Passed safely under the ominous big blow down 2 times. It’s probably 99% safe, and even if the root side did miraculously instantly drop to the road (someone tried to cut it) you would only squish half your car and still live.  A worthy gamble paid off with an empty parking lot and not a soul all day long. We cleared all 6 downed logs and brush obstruction locations with two slight re-routes because of larger logs. The trail is getting overgrown in many spots so a good brushing is needed. We did what we could. A great day to be in the mountains.

This was my first trip out into the Cascades for the summer season. Not sure if I'm allowed to "advertise", but I found this great website with a lot of ideas for long loop hikes/trail runs: https://climberkyle.com/2021/02/20/washington-adventure-runs/ These will probably be my entertainment this summer since I'm done with most of the PCT in Washington.

I choose this route to start with because it has the lowest maximum elevation (~4000 ft) of all the routes on the list. I always start the summer season a bit early, both because I'm eager to get out and because I can never quite believe there still can be snow on the ground in June. I always end up running into more snow than I expect this time of the year and this trip was no exception.

Since I was doing this trip as a loop, I could park anywhere along the way and so I picked a spot on FS 2060 (also called Clear Creek Rd) about 0.5 miles from the Mountain Loop Hwy. I started walking up the road from there. In another ~2 miles, I came to the "killer tree" mentioned in the previous report for the Eight Mile trail. It hasn't moved and I don't know if anyone has managed to drive under it. It's easy enough to walk under though. Beyond the killer tree, I saw no one for the rest of the day.

About 3.5 miles beyond the killer tree, the signed Eight Mile Trail takes off up the hill to the right. It's a bit rough in places, but a sign says that the WTA worked there in 2015 and you can still see evidence of their repairs. It was a perfect Pacific NW day with cloud cover and a constant light drip from the sky, so there were some wonderful muddy spots. I started running into patches of snow around 2500 ft and by 3500 ft, it was nothing but snow and I had to use my GPS to follow the course of the trail for at least a mile and a half. Since it was a cooler day and probably because there hasn't been much new snow lately, it was relatively easy to walk across without post-holing. I do feel lucky, though, that I didn't fall into a tree well. 

The top of Squire Creek Pass was a beautiful winter scene and the view across to the Three Fingers Wall with its long cascading waterfalls was really spectacular. 

Coming down off Squire Creek Pass on the west side is a bit steeper than the way up on the east side, but it did mean that I got out of the continuous snow faster, though there were still some tricky snow fields to cross. I was thankful for my crampons and poles when I ran into these. 

Once I got off the snow, I didn't actually think that this trail was that difficult to follow but it is quite rough and overgrown. On this day, thanks to the rain, there was plenty of creek-trail sections and climbing across slippery blow-downs. I wiped out a few times, but nothing too spectacular.

After I passed the Squire Creek Trail sign, the going got much easier as this used to be a road though the plant growth has really taken over now. There are about 3 creeks to cross that cut through the road bed. None of them were too difficult, but they could be if you are a don't like to get your feet wet type of person. 

After this, I came out onto Squire Creek Road, which I followed into Darrington. This road looked to be in good shape to me and I didn't notice anything in particular that looked like it would require a high clearance vehicle, but it's possible my perspective would have been a bit different had I actually been trying to get a car up the road rather than just walking down it.

If you do this as a loop, to finish it you take Squire Creek Road down through Darrington and then follow the Mountain Loop Hwy south from town back to FS 2060. There are a few side roads that parallel the Mountain Loop Hwy, so the distance you actually have to spend walking on the shoulder of this road is pretty minimal (only about 0.5 miles).

So, in my typical planning hubris, I thought I would be able to do this loop in 6 hours easy. It actually took me 9.5. In my defense, I had thought Climber Kyle said it was between 18 and 19 miles. My watch marked it at 23.5. Anyway, part of the adventure was it getting dark on me as I was still on the more "exciting" portion of the Squire Creek Trail (fortunately, I have learned from previous flights of hubris and had my headlamp) and I passed through Darrington at 11:30pm on a Sunday night. Fortunately, there was no one about to gawk at me, except for quite a lot of cats. Overall, a great season-opener, replete with adventure and misadventure.

All scores are on a scale from 0 to 10.

Sasquatch Score (reflects ratio of Sasquatch to people on or near the trail with extra points for remoteness and mysteriousness): 8 - Just me and Sasquatch for the most part, though still within walking distance of the Darrington Burger Barn.

Off-Road Prius Satisfaction Score (my car won't be happy until her undercarriage is ripped off): 2 - Just a little warm up. We didn't attempt the killer tree limbo.

Machete Score (the more nature is doing the trail maintenance, the higher the score): 5 - Occasionally there was some jungle feel, but the roughest parts of the trail were mostly due rough tread as opposed to foliage overgrowth. Can't promise for later in the summer, though.

Weak Metatarsal Score (a measure of rocks and roots or how unkind the trail was to my broken foot): 8 - Whew! I'm glad the metatarsal is better otherwise this one would have been brutal.  

Pacific Northwest Score (the more water and mud, the higher the PNW character): 8 - This one really took a swing toward PNW perfection. Clouds. Constant rain. Snow. Mud. Trails as creeks. Creeks as trails. Additional creek crossings. It had it all.

A massive tree is blocking the road about 2 miles down the forest road (~3+ miles away from the trailhead).  Might be possible to go under with a low clearance car, but we didn't try since there might be even more blow downs further up the road, and also didn't want to risk getting caught on the wrong side of this big guy! Learned from another hiker that it fell down this winter, and no word on if/when it might get cleared.

Arrived labor day at around 10am to only a few cars in the parking area. Distance is exactly 6 miles as stated on the dirt road. This is a great hike to experience some silence in nature if that's what you're looking for, as it seems to be lightly travelled and far from any highway noise. Views from the pass are spectacular.

I didn't look at the route beforehand and got off trail a couple times. I would advise checking the route to orient yourself, but one point of reference that would have been helpful to me is when you arrive at the base of the massive  rock slab (I believe this is the Three O'Clock Rock climbing area), follow it to the right and regain the narrow trail here.

Once you've reached the pass and get the view of the Three Fingers (my first pic) there's no need to continue unless you're hiking through as the trail will begin to descent to the other side straight away.

2hrs going up, 30min break at the top, and 1hr coming down. I ran on the way down as much as possible.

As mentioned in previous trip reports, the forest road to TH is 6 miles (the google link provided on the WTA website only indicates 3 miles) which took a little longer than expected. The road wasn’t too bad but there were a couple sections sedans may have a hard time, we were in a new Ford Ranger and had no issues.

A buddy and I started at 6:40am, there were a couple other cars parked at the TH but we did not see a single person on the trail on the way up. It took about 2 hours to Squire Creek Pass. We got above the fog and had great views. Such a unique spot. We ate a snack and chilled for about 30 minutes then headed back down.

Coming down we ran into two groups of 4 hiking, 1 group of 2 climbing the wall (Three o' clock rock), and another group of 2 heading up to climb. Relatively a very low traffic trail which was nice. It took about 90 mins to descend.

The trail is short but steep and feels longer than you will anticipate. The first part of the trail has had some amazing trail maintenance and was a pleasurable experience. The trail does get tougher and more rugged as you ascend, some spots still muddy, some spots hard to find the trail, but not necessarily requiring route finding. Take advantage of the cairns at the top.

Stats (according to Strava)

Distance: 7.48 RT, Elevation gain: 2,735’,  Moving time: 3hr 30 mins

See link below for the 3D track