Clear Fork #61

Treated myself to a Father's day hike along the Clear Fork of the Cowlitz river on trail #61. The drive to the trailhead was uneventful (although the heavy spring runoff has made it pretty rough in spots) and no other vehicles but mine:) The trail was dry the first half-mile with a blow-down or two. The next mile and half was mostly mud and standing water from the snowmelt. My intention was to quickly cover the first 2.3 miles to Skeeter shelter and pickup the #76 trail (to Lost lake)to see how much snow remained. To my surprise, the snow fields at the shelter were pretty deep (1-3 feet) and still covered 90% of the forest floor. I wandered the vicinity looking for signs of the trail but eventually lost it after the first two hundred yards or so. Since I had gotten a late start, I decided to head back taking my time and stopping to take pictures of the spring flowers just now emerging. I ended the day with a magnificent view of Mt Rainier peeking out from amoungst the clouds.