Arrived at the TH to sun and small clouds. Colonial Peak peaked up over the lightly dusted tree tops as we stripped off our first layers. The mild weather was a welcome change. There was no snow along Thunder Creek and the few blowdowns were navigable. Started to see patches of snow at 3000’. There, we were well into the second switchbacks when our time had run out. The only person we ran into was headed to see if there was snow at the top. We spotted trillium and the starts of a great blueberry season. Our only regret was not packing for an overnight.

Trail is in good shape for this early in the season, on both Thunder Creek and Forth of July pass there are a few down but small trees. The pack snow is still at low elevation but very small no problem seeing threw the snow to the other side and staying on the trail. The snow melt is not to bad nothing is washed out and there are only 3 small streams to cross, I had on gators but did not need them for the streams. At the top of the pass pack snow is still very deep, feet in some places. I had not climbed the pass before and due to the deep snow did not make the top. If you don't know your way its still a good 1/8th of a mile to the top of the pass that is covered by pack snow. The weather was great at 6am it was only 38 degrees and at 10pm that night it was 32. The spring growth is in and it is absolutely beautiful out there. Thunder Creek seems still to be the best option if you want to put good miles in.

This is a great trail - don't know why I never heard of it! Very pretty all the way, about 90% under trees. First part of trail along Thunder creek, which is a very big creek, almost flat trail. Excellent bridge for crossing this "creek". Signed turn-off to the 4th of July Pass trail. The rest of the trail is fairly steep, but not too bad. There were peed-a-boo views from time to time of the peaks, but a high overcast prevented the best views from appearing. I really enjoyed this hike and recommend it. Not many flowers or berrys yet, and bugs were at a minium last weekend. I only met 4 other hikes on their way up - but 5 or 6 overnight backpackers on their way down.

We did a through-hike on the Thunder Creek and Panther Creek Trails, via the Fourth of July Pass. We parked the return-trip car on the east end, near the Panther Creek trailhead (at the East Bank Trail parking area, about 300 yards west on the Highway), and started hiking the trail from the west end, at the southern tip of the Colonial Creek Campground.

The trail along Thunder Creek to the Fourth of July junction is well maintained and relatively dry, despite the on-and-off showers. The forested nature of the trail definitely helps to shield us from the rain.

The climb starts soon after the junction. There were many stream and waterfall-crossings in this part of the trail, but none were excessively deep nor difficult to cross. In fact, the cool breeze from these were pleasant as we sweat our way up 18 switchbacks shortly followed by another 20.

We passed by about a dozen overnight hikers coming out in the opposite direction. The Fourth of July campsites were empty by the time we reached there at around 1 PM; the weather also cleared up at this point, opening up a view of the rest of the Thunder Creek valley.

The actual Pass is not very distinctive: There was a small cliff-side vantage point near the top that protrudes out slightly from the forested trail; I didn't think much of it and skipped it entirely! It's surprising how quickly that first 5.6 mi went by.

Continuing on the Panther Creek trail, the decent begins quickly and steadily after the Pass. We met up with a backpacking couple, who told us to be careful when crossing the thinning ice bridges over one of the streams coming down an avalanche chute from Ruby Mountain. Well, seeing is believing; the passable ice bridge is about 3 ft think at its thickest point, and is about 20 ft above the creek. Crossings may not be possible when this ice bridge finally collapses, as the thick snow pack on the east bank and the raging Panther Creek further downstream prevent other safe crossings.

The air further along the trail smelt like a sauna (the smell of wood, not sweat), with the scent of freshly cut cedar emanating from the area around the lone trail maintenance worker clearing out some large blowdowns. He's got his work cut out for him; half of the bridge across Panther Creek is out, and a detour has been constructed around it. It looks like work is only just starting to replace the broken half. The sound and fast-moving water only add to the excitement of crossing these log bridges. Side: One of the log bridges had this comedic piece of rope along it, ostensibly a handrail.

True to the trail descriptions, the trail climbs a good 900 ft out of the steep valley near the end, before losing a majority of that elevation gain coming down to the trailhead (at around MP 139).