This was a 7 day trip starting at the Duckabush River TH, over LaCross Pass to Honeymoon Meadows, then over Anderson Pass, O'Neill Pass to Marmot Lake, down to the Upper Duckabush, up over First Divide, then to Flapjack Lakes via Black & White Lakes trail, and out the North Fork Skokomish River to the Staircase trailhead. Great trip with lots of elevation and variation. I'll describe each section below. In general the lower trails were in good shape, the higher elevation trails needed significant maintenance.
Duckabush River Trail: clear and in great condition all the way to the junction with the LaCross Pass trail. Trail crews have done outstanding work here! Bear wire is down at 10 mile camp and toilet is destroyed. More ripe Thimbleberries than I've ever seen! Lots of bear scat at five mile and on trail.
Trail from Duckabush River Trail to LaCross Pass: the first section is rough, muddy, and many blowdowns to shimmy under, over, and around. For several I needed to remove my pack to even fit under the tree. Once you get to the subalpine section it's much better.
O'Neil Pass Trail to Marmot Lake from the East Fork Quinault River Trail: I took the long way around (without the shortcut to Hart Lake). I don't recommend the shortcut because you'd miss the most glorious part! So beautiful! Other hikers had differing reports on the shortcut. Some said it was fine, not a significant challenge. Others had trouble finding it or getting off track and ended up backtracking and taking the long way around. The O'Neil Pass trail was challenging in sections, both in terms of a number of large blowdowns across steep terrain, as well as parts where the slope across trail was steep with only low brush above and below. The brush above was pushing out over the trail -- including some small trees -- so it took deliberate footing and good balance to stay on the eroded path. Slipping off could have significant consequences. It was dry weather when I was there, it would be more of a challenge in wet conditions. There were three snow sections over drainage in early August, two I scrambled around, one I went across with boots and poles since it was good consistency.
Marmot Lake: beautiful! Great tent sites on the small ridge right above the lake with views of Mount Duckabush and Mount Steel. Composting toilet, but it was full and unusable.
Upper Duckabush over First Divide: the bugs were horrible! Flies and mosquitoes both. Neither elevation or proximity to water seemed to make any difference. They subsided around Two Bear camp. Trail was in decent shape.
Flapjack Lakes via Big Log Camp (Black & White Lakes trail): the sign says "primitive trail" which means steep and unrelenting switchbacks. But otherwise it was in fine shape with no significant obstacles. View from the top was fine, but not as great as I would have expected. After the junction with the Black & White Lakes Trail the path to Flapjack is prettier, although maybe it was just on account of it being downhill. The last ascent to Flapjack is again steep and rough, but easily passable. Flapjack Lakes are very pretty and wooded.
Flapjack Lakes Trail and North Fork Skokomish River Trails are both in good shape and nothing noteworthy.
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