Day 1 - Hatchery Creek to Augusta Lake.

This trail is an absolute mess, the amount of blowdown, burnt blow down, exposure, lack of water, route finding... A note at the TH said "766 down trees, yes we counted". It may actually be more than that. Another said "it was the worst hike ever," I agree, it really was the worst hike i've ever done. Another note, "Falls Creek is Dry".

Surprisingly there was water at 2mi in. I almost called it and turned around until this point. I filled everything I had, cooled off and recalibrated the trip. Seeing that note about Falls Creek was dry, I wasn't sure when the next water source would be if any until Augusta.

A fellow hiker I passed on the way up, I ended up running into 3 days later, now headed the opposite direction on Icicle Creek. He said he thought he was about to get heat stroke and turned around and called for a ride out. Which got me thinking, if you did have an issue on this trail, search and rescue getting in and out with all the blowdown would be a really bad situation. 

If you want to try this, start really early AM, and/or on a cloudy cool day but hopefully now you have a better expectation of the embrace the suck for the first 5 miles. 

Day 2 - Augusta Lake to Mary Lake

The ridges are great, but everything below the treeline is slow going. Big descents and ascents, trail is very overgrown at times, blowdowns causing re-routes. Lots of very helpful cairns, Gaia GPS was fantastic for me. Really once over the ridge from Augusta to Chatter Creek it's just slow to get through the valleys and brush. Edna is incredible. I'm terrible with heights so Cape Horn took me a minute to focus enough to scoot around the corner. Camped at Lake Mary.

Day 3 - Mary Lake to Susan Jane

Woke up to a flat mattress, couldn't find the leak in the lake. Otherwise, Mary Lake to Susan Jane was pretty straight forward, some fun steep sections traversing along the ridge. Lower Doelle might be my new favorite alpine lake. Once I got to Josephine I saw several closed for restoration and day use only signs so I kept boogying to Susan Jane. 

Day 4 - Susan Jane to Stevens

Yep, mattress still flat, butt pad under the hip, sleeping on clothes, still got some shuteye and could hear the winds picking up. A slight sprinkle woke me up around 6:30am and got me packed fast and on the go, but with a dead mattress I threw in the towel at Stevens and grabbed a ride home. 

Did the upper and lower trails with the road in a counterclockwise loop from the park and ride TH.

Recommend an early start to beat the heat and get a parking spot. The spots are pretty small there, so recommend not trying to park a massive truck there, though there is more spacious overflow parking. Got there at 9am on a Sat, and there were plenty of spots left, but given the sun, wish I had started at 8 instead.

counterclockwise takes you up to the highest point first, allowing you to get the hard work out of the way in the beginning when it's cooler. This area is decently shaded and there are several nice views of the gorge.

the trail leads down the hill, then along some farmlands, then across a grassy field, then a gravel path, then down a wooded hill until passing under the highway.

The lower trail is now open (closed Feb-July 15). This trail continues down a wooded hill to more viewpoints until hitting volcanic cliffs over the river. The trail is easy to find, though vegetation is thicker in the lower bit and parts of the trail are canted. After a stunning cliff view, it back to walking uphill through rocky patches in the sun and shaded forest bits. A bridge is gone, requiring you to walk behind or through a small waterfall that is a nice refreshing shower after the heat. The lower trail has less shade than the upper, particularly once you hit the 1.5mi roadwalk back to the lot, so bring a hat. This road is a very boring part of the walk that feels longer than the initial hike up the hillside for whatever reason, and you will look at cows in blackberry and sweet pea lined fields.

Driving to and from the trailhead was the hardest part of this trip, due in part to traffic along 205 the closer we got to Vancouver/Portland.  What should have been a two hour drive from Olympia was actually 2:45 due to an accident just north of Vancouver.  Parking at the trailhead was easy with two clean and well-stocked pit toilets at the Salmon Falls Park and Ride which doubles as the trailhead complete with informative signage.  Our group of seven started up the trail at about 9:45 and finished 5.5 hours later having hiked 5.3 miles with 980 feet of elevation gain and the most diverse group of wildflowers I think I've seen.  Using the Washington Wildflower App and my memory, I put together a list of what we saw that included more than seventy species!  Larkspur might have been the most spectacular flower we saw both in terms of sheer numbers but also the peak bloom/condition of the flowers, and because they are one of my favorite flowers, Hooker's Fairy Bells are also worth mentioning as they were plentiful and near peak bloom.  The variety of flowers was so dense and diverse along the trail that it allowed for comparing/contrasting similar species of flowers for hikers to learn to distinguish between them (fringe cup and youth on age, for example).  The hike gains 800 feet in the first 1.2 miles, and that seemed accurate but not as difficult as it sounds because of the many stops we made for flower observations.  Once you reach the ridge it flattens out and there are three overlooks of the Columbia River Valley fairly close together; a more developed overlook is about a mile on down the trail and is named for the woman who spear-headed efforts to save this area from development:  Nancy Russell.  (https://gorgefriends.org/hike-the-gorge/cape-horn.html)

Arrived at TH about 9:15. This is also a Park and Ride so although there were five other cars in the lot, so I had no idea how many hikers I might encounter on trail. No permit is required, and there are vault toilets available.  You can go either clockwise or counter clockwise, since this is a loop. If you elect to go, as I did, counter clockwise you encounter a fairly constant uphill ascent for about 2 miles, maybe less. The loop is actually an "out and back" at this time of year because of seasonal habitat nesting for the peregrine falcons. This trail offers wooded trail, a small amount of gravel road walking, views of meadows and some homes. Most importantly excellent views of the Col. River. At the Cape Horn Overlook, (not to be confused with the Cape Horn Lookout which is actually on Hwy. 14 for motorists) you can sit on flat stones and grab a bite of your lunch or snack and gaze at the River. I encountered only 3 people going out and coming back, on a Wednesday. At the time I went there was no snow whatsoever. But big winds near open areas.

Enjoy.

Arrived around 0930. 

Road:

Easy and paved the whole way. Parking lot is the park and ride and has a small overflow lot. It was about half full on a rainy Sunday. Multiple vault toilets that were kind of gross and had no TP, come prepared!

Trail:

We decided to do the full loop today because it will soon be closed from February through July. We did it counterclockwise to get most of the elevation gain out of the way in the beginning. The trail is extremely muddy right now. There are some exposed and steep cliff sides, so be mindful of footing in the mud. It was raining on and off for the first hour or so and we were socked in a cloud that didn't break for a few hours. There are a few downed trees to go over or around, but again the muddy trail made it a little spicy navigating them.

Crowds:

It never felt too crowded. We ran into at least 15 other hikers and dogs. 

Misc:

There is a beautiful waterfall you can walk behind near the end of the loop! The last 1.5 ish miles of the loop are paved on a private road overlooking farm property. Lots of horses and cows! It took us about 3.5 leisurely hours taking photos to complete this trail. 7 miles RT. I would love to come back when the weather is better to be able look out of the viewpoints that we missed.