After seeing cristina's report, I thought I'd try a morning hike up to Sagebrush Flats. I hoped to be back at the car before the heavy rain forecast to start in late morning. The hike up the Spokane Gulch trail was pretty straightforward. Once I had climbed above the lower forest there were various view points.
The recent Atmospheric River has done some damage to the trail tread with areas of mini "canyons" running down the middle of the trail and other areas of streams running down the trail.
It appears the Spokane Gulch Trail ends at a three-way junction. A trail goes up to the Goat Peak Logging Roads and the Goat Wall trail goes to Sagebrush Flats and beyond.
I went over to the flats to enjoy the view and have a snack. Having not hiked the Goat Wall Trail, I thought I would give it a try. I knew I'd have a road walk of over a mile to close the loop back to the Mazama Parking lot. I hoped to make it back to the car before the rain started.
At Sagebrush Flats, the view down, included the Methow River. Normally, in late fall, it has a low flow with rocks and gravel bars visible. Now it is full, bank to bank, without any large rocks or bars visible.
After leaving Sagebrush Flats, the trail had sections with about 2" of snow which was easy walking in boots. What I hadn't thought about was the effect of the Atmospheric River on all the normally dry secondary streams. While the trail is a nice walk in the forest, with minimal views, the current trail conditions are a real test for waterproof boots. There are extended sections small streams running down the trail and a few year-round streams that are really full (splash fords). The trail goes through a bowl that has a large shallow pond over the trail. It was an easy cross-country walk to bypass the pond and regain the trail.
After the pond, there was one more trail junction with another trail up to the logging roads. Then the steep descent started alongside a stream, as did the rain! In one place, the stream formed a multichannel waterfall over the trail. Most of the descent was in good condition, but there were a few more places with substantial water flowing along and over the trail.
I ignored the side trails to various rock climbs and quickly reached the last section of trail which was made of rock steps to descend to the climbing wall trailhead.
I opted to start hiking back to the Mazama Trailhead on what is the Basecamp ski trail, which didn't have any snow. I followed Basecamp for about 0.5 mile and then cut over to Lost River Road, which I walked it back to Mazama in a pouring rain.
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