Four other Mountaineers and I started our journey at 8:30 this morning and only saw one lone hiker around 2 p.m. We were nervous about the stream crossings from previous trip reports, but we had zero problems except one hiker's foot slipped coming back on the last stream crossing (first from the cars). Fortunately, she had waterproof footwear and we were half a mile from the car, so it was no big deal.
Several large trees are down on the trail which was NOT an issue on November 23 when I last did this trail (4 days after the huge windstorm hit the Issaquah area). The five streams are flowing fast, but after two dry days we were lucky, we had no trouble. We all had trekking poles and gaiters.
We visited Big Creek Falls first, then backtracked to Otter Falls for lunch. Big Creek is raging and Otter Falls is peaceful. Zero wind and even some sun breaks. All in all, a successful "A+" trip. Nice to take advantage of a beautiful January day.
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