Dry trail conditions, not too crowded. Parking lot was full by 8:15am on a Sunday, most people wore masks and were very friendly. 

Reminder to myself: when doing this loop clockwise, just take every right. I always end up on the Squawk connector because I think it's ok to go left. 

Trail was less crowded than I feared on a nice day like this, but I suppose it's somewhat limited by the parking. We got lucky and somebody was leaving the parking lot just as we arrived, something of a surprise at 9am. There were probably a couple dozen cars parked along the road, and this road is always a little dicey to run across. On the trail, we passed maybe a dozen other parties, and nearly everyone was good about masking and leaving distance.

No mud left on the trail that can't be easily walked around, but there's still a good amount of water flowing in the streams and waterfalls along the trail. The trillium are out in force right now, lots in view of the trail, and some good groups of a few dozen. We heard a bunch of frogs on our way down the Cliffs/Gombu side, and they stopped quite abruptly when we were still a couple hundred feet away. We saw one cute little frog in some mud at the side of the trail, which was about the only wildlife other than some common birds.

Went up to the peak and made the Whittaker/Gombu loop. Several nice minor waterfalls to enjoy along the way, but several very muddy spots to traverse on the trails. It was more challenging to avoid the mud on the Gombu half than the Whittaker portion. Otherwise, it was a lovely hike on a Misty day!

We arrived at Sky Country TH at 9:15 am.  The lot was full and people were parking on the side of the road leading to the park.  We were fortunate to locate an empty spot in the lot.  So even if the parking lot's crowded, it's worth a spin through the lot before parking on the side of the road.

We hiked Clay Pit road to the end and then headed right.  That took us to a trail on the right, after a bit, that lead to a picturesque pond.  We followed the narrow trail until it hooked up with Fred's Trail.  We hiked Fred's Trail in the direction of Shy Bear.  Once on Shy Bear, we continued in the direction of Wilderness Peak.  

It's a steady uphill climb to Wilderness Peak.  When you arrive, you'll see a large bench, which was a nice spot for lunch and to rest.  Warning:  there's no view, to speak of, at the Peak.  After lunch, we headed back down the trail and connected with Shy Bear.  We took Shy Bear for quite a while to the foot bridges, crossed over the bridges and kept going.  We continued on Shy Bear for a while and then turned around and re-traced our steps on Shy Bear to Fred's Trail.   We took Fred's Trail to Clay Pit road and headed back to the TH.  

This trail system offers wonderful hiking in serene woods and ravines.  We enjoyed exploring this section of the park.  There were quite a few other hikers along the way, but it never felt crowded.  The trails were in good shape with the expected muddy sections for this time of years.  Our boots were plenty muddy when we finished.

Hiking the path we did, we logged 7.7 miles and 1100' in elevation gain.  We'll be back.

FOUND: An article of clothing (size XXL), draped over the bench at the summit of Wilderness Peak. I took it home to wash/get it out of the elements, but leave a description or photo of your missing object in the comments below and I'll do my best to reunite you. Alternatively, email me at [my WTA user name] at yahoo dot com.

Otherwise, not a ton to report from the trail. I chose it because the forecast today was for a drizzle and I wanted to put in some miles anyway. I went up the Gombu Wilderness Cliffs Trail and back down the Whittaker Wilderness Peak Trail. The trail is muddy in a few spots, but not bad enough to stop anyone. "Wildflowers blooming" may be a bit of an overstatement, but I did spot a few tiny flowers. Anyone know what they are?