I headed to Colonel Bob in the hopes that the location and prevailing winds would provide refuge from the Bear Gulch Fire smoke, which was reasonably successful. There was a good deal of haze, but nothing like the Hood Canal area is unfortunately experiencing.
The Forest Service road is in very good condition and shouldn't give anyone pause. As always, this is your reminder that the trailhead is across the road from the parking area.
This is a fairly challenging trail, clocking in at just over four miles each way, with ~3,300 elevation gain. It's steeper than that suggests, since the grade is mild in the first mile or so, as well as through Moonshine Flats.
I appreciated some recent trip reports suggesting long pants due to brush. Despite the heat, I was glad that I wore full pants, as there were multiple stretches with a lot of brush encroaching on the trail. These were often punctuated by thimbleberries, huckleberries and salmonberries, though, which was an acceptable tradeoff.
The one water crossing up at Moonshine Flats was negligible currently, and the wash crossings near the beginning of the trail are high and dry. In the one significant avalanche chute further up, there's some sloughing off of the trail, but nothing difficult.
Bugs were not an issue until the summit. There were flying ants galore up there, as well as some very small flying insects. I found that the eastern end of the summit block provided relief from both, for a snack and a drink.
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