Downey Creek — Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019

Siauttle River Road is as always a pot-holed, wash-boarded treat.  Given that it was the first day of a holiday weekend, we encountered fewer insane drivers than feared, but enough to make the drive...exciting.  We wanted to do something that was slightly under-reported, but not a total mystery - I mean, we wanted to be able to actually hike for the last day of the Hikeathon after all.  Trail head parking was ample and the toilet was relatively clean.  We were, surprisingly, car number six in the lot, although only the third party to sign in on the register - one party of four was apparently headed in on a deep multiday trip.

The first two miles of trail is in good shape.  A little slumping here and there, some minor creek crossings, a blowdown or two, but nothing that couldn't be easily navigated.  Mostly, those first two miles were lovely tread through nice open forest and lots of moss.  Beautiful.  The next two miles became pretty badly overgrown, although there was evidence that it had been brushed out at some point over the summer.  There was a lot more mud, water on the trail, slumping tread, minor creeks, and downed trees in this section.  But still so many big trees.  The final two miles out that we did were in better condition, although still exhibiting stretches of the previous section's bad habits.  A few rocky and/or rooty bits throughout, but that's not unexpected.  We stopped for lunch at the six mile mark, at a very pleasant campsite on a small tributary stream.

This trail.  Huh.  It's not spectacular.  But it is very pleasant.  So many big trees, so much moss.  And so much solitude - we encountered only one other soul, on a holiday weekend.  It was bliss.  The trail is in surprisingly good condition for as under-reported and underused as it seems to be.  The quantity and quality of the puncheons, boardwalks, and bridges would appear to indicate this as once-upon-a-time a major access point to the back country.  But the overgrown sections and the badly slumping tread seems to indicate a trail in danger of becoming "lost."  Early season creek levels likely would be problematic, but they are all possible with dry feet right now.  Good campsites at 3, 4, and 6 miles, and passable sites at 2 and 5 miles.  In 12 miles in-and-out, we clocked 1800 feet of gain on gently undulating tread.  We whacked a few bushes here and there, tried to get the nettles and the devil's club off the trail whenever we encountered them, cleared a few clogged drainages, and cleared the smaller blowdowns.  I might have to go back with tools and spend a weekend giving this trail some love - it feels worthy.