First of all note that the gate to FS-2361 is closed from Oct 1 thru April. I was not so excited about adding an extra 12 miles of road to this adventure. The start of 873 follows what used to be a road for just under a mile then drops down into the river valley and makes 4 major crossings in 4 miles. The first 3 have obvious logs but the 4th is a little trickier as the most obvious log to cross has potentially some dangerous consequences. The horse ford is not too bad though over my knees in the middle. This section of trail to here is mostly flat but overgrown in places. Then the climbing starts. The trail enters into the national park then crosses a few marshy meadows. If there hadn't been ribbons on the trees there would have been much more wayfinding involved. There are 2 camp sites; one at the last river crossing and another about half way up to Sundown Pass. The last push up to the pass is quite steep. Over Sundown, the trail drops through a meadow of huckleberries until I reached the intersection with the Graves Creek and Six Ridge trails. I took Six Ridge up past a beautiful camp at Sundown Lake and another ford. Another climb, through 3-4" of crunchy snow and I was at Six Ridge Pass. The view from here is great, and you can see down to McGravey Lake and even Mt. Rainier. I thought the trail would be more along the ridge but it dropped steeply before starting to climb again to McGravey Lake. Less snow here on the sunny side. I lost the trail for a bit there because of all the side trails around this beautiful little lake. Then up and down and up again, on a trail that was difficult to follow at times (no ribbon here) until I reached Belview camp. One more very steep climb and I reached the top of Six Ridge where the trail intersects with the Success Lake trail (which is also hard to follow). This was 6 hours in and 6100' of climbing over 13.3 miles one way (not counting the road) so I needed to head back to stay in the daylight. On the return I came upon 5 elk including one nice bull that were bedded down right on the trail in the meadow just below Sundown Pass. Otherwise just lots of birds and mushrooms. Thanks to the WTA Back Country team who cleared all the blow downs for me, with the exception of the giant old growth that fell lengthwise, and therefore has basically just become the trail there.

I started this hike at the Staircase parking lot just inside the national park. You could follow the Shady Lane Trail that starts just after crossing the dam if you don't have a park pass. The trail along the river is wide and nearly flat. After passing a large suspension bridge a mile in, the trail goes through an old burn area from 1985 and by a couple signed camp areas. At 3.8 miles the trail forks and you can go to the Flapjack lakes. then again another trail takes off to Black and White Lakes and Smith Lake. I continued on to the bridge crossing the river at 6 miles, and turned left onto the Six Ridge trail just on the other side. This trail is a little challenging to follow but follows the river downstream through the salmonberries for a short while until you reach a ford at Seven Stream. There is a nice camping area here. After the ford, the trail starts to switchback upward for what seemed like 100 switchbacks until you finally reach the ridge. This section of the trail is overgrown and had a few downed logs, though I also saw a couple large ones that had been cut fairly recently. Once on the ridge, the trail doesn't have the same overgrowth problem except the occasional loaded huckleberry bushes which I didn't mind so much. there are peek-a-boo views off either side of the ridge, but because of the clouds below, I didn't get any good pictures. The ridge climbs up and down sharply, and I even encountered a snow patch in one of the lows. As I neared the summit, the trees thinned out (another burn area) and there is a little more exposure, but nothing scary. At the signpost on top I ventured out on the Lake Success Trail, which has a few ribbons marking the way, but it didn't take me too long to lose the trail once the ribbons stopped. I was running out of time so didn't look too hard, and it started pouring anyhow so it was time to head back down.

A WTA Back Country Response Team of 9 cleared 60+ logs from the Upper South Fork Skok and Six Ridge trails Sept 11-15. Several large logs remain on Six Ridge Trail from Seven Stream to about 600 feet of elevation above Seven Stream. Had to leave some work for next year.

Great weather for a two-day traverse of Six Ridge. The Upper South Fork Skokomish trail is in great shape after a couple of WTA multi-day work parties this season. WTA trip is scheduled for Six Ridge in mid-September. While the Upper South Fork Skokomish trail is clear, the first crossing bridge of the Skokomish is out and requires a crossing on a large cedar log downstream from the old bridge site. look for the trail to this log. The second Skokomish bridge is broken is broken but passable. I expect it will be swept away in high water. Another Startup Creek was as low as I have ever seen it, but not as low as was experienced by a friend who reported a dry boot crossing a couple weeks ago. There is one old growth log that has been turned into an elevated boardwalk on the long traverse above Startup Creek. That one will need to have a fair amount of saw work and 'spinach' applied to clear the trail. The huckleberries in the more sun soak slopes were sweet and juicy. Those in a bit shadier habitat were still tart. Chanterelles were out at about 2,500 feet ele. The same ele on on our descent on the east end of the ridge had white chantrelles. There were minimal logs on the trail from Sundown Pass to McGravey Lakes. From McGravey to Belview Camp there were a few, but nothing even in the realm of inconvenient. We had a quiet night at Belview. The clear skies made for great star viewing. The log pace picks up from Belview out to the east end of the ridge before the switchbacks get started. Several of the windfallen messes led to momentary route finding problems. On the descent to Seven Stream there are more logs and more that were annoyances. Fording Seven Stream required a shift to water shoes. We took advantage of the new suspension bridge on the Staircase Loop to cross the river. We stayed in the shade and closer to the river. It is a big improvement over the slog on the road to trail conversion.

Needing to escape from life on a hot weekend, I went with a friend up to Lake Sundown for a night. We didn't escape the heat (ugh), but didn't see any other people from one hour into the hike until a couple hours before finishing, so it was nice to be alone in the mountains. The trail is generally in good shape, although there are some trees across it throughout. The first bridge across the S. Fork Skokomish is completely gone, but there's a bit of a trail from the horse crossing sign to a large tree across the river. Or you can rock-hop, or wade. Crossing Startup Creek is a wade or clamber across a boulder and tree. Around 3000', just below the first meadow, a large tree is down, laying straight down the trail - it's easiest to climb up on it and walk along the trunk for 50 or 100', then walk alongside it until the trail emerges from beneath it. The meadows are nice - if you're careful you can cross them without getting wet, as they are starting to dry up, and there are lots of elephants' heads blooming, and frogs hopping and such. Even a few shooting stars remaining. And a pond full of pollywogs. At the largest meadow, just cross to the very farthest point to pick up the trail again. The last mile to the pass is kind of unpleasantly steep, especially in the heat. There are a couple snow patches before the pass, but nothing difficult, and nice ponds and streams and meadows. Dropping down from the pass to the Six Ridge Trail, there are a couple blowdowns, a lot of elk tracks, and some moderately steep, but suncupped, snow patches. These require a little care. There are a few more snow patches on Six Ridge Trail to Lake Sundown, but again, not difficult, just wet and sloppy (when I was there). No snow at the lake at all. The outlet stream requires knee-deep wading to get to the campsites. Quite pretty at the lake, and the wet meadows at the head of the lake are fantastic - tons of flowers of many sorts, a bear ( both in the evening and in the morning), about 20 elk (lots of young ones), and a nice swimming beach with evening sun. There are lots of fish in the lake as well. Not much blooming down low - foamflowers, salal, lots of nice twinflower; still some vanilla leaf and starflowers as well. As you climb, you get a lot more - prime summer dark woods flowers - 3 species of wintergreen blooming in one 30' stretch, pinedrops, pinesap, Corallorhiza, rattlesnake plantain, Clintonia, false lily of the valley etc. Higher still there is tall larkspur, buttercups, shooting stars, elephants' heads, the first few wood lilies, various Epilobia, bog orchids, a few Trillia still, yellow violets, pale violet violets up high, phlox, meadowrue, LOTS of white Erythronium lilies, a couple yellow ones (not open yet), blueberries, Mertensia, a white waterleaf, a few lupines, columbine, more false bugbane than I think I've ever seen, and pink heather. All in all, a very nice hike, although a bit steep in places for a hot day. Bugs were annoying a few places and times of day, but certainly not unbearable, and I never used repellent.