Chain Lakes basin.

Aaaaand...back into the boulders we go.

After spending the afternoon among the barren rocks above treeline, the greenness of Williams Lake and our campsite was striking.

After a day of rain the previous day and a mostly cloudy morning, the sun finally shown on our camp as we returned.

As per plan we were back to camp by about 5pm, in plenty of time for dinner and rest up for the two remaining days of hiking to follow.

Day 4: Crossing over Western Washington into Central Washington via Dutch Miller Gap

After spending two nights at Williams Lake we bid her goodbye and set off to the east once again.  Soon after leaving camp we came across a picturesque line of stepping stones through a meadow.  We are heading towards the gap between the large mountain in the center of the frame and the one two its left.  At this point are only about a mile west of the Cascade Crest and Dutch Miller Gap.

Up to this point our route had followed the Middle Fork River towards its origin.  We had watched the river get smaller and smaller as we went.  This close to the Crest the Middle Fork was little more than a stream flowing among the rocks.

As we approached Dutch Miller Gap we started to see a mix of Western Washington and Central Washington conditions, including this rock strewn meadow just a few hundred yards west of the Cascade Crest.  Dutch Miller gap is in the notch in the treeline straight ahead.

And here it is, Dutch Miller Gap!  Well, at least within a few feet of it.   It was definitely anticlimactic.  The rock in the center of the frame marks the saddle pretty closely.  The ground to the left of the rock slopes to the east and drains into Central Washington via the Waptus River.  The ground to the right of the rock slopes to the west and drains into Western Washing via the Middle Fork River.

On reaching the eastern side of the saddle the transition from Western Washington to Central Washington was striking and immediate.  Our first sight was of the full sun reflecting off of Lake Ivanhoe under a cloudless blue sky.  The air became warmer and dryer, and it smelled of pine.

The trail skirted almost the entire southern shore of Lake Ivanhoe and its striking blue water.

After passing Lake Ivanhoe we were greeted with this few of Waptus Lake, our destination for the day and still a few miles away.

The hike to Waptus Lake was long and warm but typical of a walk through a Central Washington.  Even though it was unremarkable as a Central Washington, it was striking to us because of the contrast with the environment in which we had spent the prior three days.

By the time we arrived at Waptus Lake in the later afternoon the handful of individual campsites that line the long edge were already taken, so we hiked to the far end of the lake and stayed at the enormous Waptus Lake camp, a veritable village of backpackers with literally dozens of campsites.  Mckenzie and Jeryl found us a primo with its own beach access.  Dutch Miller Gap, where we had passed over that morning, is the visible is the saddle in the middle of the ridge on the far side of the lake.

Day 5: Waptus Lake to Salmon la Sac

Because our final day's itinerary included 9 miles of hiking followed by a long drive, we decided to get an early start. We enjoyed a calm, quiet morning on the lake before setting out.

The walk out was pleasant but uneventful except for an easy ford of the Waptus River.  We stopped for ice cream in Roslyn before heading back to North Bend to retrieve the cars we had left at the Dingford Creek Trailhead.

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