A group of 4 experienced climbers took the North Fork Skokomish trail to the Black & White Lakes way trail, then we went cross-kntry from B&W up steep heather slopes, through bushwhacks and a couple gendarme-hugging rock scrambles (2nd-3rd class) to the ridge that ascends Mount Gladys (where we saw a mama and baby bear below). The last of the blueberries, huckleberries and salal were delicious, but some were soft, and some were fermenting. We saw scat that suggested serious salal consumption (bear trots). The air smelled like berry pie the first day, though we could smell the rot on the second day. The hills were red, gold, orange and yellow - breathtaking!

Instead of going straight to Gladys, we went partway across the ridge (heading south) and worked our way down a series of talus slopes, ledges and gullies/drainages to Murdock Lakes, where we camped at the far end of the lakes. Almost no one goes there, so let's keep it as pristine as possible, please!.

Our climbing objective, Mt. Henderson, is not a big climbing objective or an impressive summit, so I don't foresee a bunch of peakbaggers suddenly descending on this fragile area, but if you do go, please follow leave no trace principles!

Before sunset we hiked up to the ridge, faced due west and looked for the comet, but the cloud bank at the horizon skunked us. After a wonderful night's sleep, we went for the peak at sunrise.

We found a bench with 2.5 unnamed tarns about 100ft above the Murdocks and hiked up the slope from there toward Henderson. The side slope looked cliffy, so we went toward the top and did more gendarme hugging, tree belaying and bushwhacking, back and forth on the left and right sides of the ridgeline. The handholds and footholds were good, though it was a "you fall, you die" cliff-below situation. At the transition between the lower and upper ridge, you punch out of a bushwhack on the left side of the ridge and there's a  meadow where you can catch your breath, snack and scope the route up. I took a middle route up a scree slope to a trailish-looking thing and over the top to catch the left/north side of the upper ridge. I worked my way around more gendarmes and trees, where a fall would have been fatal, but the footwork and handwork felt easier than the lower ridge. My friends took a steep treed gully up on the south side and said it was slippery with exposure, but good trees to hold. We met about 300ft from the summit, which was like a 10yr old's birthday party. Wide benches, meadows and up to a treed summit with no markers or registries. We sat facing Skokomish, which we'd all climbed in the past, but which looked super imposing from this angle, had a snack and headed down. 

On the descent, we stayed on the north side of the upper ridge, but crossed over earlier than my ascent route and took a scree slope back to the meadow. From the top of the lower ridge we decided to sidehill below the cliff bands on what was now climber's left of the ridgeline. One of our party went all the way down to a basin and then climbed back up 700ft to the 2 tarns/landmark. This made it tricky for the side-hillers because of potential for rockfall, but we made it work. We got back to the tarns and had a nice walk to the Murdock lakes. 

For all that it felt like hours gripping those rocks and trees and trying not to slide out on scree and sidehill veg, we left camp at 7 and were back at camp by 11, having covered about 3mi and 1200ft of pretty technical scrambling.

We trended left up some ledges and talus from Murdock to the ridgeline for Gladys. We topped out on Mount Gladys' treed summit and descended to the Gladys Divide on a solid way trail. The Gladys Divide trail down to Flapjacks felt long, but the fall colors were stunning. We used the new privy at Flapjacks and then trudged the 7+mi and 4000ft down to the TH, exhausted.

I had a short first day and camped at Spike Camp and then hiked up to Flapjack Lakes for two nights. That trail is quite rooty and rocky and a flat section early on means much steeper later, so the four miles and 2400 foot gain to the lakes is a more rugged hike.

From camp, I dayhiked up to Gladys Divide that afternoon and Black Lake the next morning. Ironically, despite being labeled primitive, those trails are smoother and easier walking than the trail to Flapjack Lakes.

Berries are ripe and prolific at Flapjack Lakes. Not sure I have ever seen that many in one place. Bugs varied a lot by camp. They were a bother at my camp on the lower lake, but the Thermocell controlled them. I talked t people camped at the upper more sheltered camps and they said they were being eaten alive.

We had a beautiful weekend trip up to Flapjack Lakes and Gladys Divide!

Friday night we arrived at the Staircase trailhead around 6pm and there was plenty of parking in the overnight lot.
We started up the Rapids Loop trail for the first mile. This is the trail that starts just past the outhouses and across the bridge. It was a similar distance as the first mile of the North Fork Skokomish River, but we got to cross the suspension bridge. I highly recommend crossing the suspension bridge at least in one direction of your hike.

We stayed Friday night at Spike Camp. It was very crowded with a large youth group with no permit spread over most of the area.

Saturday morning, it took us about 3 hours to hike from Spike Camp up to Flapjack Lakes at a slow pace. A faster member of our party made it in an hour and a half. There were some downed trees, but nothing too difficult to get by.

The camping at Flapjack Lakes was beautiful! The sites were dispersed around the two lakes enough to where we had some privacy. The water was warm and perfect for swimming.
Great fishing at the lakes - one member of our party caught almost 10 fish. Catch and release only though!

Both privies at Flapjack Lakes are very full. There was a sign saying that you should only poop in them - no pee!

There were TONS of ripe wild blueberries along the trail and near Flapjack Lakes! Made for a great addition to breakfast.

I HIGHLY recommend continuing up to Gladys Divide. There were beautiful wildflowers and great views of the Sawtooth Ridge. The view from the top looking over to the other side was stunning. It was definitely worth the extra mileage and elevation gain. The trail past Flapjack Lakes was a bit overgrown in places, but not bad.

We couldn’t get a permit for Flapjack Lakes so decided to get one for Spike Camp and day hike up to the lakes. Spike Camp ended up being super busy (we ran into ranger on Saturday who said 50 people had booked it which in my opinion is more than the capacity), so ended up going further to Big Log camp instead. The trail into Spike Camp/Big Log is super flat and easy.  The trail got a lot harder/steeper going up to flapjack lakes, but did pass a beautiful waterfall which made a nice lunch spot. I also thought the lakes were gorgeous and was wishing we were camping there. Saw a trout in the lake and lots of people fishing. We also hiked past the lakes up to Glady’s divide. There were lots of pretty wildflowers above the lake and up to the top of Glady’s which had a beautiful view, highly recommend if you have the time and energy.  We were going to check out Black and White Lake as well but was getting later in the day and we wanted to get back to camp and eat instead of doing another 1000 feet elevation so scrapped that idea. On the way out we hiked across a cool bridge and took the Staircase rapids trail out. We met another ranger who was pointing out an osprey nest. We couldn’t see the osprey but could hear him calling his mate and the ranger told us lots of cool osprey facts

I did a two night trip (Wed and Thurs) to Flapjack and Black & White Lakes this week. I originally wanted to spend two nights at Flapjack but reservations were supposedly all taken for Thursday. While the Recreation.gov site indicated that 6-8 people would be at Flapjack Wednesday, I didn't see anyone else. Blueberries, huckleberries, and thimble berries were ripe on the trail up to the lake but it will be a week or two before berries at the lake are ripe. Bugs were OK Weds afternoon and evening but were bad Thursday. Thursday morning I went up to Gladys Divide and attempted to reach Murdock Lakes. However, the last 400-500 foot descent to the valley was too steep and exposed for my comfort level since I was hiking solo. The lake looked gorgeous from my vantage point. There were four trees down on the Gladys Divide trail, two to crawl under and two to go over. There was a profusion of wildflowers on the open hillsides on the upper part of the trail. I left for Black & White Lake about 3:00 Thursday afternoon. There was one other person at Flapjack and I didn't meet any hikers headed up to the lake. It would be nice if folks would cancel reservations they aren't going to keep so people who decide on last minute trips have a chance. The trail to Black & White Lake was overgrown in sections, especially near the top, and long pants are advised. The water was quite warm but I opted not to go in because voracious mosquitos descended as I was undressing. There are only 1-2 campsites around the lake and I was the only person there. I did a side trip to Smith Lake late Thursday. While the lake is pretty, it probably not worth the effort. I didn't see any campsites and there were lots of bugs. The final 0.25 miles to the lake is very steep losing 400-500 feet that you have to climb back up. Thursday night was incredible. The moon was behind the ridge so stars and the milky way were bright. I briefly woke up about 2:30 am and while watching the stars saw a huge bolide (fireball meteor that exploded). It looked like a roman candle with blues, white, red, and orange colors. I estimate it was 15-20 miles high based on the amount of time before I heard the explosion shock wave. Friday morning I hiked out the primative trail. It's overgrown in multiple sections and there is a ground yellow jacket nest about 1/3 of the way down. Berries are also ripe along this trail.