White Chuck Bench — Monday, Nov. 19, 2018

Four of us decided to hike this trail on one of the beautiful, sunny November days. We had heard from the ranger at the Darrington Ranger Station that WTA had recently rebuilt the part of the trail that had washed out 15 years ago. We started at the trailhead close to the boat launch. The established part of the trail is in great shape and we had some beautiful views of the river and Mt. Pugh. As we continued, we could see the trail markers on the new part of the trail. We did run into two spots with water crossing the trail and I’m not sure how easy these will be to cross once the rains really hit. We had no trouble but it did take some rock hopping and it’s been relatively dry. We hiked for a little over three hours and never made it to the other trailhead. We could see where work is still in progress which is perhaps why there isn’t any information about the longer trail. We had to turn around in order to get back before darkness fell. It took us about 2.5 hours to get back. Beautiful area with views of the river and peeks of the mountains through the trees. Lots of mushrooms too.