Ingalls Creek — Saturday, May. 24, 2025

Parking
Arrived to the lot at 9:45 on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and the lot was full with folks beginning to park on the side of the street, but someone pulled out right when we arrived so I got a spot.

Trail
The trail was in good shape and saw a lot of folks going both directions with trail runners passing us every 15 minutes or so. Lots of flowers blooming and the constant roar of the creek. We saw a big group with dogs that had turned around after the 1st mile or so because there was a rattlesnake in the trail, which was a common occurrence, seemed like half the folks we talked to had seen a snake (more on that later). We didn’t see that snake so kept going. I was a little worried about finding a site as it was my daughter’s first overnight backpacking trip and was asking folks coming the other way about spots and got mixed feedback if we would find anything open within the first 5.5 miles. So, when we got to the camp a little over 2 miles into the trip which was had a large group, I panicked and we decided to hike back to the camp around 1.7 miles from the TH we saw was open when we initially passed it. So, we went back, setup camp and then hiked down the trail with lighter packs for a couple miles.  I am guessing there must have been plenty of places to camp though as we were saw at least 10 - 12 other backpacking groups heading up the trail and we never saw them come back (camp was very close to the trail, so we could see most of the traffic). On our “day hike” we didn’t go too far because my daughter was toughing out a head cold and about 3.3 miles in we ran across our own rattlesnake (it rattled when it heard me coming, but stopped as soon as I did, then made its way across the trail largely ignoring us).

Camp
The campsite we stayed at was spacious, had a fire pit and easy access to the creek with many good sitting spots, but was very close to the trail. I was also disappointed to find that someone had done a #2 on the path between the creek and the campsite and left it there with their TP just covering it with a branch. The smell was bad enough that I moved it onto some bark, walked it well away from the creek and buried it. Also found a tent stake still in the ground and a beer can while tossing my line for a bear hang. Waking up the next morning I couldn’t find one of my gaiters that I had shoved in my shoe and left in my vestibule, I looked everywhere for it and eventually gave up after 15 minutes of searching. When I got home, the mystery was revealed when I saw tiny chew marks on the tongue of my shoe (pic below), I am guessing either I spilled some dinner on my foot without realizing it or my sweat was just that enticing for some rodent who made off with my gaiter. Lesson learned for next time, keep shoes inside of the tent!

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.strava.com/activities/14593448659