Lots of salmonberries at the Harvey Manning trailhead, and several bunches here and there along the trail. Our hike was just about one mile with a toddler who just wanted to either take snack breaks or pick berries. I tried a few of the salmonberries and some were a little sweet but many sour/bitter even though they looked ripe and plump. My kid didn't care though. 

I can only attest to the the bit of trail closest to trail head and it had no major muddy spots. We saw several dragonflies and butterflies, slugs and mushrooms so it was a big adventure day for the toddler :) 

This was a nice hike although I wouldn’t say its recommended for beginners. It was difficult for me, the downslope and of course back up was a challenge . I got a bit turned around coming back and some very kind folks helped me find my way. Also met a very nice gentleman on the way down. Not too crowded which was great.

For a beautiful sunny weekend, the trail was not crowded and I only passed a handful of people the whole time.  I found the down, down, down of the shangri-la trail to get a lot little difficult for my injured back. I ended up taking surprise creek trail and then looping through the protector trail loop on the way back to the trailhead and found these to be much more interesting and enjoyable

Went back to Fantastic Erratic to return the local geocache (or whatever it is) I accidentally absconded with last week. I'm leaving a trip report because I replaced the plastic container (the old one was missing a chunk) - my replacement probably won't hold up too long - and I'm hoping someone involved with this project will see this and replace it (and the slowly molding log inside) soon.

Super beautiful