Flapjack Lakes via North Fork Skokomish River — Saturday, Sep. 29, 2001

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

With the good weather hanging on, I thought I would try another solo backpack to the Olympics, this time to Flapjack Lakes. The weather was a bit socked in when I arrived at Staircase, but warmish. I hiked 4 miles up the old road/trail on the North Fork Skokomish, which makes a nice walk in itself. After 1.5 hours, I arrived at the junction with the Flapjack Lakes Trail and the real workout for the day. The trail starts out in cool forest, climbing a short series of switchbacks and then traversing upward towards Madeline Creek. Once past the creek, it really climbs. After awhile, the trail comes into sound range of Donahue Creek and eventually reaches the junction with the trail to Black and White Lakes (reputed to be very rough). The Flapjack trail then hits some more tight, steep switchbacks and is very rooty and rocky until almost reaching the lakes where it finally gentles out. There are 10 campsites at the lakes, one a group site located on the opposite side of the lower lake. The Park Service only allows 30 people overnight in the area during high season, which just ended 9/30/01. There were only 11 people in the area, so the place was pretty quiet. After setting up camp, I wandered around the lake, picking huckleberries and snapping photos of the lovely lakes. I would like to have climbed to Gladys Divide, another 1,000 feet or so, but decided to save the feet for the way out. The trip out was uneventful, the weather great. I was pretty careful going down through the rocks and roots, since the trail was a bit dampish. Still I made great time out, about 4 hours to Staircase. It was a beautiful golden autumn weekend. Happy trails!