East Fork Lewis River — Wednesday, Jun. 20, 2012

Southwest Washington > Lewis River Region

As the other trip reports indicate, the East Fork Lewis Trail (#139) is a tricky one to find. The bumpy drive along Forest Service Road 42 is likely impossible if you don't have a high clearance vehicle and even if you do, you're forced to go pretty slowly. In the directions listed above, it should be noted that if you are coming from Sunset Campground, the parking area for the trail will be 5 miles down Forest Service road 42 on your right, not your left. Due to time constraints on my end I wasn't able to hike the whole trail, but got far enough in to experience the two river crossings. There are some big trees along the first one that make for easy crossing, and the second one has a piece of parachute chord that was strung along above a log that can be used as a good means to steady yourself for the second crossing. However, if you're feeling nervous about crossing on a log, the water is calm enough and shallow enough to walk across, as long as you don't mind getting a little wet. I went another two miles towards the summit and the trail in there could use some widening and bench cutting in some sections. The trail is a nice peaceful hike with some great views. It's too bad that its a challenging one to get to, but if you've got the car I would definitely recommend checking it out!