Decided to try one last Olympic peninsula hike before the weather gets bad. Wanted to do the upper trail (873.1) but the wildlife gate was closed which meant it would be a 4 mile hike just to get to the trailhead. We decided to go back to the lower trailhead. The beginning of the hike climbs a little and then decends steeply to the river. Actually the trail hardly goes by the river except in a few places. The highlights of this trail are some nice big old-growth trees and some nice side creeks with some small waterfalls. Went to the damaged bridge (about 3.5 miles in) and turned around. A nice side trip on the way there was the steel bridge over the Skokomish. This is a bridge originally built for a railroad in the 1920s. The deck is now a one lane car bridge. The bridge is over 400 feet above the river valley and its pretty spectacular. Check it out if you get the chance.

Repeated trip I did a month ago. This time my companion was my daughter Hannah, visiting from Pittsburgh. There was no snow on the road. There was a little rain in the morning as we started out, then it stopped and we had a a few sun breaks. We went some ways past mile 4 and found a nice place for lunch: a big log perched on a gravel bar. Trees were trying to leaf out, but not there yet. No snow was on the trail, but it was muddier than last month. This time I had running shoes on, and did get my feet wet. Hannah, wisely, wore her boots. There were several fresh trees fallen across the trail (wind or earthquake), including one about 5 feet in diameter just beyond mile 4. It had room to go under. We had about a mile of trail left on our return, beginning to climb the hump at that point, when we saw a herd of about fourteen elk wandering through the wetland below. It was a nice finishing touch to a great outing.

Crisp, clear late-winter day. Friend Jay and I got out of Olympia a little before 9am and were on the trail at 10. Some snow and ice on the road, fast disappearing, nothing my Prelude had trouble with. A few blowdowns, one big one (a ""double"") at about 2.5 miles, climb over or go around, take your pick. No significant delay. Stopped for lunch near mile 4, sat in bright sun on riverbank. Beautiful. Turned around and were out at 2:10 pm. Broad-leaf trees not in leaf yet, there are great views of the river and of the numerous huge old growth trees. There is a lot of mature 2nd growth. Old stumps have springboard notches. Some patches of granular frozen snow from about mile 2 to mile 4. Jay, in running shoes, didn't get his feet wet. Bridges mostly in good shape, a few broken or rotten planks. Streams easy to cross with dry feet. Encountered USFS personnel on the way out. Apparently USFS is acquiring the Simpson inholding that touches the river at about mile 2; they were looking for survey monuments.

Trail head has been moved. It is about 300 feet lower and about 3/10 of a mile longer. All the trail description I found were from the higher trailhead. The trail had 108 blowdowns on it, with 95 coming in the mile before the meadows. The upper trail is in deplorable shape and will be gone in a few years if something is not done soon. It took us 5 hours to go 5 miles over the blowdowns. The meadows below Sundown Pass still have about 3 feet of snow in them.

Very nice trail, lots of large trees and river views. Trail in great condition, went 2 1/2 miles in, few mud holes. Don't let steep start fool you, most of this hike is level along the river with lots of good picnic spots.