So, we hiked to Dark Meadow using the description in Dan Nelson's Day Hiking South Cascades, 2007. This guide uses a different start point from the Dark Meadow trail #263, which starts on FR 23 and crosses East Canyon Creek; rather, it starts on a bootpath off a road marked 2325, which meets the Boundary Trail shortly before it crosses Dark Creek. At the GPS point given in the book, we found no obvious bootpath, just a few sporadic game trails. We searched for about a quarter mile in either direction before deciding to just bushwhack up the slope and make our own way up. At around 4300 ft, we hit a well-maintained, established trail not shown on the Gaia map, that we followed to the Boundary Trail---not what I'd call a bootpath, so I can only assume there has been development since the book was written. On the way back, we followed this established trail to its beginning on FR 2325, about half a mile northeast of where we parked; it's apparently not obvious enough for us to have noticed driving in, oops. The coordinates of the point I dropped when we reached the trailhead are 46.27919, -121.73872.
From there, navigation is quite easy, and the only challenge is the incredibly dusty condition the Boundary Trail is in from motorized traffic, and the lack of water along the route. Dark Creek is dry. We found two muddy puddles that seem to be from underground springs, but no other water on the trail or in the meadows. We turned around where the Boundary Trail starts to curve away from the meadows on the side of Dark Mountain, and went back to the fork with the Juniper Ridge trail to explore the meadows in that direction. Two motorbikes, no hiker traffic at all. The views of Adams from the higher meadows were hazy, but pretty good, though the meadows probably looked nicer a few weeks ago. The highlight of the day was the sheer quantity of perfect, powder-blue huckleberries, as far as the eye could see. A lump of berry-filled bear scat, and the fluttering of some thrushes in the bushes suggests we weren't the only partakers, but perhaps we were the only human (and canine?) ones on this day.
Our track was closer to 1400 ft and 7 miles for this little excursion. Interesting area.
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