Downey Creek — Saturday, May. 21, 2016

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

We were very grateful and lucky to have picked this trail right after the WTA trail crew worked on it. We all said thank you every time we noticed their work. We started by setting up camp at the trail head (site at trail head and spots down by the river but steep to get down there). There is a clean toilet in nice shape. One friend stayed back to just chill by the river. We did have to take our boots off for one stream crossing but otherwise easy to get over the creeks. We had lunch at the foot log bridge which I believe is the creek before Bachelor Creek and then turned around. Saw woodpeckers, a little mouse, frogs, salmon berries flowering, skunk cabbage but no blooms, beautiful trillium and at one point a short little moss trail. I was surprised by how many boardwalks there were and how good of shape they were in. The next morning when we we were heading out there were about 20 people in the lot who just came in from a 12 day mountaineering course with national outdoor leadership school (nols) - they went up bachelor creek and then circled around up there (dome peak).