We spent three days hiking up the Duckabush, the first two days in showers, the last in sunshine. This is a beautiful valley, rugged, with open groves of huge trees. The trail is well maintained to Five Mile Camp with the exception of a large tree over the trail just past the main summit of Big Hump. No problem for hikers to squeeze under. Since Five Mile Camp was occupied, we hiked on to find a camp large enough for our group of six. We found a great camp about six miles in. On Sunday, we dayhiked into the National Park. At the boundary, we crossed the famous recent mudslide. It has pretty much set up and is fine to walk across. It has buried some large trees in at least three feet of gravelly mud. After the landslide the trail deteriorated rapidly. It was a true obstacle course. Even with just day packs, we found it slow going. There was boot sucking mud holes, overgrown salmonberry, small creeks running down the trail and lots of downed timber or brush. Some of the logs were huge and a challenge to crawl over. We were finally stopped by a creek too deep and wide to jump or rock hop. There are a variety of lovely flowers and beautiful old growth timber. The Duckabush was running high and silty. The area is not heavily used except for the first portion of the trail to Big Hump.

The Duckabush River trail is a good choice for this season because it is snow-free for the first five miles. The road to the trailhead is full of potholes, but otherwise easy to drive. The trail is in pretty good shape, except for some downed trees (a couple of large ones to negotiate between Big Hump and Five Mile Camp). We found it a beautiful hike in the deep, dark forest. We had our lunch at the river at Five Mile Camp and enjoyed watching the tumultuous river (very high right now) and peaceful pools among the boulders. Since it was such a cloudy day, there were few people on the trail, although we saw a few campers along the river both before and after Big Hump.

Besides being quite early in the season it was also my girlfriends first overnight hike so we took it easy and only hiked in to 2.5 mile camp. The trail was in great shape and the weather was pretty nice for hiking. The River and most of the creeks that run into it were pretty swollen with meltwater but we had no problem at any crossings. We had a bit of a problem finding a campspot but eventually found a flat spot just big enough to accomodate my brand new tent. A light mist and occasional breezes kept us rubbing our hands most of the night but the pasta was hot and the serenity intoxicating (not to mention the brandy). Reports from hikers on their way out indicated some snow still at 5 mile camp and more as you go on towards the park boundary. On our way out we noticed a faint trail heading towards the river and found a beautiful hidden campspot. On your way in it is about a 1/4 mile beyond the bottom of the hill at little hump. If you are in for a short hike and a nice camp look for this one. Overall this was just what I needed. A little peace and quiet and an easy hike to break in all this years new gear. Bring on summer!

Went in thursday morning on the 15th. Came out saturday morning on the 17th. Trail in good condition up to the top of big hump. Lots of snow going down the backside of big hump and in the valley. Lots of post-holing and blow downs. Some of the blow downs were difficult to negotiate with a pack. Five mile camp had melted out. All the other river camps were still under snow but were rapidly melting out in the nice weather. Valley trail looked like it was still a few weeks from melting out. Some of the creek crossings were getting difficult on the way back due snow melt.

Hiked to Big Hump on the DUckabush Trail. The trail was almost entirely clear of snow, just a few patches here and there. A few trees cross the trail, but nothing to slow a person down. The small streams would be a trial for someone in tennis shoes only, but they are not a problem for those in hiking boots. Don't know about the conditions beyond Big Hump (3.5 mi.), but suspect a person would probably hit some snow by 5 mile.