Warm sunny spring day in February - do Hugo Peak to get loosened up. Park at parking lot just off highway. Most important comment: Download pdf of Pack Forest map off their website before you leave home. You will need it, and map box at gate is empty. Trail is in near perfect condition. You walk lengthwise on some long boards over the muddy spots. Poles help for balance, and for several dozen steps on downhill return trip. When trail crosses gravel roads it is marked well. About a quarter mile from Hugo Peak notice old lichen covered, rotting sign. Faintly reads "Hugo Peak, Tacoma Mountaineers". Did they build trail decades ago? Views at the top are gone until next logged. There is actually a trail log box, but logs are clear full. Nice grassy meadow, with two lazy mosquitos. Backtracked to first intersection and took 1080 Rd., S maybe 1/4 mile to Kirkland Pass (not named on map). Five roads and two trails meet at this rather indistinct swale. Took Trail of Giants, long version. Sign says trail was built by Eatonville HS FFA. Marked 1 mile. Hmm. Maybe their yardstick was only 26" long. Nice walk through closed canopy Doug Fir, and a few locally large cedar, with sign stating larger 4-5' trees survived 1800 stand replacing fire. One ruffed grouse thought best place to fly away was further down trail. Jumped poor thing three times. Two pileateds were heard only. Some new downfall made me ponder route at point long trail connects to short loop. There are several large logs you duck, or almost crawl under, but they are permanent part of trail. Turn left on 2000 Rd. back to Kirkland Pass, then left on 1000 Rd. back to entrance and car. About a quarter mile from Kirkland Pass on the downhill side notice some of the cedars have had the typical partial bark harvest, for weaving material. Trees usually survive this, bark slowly regrows over wound. All in all a good day.

Challenging hike for little ones (2 & 5 years old) but we made it! Very dry right now - no mud. Ripe, juicy blackberries. A little odd to have so many roads crossing the hike (a minivan passed us about an hour into the hike). Otherwise a fun hike with pretty views of the valley on the way up.

This is a new trail starting in Eatonville, crossing the Mashel River, Little Mashel River to Pack Forest. We drove south on H-161 to Eatonville. Turned left on Lynch Creek Road just as entering Eatonville. We parked in the lot for the Ball Park. We followed the trail, behind the schools, along the airport runway and crossing Center St to another parking lot and trailhead. This section added 0.7 miles to the 3.0 miles of Bud Blancher trail. The trail is wide and packed gravel. There is very little elevation gain. The trail is mostly wooded which was nice as it was a hot, sunny day. There were toilets at both parking lots. After the bridge over the Little Mashel River there is a trail off to the left that goes about 0.5 miles to the lower Mashel River Falls. We didn't go up the side trail. The Bud Blancher trail then become a 'road'. I'm guessing it is the Weyerhauser road in Pack Forest. We walked until we reached the gate across the road. That is 3.0 miles. Round trip was 7.7 miles.

Our GPS took us to a gated road, so we turned back and went to the park entrance. Drove all the way up to the buildings and realized that the Trailhead is at the main entrance. :) Beautiful day hike, paths were quite muddy in spots, and some of the boards for bridges were broken. The best view was half way up. We had no issues with horse manure since we stayed on the hiker path. We will definitel be visiting this location again and exploring all the other trails that the Pack forest has to offer. Be aware that during the weekend, none of the buildings are open and there is no place to go to the bathroom, so come prepared.

Overall a decent and fairly easy (moderate for those of us who are a wee bit out of shape) hike up a gated primitive road, to the falls. The road was fine with the only minor obstacles being horse manure! When you get to the falls trail it was pretty muddy in spots and getting to the lower falls was a steep trail (the teenagers navigated it fine). To get to the falls take the left fork when you come to the area where the tree work sign is. You'll see a boulder with Falls painted on it - you can see the falls from 20 feet past the rock, but the trail down is to the left.