Trip Report
Backcountry Trail Run - Middle Fork Snoqualmie River
Low elevation gain, clearly marked trail run with mud and downed trees in areas but no dangerous or insurmountable obstacles.
Greg Lewerenz
- Sun, Nov 24, 2024
- Backcountry Trail Run - Middle Fork Snoqualmie River
- Middle Fork Snoqualmie River
- Trail Running
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Overall a safe trail with the caveats that we walked on all the wooden bridges/boardwalks and were able to duck under fallen branches and step over fallen trees. There was one small bridge over a creek about 1' wide which was easily passable via a couple steps down to the creek and back up. Most of the trail was smooth with a few rocky sections requiring slowing to a fast hike.
6 runners total, 2 leaders. Rain gear helped at the start but soon stopped raining so was stowed for the remainder of the trip. Running poles came in handy for navigating some of the water and tree crossings as well as the slippery sections of wooden paths/boardwalks. The road (SE Middle Fork Rd/NF-5600) was passable in my very low-tech Honda Civic (paved the whole way) and, thankfully, a road crew had cleared what appeared to be more than 80+ fallen trees and branches along the 12 mile stretch to the trailhead. We were concerned about the effects of the bomb cyclone earlier this week on road and trail conditions, but all obstacles had been cleared. The group met up at 8a with no one else in the parking lot and during the 3.5 hours/12 miles on the trail we only passed 4 other parties (9 people total). Ran across the first bridge near the parking lot, took a L eastward, and ran along the river to the bridge that re-crosses the Middle Fork which was our turnaround spot.