The bugs are really coming out along the Middle Fork. We hiked later in the day. Fortunately none are biting yet, but in several of the wet parts of the trail we were moving through clouds of them.
Overall, the trail is in great shape. It's nice that a lot of the best views and river access are at the start of the trail, so there's really no need to get somewhere or to a particular point. You can just enjoy walking in the forest. We did around 4 or 5 miles total.
We probably encountered a couple of dozen other hikers, but for a perfect sunny Saturday, there were not a lot of people. Parking lot had plenty of space.
Comments