North Fork Skokomish River, Six Ridge — Saturday, Sep. 21, 2013

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

I started this hike at the Staircase parking lot just inside the national park. You could follow the Shady Lane Trail that starts just after crossing the dam if you don't have a park pass. The trail along the river is wide and nearly flat. After passing a large suspension bridge a mile in, the trail goes through an old burn area from 1985 and by a couple signed camp areas. At 3.8 miles the trail forks and you can go to the Flapjack lakes. then again another trail takes off to Black and White Lakes and Smith Lake. I continued on to the bridge crossing the river at 6 miles, and turned left onto the Six Ridge trail just on the other side. This trail is a little challenging to follow but follows the river downstream through the salmonberries for a short while until you reach a ford at Seven Stream. There is a nice camping area here. After the ford, the trail starts to switchback upward for what seemed like 100 switchbacks until you finally reach the ridge. This section of the trail is overgrown and had a few downed logs, though I also saw a couple large ones that had been cut fairly recently. Once on the ridge, the trail doesn't have the same overgrowth problem except the occasional loaded huckleberry bushes which I didn't mind so much. there are peek-a-boo views off either side of the ridge, but because of the clouds below, I didn't get any good pictures. The ridge climbs up and down sharply, and I even encountered a snow patch in one of the lows. As I neared the summit, the trees thinned out (another burn area) and there is a little more exposure, but nothing scary. At the signpost on top I ventured out on the Lake Success Trail, which has a few ribbons marking the way, but it didn't take me too long to lose the trail once the ribbons stopped. I was running out of time so didn't look too hard, and it started pouring anyhow so it was time to head back down.