Downey Creek — Monday, Mar. 5, 2001

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Downey Creek trail is at about mp 21 on the Suiattle river road (FS 26). There was a lot of wind that blew down many trees in the area of the Huckleberry trail, and this has all been cleared for easy passage. There is no snow on the road. The trail is in very good shape for this time of year, mostly dry and very little wind fall on the trail. The extensive work that WTA has done in the past couple of years to get the trail cleared of major wind dammage has made this trail very nice for this early season hike. At about 2.25 miles there is a creek drainage that has been flooded out for several seasons, and the trail is missing for about 200 feet, but this is easily hiked. There are two trees here that may be awkward to pass if one is wearing a large pack. There are a few other bad spots of trees that are easy stepped over. Snow starts within about 1/4 mile after this creek crossing, and is a foot deep at that area. This spot is marked by a very large cedar log that was cut out of the trail by WTA last summer. My hike was accompanied by the regular sounds of the Telephone Bird (some people call this bird the varied thrush, but they all seem more or less the same to me), a sound that hearalds the start of the summer to me.