What a wonderful, rambling trail! I arrived to the trailhead in the back of the campground at 6:30am to start my run/hike adventure, 1 other car parked in that area. I am loving a trailhead with running water in a real bathroom! 😂
Trail is in great shape! Work has obviously been done already this season rebuilding tread, logging, and clearing debris- thank you trail crews!!!
I sped along until just beyond the turn off for 4th of July Pass when my progress was slowed by a doe with 2 fawns on the trail, after several enjoyable minutes they continued into the brush and I pushed on past Neve campsites and on to McAllister. The new McAllister campsites look great, complete with bearpole and separate cooking/tenting areas.
The creek crossing just past McAllister is now rock-hoppable and numerous smaller crossings can also be crossed with dry feet. Continuing on to the large bridge at Tricouni camp I took a snack break and relaxed on the sand along the creek before starting the climb up to Junction campsites.
If you venture out this far there are great views from the Junction campsites, even if you're not camping take the 200ft detour to enjoy the views! the trail remains buried in the trees so don't skip this and miss out!
From Here I was torn on whether to continue along Thunder Creek or to explore Fisher Creek, so I did a little bit of both! Junction campsites is pretty obviously where the trail maintenance has reached as both trails began to have winter debris/branches on them. I kicked/threw the most egregious out of the way. I continued down along Thunder Creek trail about 2 miles as it dropped back down to the creek before turning around and kicking myself for doing 2 miles of downhill...that I now had to go back up. Hiking back up to Junction camp I took a breather hanging out in the sunshine before exploring up Fisher Creek trail. almost immediately there are trees down and things are brushier than on Thunder Creek, I continued about a mile along before finally giving in to my complaining calves and turning around.
Return journey was relatively uneventful, saw 2 more deer, and I saw some people! I passed 5-6 groups of dayhikers between trailhead and McAllister and probably an equal number of backpackers. returning to the trailhead about 4pm parking was now about 2/3rds full.
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