Mud Mountain Dam - River Trail — Sunday, Sep. 1, 2024

This is to give you the information I wish that I had before doing this hike.

As another reviewer stated, the gravel service road drops to a wide trail with tall brush on either side. It makes a right turn into tall grass but this wasn't really obvious. The area widens into a clearing with big metal booms or tubes, and it can be a little tricky finding the trail after the clearing.

When you find the trail again, it follows the river along a high bank with occasional openings. There are a few places where you can drop down to the sand bar and rocks by the riverside to have lunch or enjoy the scenery. Then the trail mainly continues through forest and blackberry bushes with not much to see.

Things get confusing at Scatter Creek. The rocks have yellow spray paint to show you where to cross. Then the rocks have RED spray paint and there is a hiking sign. This takes you to the trail that continues on to the old fish release site. This is shown on the Mud Mountain map at the trailhead.

HOWEVER, both the WTA Trail Blazer app, and also Gaia GPS, show the trail curving north toward the highway. THIS IS NOT THE RIVER TRAIL. It is barely a trail at all except a social trail that goes up an extremely steep bank. It is a strenuous climb and there are ropes in places. At the top it is a thick jungle that goes to Highway 410. It's a total waste of time.

Back to Scatter Creek. The River Trail, marked with red spray paint, is densely overgrown. The sign at the trailhead says it takes stamina and determination. At this point I turned back. Maybe I'll give that a go again next year.