A fun day in the deep dark forest, in the freezer box along the White River. I parked at Camp Sheppard and hiked to the Buck Creek/Skookum Flats trail across the highway, and off I went. The suspension bridge across the White River is a real gas, and the icy frost of the morning made it a real dandy treat! Buck Creek on the other side was a beautiful side scramble up through the forest for 1/8 mile of photography. I then headed north on the Skookum Flats trail, enjoying the hard frozen ground and the mysterious feel of the forest being SO dark -- this area never sees any sunrays all winter, and combining that with the heavy forest canopy made it very dark. However, the forest floor life of mushrooms and amazing macro lichens were a joy to view and slowly photograph. I spent a great deal of photography time out in the White River floodplain, as it was unreal with the heavy multiple day's worth of frost buildup, some old snow, and ice. River rock, logs, water pools...they all took on a VERY cold appearence, and made for great winter subjects. I turned back somewhere between Skookum Falls and trails end at FS 73, and headed back. At 3:30pm there was still ice on the suspension bridge, and I'm certain the temperatures never got above freezing except for a few places away from the river bottom under heavy forest. Oh, it was a good American Dipper day, as I saw two along Buck Creek and seven others at places along the White River and it's side tributaries. Coming home, I also stopped and quickly did a short 1/2 mile trek into the Federation Forest to see if a spectacular massive mushroom display that I discovered last year in December was present again - and it was to my excited delight! Sort of fun to have a ""secret"" place offtrail that covers an area 8x12' where some of the specimens are 3' across!

I only hiked 2 miles or so from the lower trailhead. trail is in excellent condition with lots of mushrooms in the darker sections. Saw one mushroom that was dark, dark purple, almost black. Lots of mushrooms that look like pancakes on stalks. A few patches of old-growth forest remain. this will be a great winter hike.

Spring flowers are popping out in the cool forests of the White River. Spring is on the way. We saw trillium, yellow violets, shunk cabbage, salmonberry and calypso orchids. The first lilies are showing, as well as other forest beauties. The trail is an easy stroll, traveling north and south along the White River. Mostly in the forest, it passes through some areas of nice old growth. The trail was recently logged out by a mountain biking club, whose members take an active interest in the area. Mountain bikes are allowed in many of the trails around the Dalles and Camp Shepherd area. Snow levels on south facing slopes are hovering around 4,000 ft. and above. The summit of SunTop is showing only a thin layer of snow left, although if you look at Crystal Peak, there's still a lot of snow on the higher ridges. Horses, bikes and hikers are welcome on Skookum Flats. It could be a good beginners backpack. Road noise is sometimes heard over the roar of the White River. Access is on the north end from FS Road 73 and on the south, FS Road 7160.

We left home right after the Kingdome implosion (!), and arrived at the south (FS Road 7160) trailhead (the second one past the bridge) about 10:00. It was a beautiful, sunny day, albeit chilly in the morning. We hiked 4 1/4 miles one-way, to within about 3/4 mile of the north (Huckleberry Creek/FS Road 73) trailhead, or about 1/4 mile north of the ""campground"" area, where we were stopped dead in our tracks by a huge blowdown with many branches, which we could not even see around, let alone get around. (We did, however, later meet someone who had bushwhacked around it along the river edge--I don't know how, as there was a swamp on one side and a drop-off into the river-current on the other.) There was another large blowdown between the huge one and the campground, but it could be climbed over. Other than that, there were only a couple of small blowdowns, which could easily be stepped over. Overall, the trail (especially the half south of Skookum Falls), is in very good condition, with mudholes only in low spots, churned up by mountain bikes. The entire trail is snowfree, except right at the south trailhead and for a short stretch of about 50 yards along the riverside, about 1/4 mile south of the footbridge leading to Camp Sheppard. We were very surprised that the trail was almost deserted on such a beautiful day (it might be that people tried in vain to access it from the Huckleberry Creek side and were turned back by what I still think is an impenetrable blockage about 3/4 mile in from that trailhead). Altogether, we did 8 1/2 miles round-trip on a perfect early spring day in near-total solitude--a rare treat! One other thing is noteworthy--I have never seen the White River so crystal-clear, like mountain streams not fed by glaciers. That will change soon, though, once the weather gets warm enough to start melting the Emmons Glacier.

I participated in the WTA work party on this day. We covered or visited the 2-mile section of trail between Skookum Falls and the suspension bridge across the White River. Most of the trail in this section was in good shape with only occasional mud. Perhaps 3/4 of a mile from the falls, however, two large trees have blown down on the trail. Our party cut steps over these logs, but in my opinion it is probably safer to crawl underneath instead. Getting a bicycle around this obstacle would figure to be a formidable challenge indeed. This section of the trail was snowfree. At the initial meeting point (Buck Camp junction) the trail was partially bordered by snow suggesting it might be snow-covered further upstream, although I did not attempt to verify this.