Little River, Hurricane Hill

  Went for a nice little day hike up the Little River trail to Hurricane Ridge. I hadn't done this trail before, but figured it would not be crowded (I saw no one on it, although there were fresh footprints in the one small snowpatch up high) and would be a nice change. It was. Some nice flowers, an interesting old wooden pipeline near the beginning, fairly varied from big old growth trees near the bottom to lily meadows and glades near the top. The fairly level stretch around 3400' was really nice, and unexpected. There were areas from the 2005 (?) burn just above the trail, and pleasant open woods with easy walking. And a nice rest after a bit of steep climbing up from the 3rd footbridge (as marked on the Custom Correct map).

  The first part of the trail is quite level, with some horse use (abuse), and trailbed that seems kind of clayey and might be slippery when wet. And it appears it might be pretty wet, in the wet season. Lots of indian pipes blooming down here. Some big trees start just past the park boundary.

  There is a place to get lost (I did) where the trail comes right to the river bank about 2 miles in. There is a trail on the far side, but it just goes to a couple (illegal) campsites. The trail must have either forked before that (with real trail going up and left) and I missed it completely, or it might be washed out by the river going around a rock. I ended up a little upstream on the wrong side of the river, crossed it again, and bushwacked back up to the trail on the east bank.

  There are a number (10? 15?) of blowdowns from the first footbridge to the top, but none are too difficult to cross. And some soggy mudholes, mostly in the level stretch around 3400', and the upper bit of trail on the east side fo the river (3600').

  The first un-bridged "river" crossing might require getting wet, although I barely managed to get across dry. After that, on the east side of the river, there is some brushy, overgrown muddy, burrowed trail for a while before re-entering forest.
 
  There is another easy place to lose the trail at the 5th stream crossing (second un-bridged one, 3700'). The trail comes out of the forest into an open valley bottom with alder thickets, and wet, lush meadow with irregular burrowed soil underneath. Several vague areas of trampled vegetation continue up-valley, but the trail takes a 90 degree turn to the right and crosses the stream right after entering the open area.

  From there to the top, the trail is easy enough to find, although it's a streambed (dry when I was there) in many places. Nice glades and dense lily meadows (many blooming) up there. There are a few snow patches, one of which crosses the trail. But it will probably be gone by the time you read this.

  There are quite a few flowers blooming all along the trail - from saprophytes and orchids down low to lilies up high. Up on Hurricane Ridge there are quite a few, and varied flowers blooming. I think it is finally summer up there, although in places things like phlox are still blooming. Lots of people up there, of course, too.

  It was a nice, quiet hike with plenty to see along the way.

  Seeing an earlier WTA trip report discussing the mileage (and claiming 10.9 miles from GPS), I remember only the sign at the top of the trail saying that it is 8.1 miles to the bottom trailhead. And the Custom Correct map claims 7.9. The trip took me a little over 5 hours, and I at least started out going pretty fast, so I'd not be surprised if the trail is really longer than those claim. Or maybe I was just even slower than I thought...