Big Creek — Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022

I arrived at the Big Creek campground at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday. The roads were clear but the Skokomish river is higher than I've ever seen it. It flooded the nearby lowlands. Keep an eye on that if there's more rain. I went clockwise, totally loving the massive water flow at the first bridge. There's almost no snow until just after the sign to go up to the lookout or take a slight right and continue on the Upper Big Creek trail. Since I was feeling good, I hit the overlook and broke out the spikes for that. The snow is mostly compact until it's soft and you posthole. Totally random. That section is steep and longer than the posted one mile. Be prepared for some wothwhile work if you're feeling good to double your incline. There was only one tree down that had me maneuvering through the snow to climb over it. A little too high to throw a leg over it and a little too low to crawl under. The rest of the trail held up amazingly well in all that wind. The bridges are all in good shape and you could get by without traction even in the snowy sections of the main trail. The only downer is that on my way down past all the bridges, I ran into a guy with a huge pack of salal that he'd just cut. It's a total bummer that people do that. (UPDATE: a commenter stated permits are granted for cutting salal so the gentleman may have been totally legit...I'm going with that. Alltrails said it was 7.8 miles and over 1800 ft of elevation gain. Happy hiking!