We headed to the east slope of the Cascades to try to escape the rain of the long weekend. The road to the trailhead is in great shape. We were in a passenger car and it was easily passable.
I was very excited to cross the river. Several trip reports and the rangers properly note that there is no bridge, so you're required to wade across. Since it's early fall, it's a perfect time to go because the water isn't running too high. The flow was swift but the deepest point was only up to the knees, so it was easy to get across. It looked like there may have been a way to get across on a log jam a few hundred yards down the river, but it seemed to require some bushwhacking. Instead we decided to don water shoes and wade across.
There were lots of blowdowns and brush on the trail, but the trail is easy to follow. Besides the blowdowns and brush, the trail was is in great shape.
We camped for the night next to Little Shaefer Lake at a nice campsite. There seemed to 1 nice site at Little Shaefer and ~4 at Shaefer proper. Both lakes were beautiful and it's a great time to go.
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