6 August 1913 – Easton – Rockdale – Pratt River – Half way house

We dressed 6 A.M. Had breakfast. Sent a postal card to Tom Jones to prove we got over the pass. The train leaves Easton 7:30 and was a few minutes early. To see Tom with a pack on his back and a gun in his hand and me with packages hanging all around me was a sight worth seeing. We left Rockdale at 8:35 for a 15 ½ mile hike back over trail. We got to the pass at 12 noon. Had some lunch, passed the outlet at 12:45 and arrived at Half Way house at 4:45 P.M. The view is certainly magnificent way up near the pass. The lakes are worth hiking to see. The kids were here and 4 other fellows from Issaquah. Tom Jones, Joe Johnson and Gay the day before went up to Hot Springs and had a bath and got back the next day. The whole gang played cards in the evening, Mr. Padden father of Howard Padden told me some of his experiences out here with Indians in the sixties and seventies. He was once one of the best walkers in King County.

Milwaukee Railroad near Easton 1923 from the Washington State Historical Society.

5 August 1913 – South Fork Trail – Rockdale – Laconia – Easton

We arose 7 A.M. Had breakfast and were on the way by 8 o’clock. We continued on trail around the lake and the climbing was steeper then ever. Nearly two miles of this exhausting scrambling brings you at the highest point on trail, at Pratt Lake Pass. We figured the elevation was about 4500 ft. The air was much lighter and water boiled faster. Just over the other side of this pass there is another pretty lake, similar to the former one, that lays in the V-shaped sides of two mountains. I took two pictures of the lakes. The trail now winds around down the side of the mountain about 20% grade. We continually pass little streams like cascades, with cold snow melted water. As you go around the south side of the hill, you can see the Milwaukee railroad trades. The trail keeps falling until it comes out on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River and on the opposite side the Snoqualmie pass road follows the river. We walked a mile east on the road and then we followed a track to where Rockdale is. There are a few railway shacks where they are building a tunnel. We hiked up the track five miles to Laconia, the summit of the railroad. We were here about 3:00 P.M. and laid around to 6 when a freight came along. We piled in the end of the box car filled with lumber. After we started I found there were 3 other bums down in the dark. They asked us were we were and told them.  They got off at Meadow Creek at Lake Keechelas. One of the brakemen saw us and asked us where we were going. We told him Easton. He said we had to come across or get out. I told him we had already come across to one of the others.  He said he would find out. We got to Easton about 7 P.M. went to Ashley Hotel. Then got something good to eat in a restaurant built in a shack. Most of the town had burnt up a while before. We went to bed about 10 P.M.