Granite Lakes Trail 2016-03-30

7.17 miles and 1,370 feet of elevation gain.

I had been planning a snowshoe trip up to Granite Lakes but trip reports indicated an impassible blowdown area just after crossing Granite Creek.  One trip report called it "Blowdown Town".  I decided to wait awhile.  I haven't seen any recent trip reports so off we went.

The trailhead is located at the beginning of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Road, about a quarter mile from the end of the paved road.  Usually the potholes aren't too bad on this section of the road.  Today they were incredibly bad, I assume from all the heavy equipment used to upgrade the road.   The road is scheduled to be paved this year starting in late April.

New steel beam bridges were installed recently at the first creek crossing, where a culvert was remove a few years ago, and at Granite Creek.  The Granite Creek bridge replaced the temporary log bridge that was installed when the old logging road was 'landscaped' into a trail and the original log bridge was removed.

Once past Granite Creek, many of the blowdowns have been cut and cleared from the trail.  A good sign, I was hopeful the trail would be cleared.  Farther up the trail, trees were cut just enough to make a hole to get through.  At about a half mile from the bridge all chainsaw work had stopped.  You can get a few more feet up the trail before hitting the next wall of trees. 

Counting the trees not blocking the trail, there are probably several hundred downed trees.  Looking on the north side of the trail you can see large areas where well over half the trees are down.

Google Maps link

The first bridge (Mine Creek?)

The Granite Creek bridge.

The remains of the temporary log bridge.

One of the blowdown areas north of the trail.

One of the holes cut in the trees.

Looking back on the last of the chainsaw work.

This is where we turned around.  The trees are so dense that getting through would be next to impossible. Blue made a valiant effort, can you see him?  I could see much farther up the trail than what is visible in this picture and it looked the same.

pub 4/9/2016