I hiked the Lower Graywolf Trail down to the junction of the Cameron Creek Trail and the Upper Graywolf Trail. Portions of the Lower Graywolf Trail aren't accessible so you have to hike the Slab Camp Trail that connects to the Lower Graywolf Trail. The Slab Camp Trail is located on Forest Service Road 2875. The trail was in good shape although I did encounter mosquitos on certain segments of the trail. There are a couple of camp sites that looked alright. There is a very nice bridge that crosses the Graywolf River and once across, you will connect to the Lower Graywolf Trail. If my count is correct, there are approximately eight blowdowns along the way. Two or three of these you will have to duck under and one isn't far from when you cross the bridge that you have to go around a few feet. A few places along the trail that was a little muddy but nothing major. There are some water sources along the way as well. Overall the trail was in good shape. Didn't encounter anyone else on the trail.

Low clouds and thick fog on road to trailhead, with cool moist conditions all day. A few mosquitoes through the marsh, but the trilliums and pink rhododendrons were in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous, with lots of other new growth and interesting fungus specimens along the trail. Lots of mud and a few sections of standing water on trail, with lots of yellow tape ribbons marking needed repairs. Met 3 other parties on the trail down to Duncan Flats and river was running fast and full.

Pics & Video: http://bennettdarren.phanfare.com/4686937

We got to the Slab Camp trail head just before 7AM after spending the night at Kent's place in Poulsbo. Our goal was to hike up the Graywolf River drainage to Falls Camp and hopefully make it up to Cedar Lake (@ 5200 ft). The 2.8 mile hike down from Slab Camp to the Lower Graywolf River crossing was steep in places and muddy in others. At the river crossing there is a huge bridge that has three large steel support beams... It has been written that this bridge will never get knocked down (a death sentence for any bridge in the Olympic Mountains).

After crossing the bridge and going over a number of downed trees we made the connection with the Lower Graywolf Trail. Trail then goes straight up for about 800 feet through even more downed trees and passes through Slide Camp and gives you a number of great views across the river valley. There is a lot of future trail work to be done on this section. Trail crews have laid out survey tape to indicate the areas of work including a number of slide prone areas. The trail eventually drops you back down to the Graywolf Camp near the Three Forks (intersection of Upper Graywolf, Cameron and Lower Graywolf Rivers).

We began the last leg up the Upper Graywolf by first having lunch along the river. We still had 5+ miles to go before arriving at Falls Camp. Again the trail had a large number of downed trees but in general was in the best shape of all the trails. At this point I was getting tired so Kent started to push forward to find camp…. He was fortunate enough to see a black bear as he crossed a large avalanche chute… Unfortunately by the time I got there the bear was gone. We did see lots of signs of bear (scat mostly) and a few cat like scat (bobcat, cougar… not sure?). We passed Camp Ellis since there was already a group there and made our way up to Falls Camp. The old Falls Shelter was burned to the ground a number of years ago, I believe as part of the Olympic National Parks effort to lower maintenance costs. I remember staying at this shelter back in 1994 so it was sad to see it as burned out pile of logs. Above about 3800 feet we started to hit a number of snow patches and at Falls Camp (4000ft) there was only a few spots without snow. I inspected the Cedar Lake trail and it just had too much snow, too many downed trees, and it was too late in the day to continue up… So we made camp, enjoyed some food, enjoyed the views and then headed off to bed as the temps dropped around freezing.

Overnight we had a little rain but overall it was clearer skies in the morning. We contemplated heading up to Cedar Lake in the morning but decided adding 5 miles round trip to our already required 13+ miles was not a good idea. Sadly we said goodbye to the camp and our missed chance to see one of the best lakes in the Olympic Mountains (oh well it was most likely buried under about 8 feet of snow). The trip out was fairly easy with the exception of the two big uphill sections (Graywolf Camp to Slide Camp and Lower Graywolf up to Slab Camp). The rain started to come down over the last 8 miles but we avoided it mostly by staying in the trees…. As we drove out towards Hwy 101, all we could see was a huge rain cloud forming over the mountains and felt happy to have the heater blasting and not being stuck in the rain.

Losing 1100 ft we hiked the 2.8 miles to Duncan Flat soon crossing the bridge over the Gray Wolf River. The trail was clear with only a few muddy areas. The return trip is steep at first, but then the trail levels to a more gradual climb back to the TH. This is a very pleasant rainy day hike so the light rain during our hike added to the beauty of the mosses and greens along the trail.