Flapjack Lakes via North Fork Skokomish River, Black & White Lakes — Friday, Jun. 19, 2020

Hiked a nice loop yesterday, could not have asked for a more perfect day.  Arrived to an empty Staircase parking lot at 7:30 and headed up the eastern trail. there were some easily passed blowdowns after the turnoff to Flapjack lakes, the worst I'd encounter all day.  With the gentle 5 mile warmup out of the way I turned up the B&W way trail and got to business. A couple miles and 3k feet of elevation later I was looking at the lakes. this part was brushy at times but easy to follow, bits of uphill interspersed with steep parts! After that I went up the slopes above to the ridge and followed it west for a half mile till I could see easy snowfields leading up to the summit of Mt Gladys. With the Sawtooths in front of me, Mt Olympus behind and many of the eastern Olympics in between the views were simply outstanding. I was glad I knew the way down to Gladys Divide as there were no visible tracks coming up.  Found some tracks at the divide and headed down to Flapjack lakes, crossing the last of the snow within a quarter mile of the pass.  The trail is very well maintained, someone (thanks!) got up there and did a good job. I ended up averaging a couple miles an hour for this 19 mile hike, its great loop!