Forum Index > Trip Reports > Skookum Falls 4-19-04
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Slugman
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Joined: 27 Mar 2003
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
PostMon Apr 19, 2004 10:22 am 
Yetiman and I needed a short, easy hike and this one fit the bill. The trail is rife with giant trees, the river is very close by and scenic, and Skookum falls is a worthy destination. We saw awesome moss gardens, a female elk, huge logjams, nice campsites, plus the trees and the falls. The scramble up to the base of the falls is quite long and steep and a little slippery, but well worth the effort. We started out from the trailhead on the trail, then took the first detour available down to the riverbed. We followed that as far as we could, maybe 1/3 mile, before the river forced us back to the trail. We had to hop over a couple of small stream channels, then found ourselves at a campsite about 3/4 mile up the trail. The trail is mostly flat and is open to mtn bikes, a few of which passed us by politely. They had the right idea, as the trail is perfect for some fun biking. When we got to the falls, we didn't see the sign pointing to the trail up to the falls that is just across the small bridge over the stream. We tried to scramble up the mossy boulders to the falls, but that became almost suicidal due to the slippery steepness involved. We clambered down, crossed the small bridge, and then smacked our foreheads as we saw the sign pointing to the path upwards. Even the path is fairly tough, but doable. There are some excellent viewing spots of the falls up at the top, and some shelter from the fall's spray. We stayed there over an hour enjoying the spectacle and taking pictures. The hike back went quickly, and we got to see the trail section we bypassed on the way in. It was the nicest part, up on a high bank with huge trees and a view of the river below. I was worried that this hike would be not so great due to the road being right across the river, and the hills beyond the trail being cris-crossed with FS roads going up to Suntop, but none of that is visible or intrudes on the hike. There was a great wilderness feel to the forest and the river, even though it is not wilderness. I also expected crowds on a Sunday, but we saw only three bikers and two hikers in six hours there. The drive took just 90 minutes from Lynnwood.

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Sore Feet
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PostMon Apr 19, 2004 12:07 pm 
You start at the Camp Sheppard end or the Huckleberry Creek end?

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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!



Joined: 27 Mar 2003
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
PostMon Apr 19, 2004 2:13 pm 
Huckleberry (north end). I am going to return there soon with the mtn bike, so that I can see the whole trail in one go and give the dog a better-matched speed partner. The trail is almost seven miles long, too far for me to hike in one day with just one vehicle. With two cars, one at each end, I would be OK. The dog was absent yesterday, as Tanja took her and Tanja's six-year-old niece Caitlin up to Deception pass to do some beach hiking.

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packrat
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Location: Colville
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PostMon Apr 19, 2004 6:00 pm 
Nice report slugman,took the wife and 3 of the 4 daughters up and did the trail about 6 weeks ago ,was still snow patches on trail next to river,the girls all had a snowball fight,very nice early hike,the girls all had a ball

Life is short so live it now
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xterminus
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Location: Tacoma, WA
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PostMon Apr 19, 2004 11:33 pm 
Just missed ya
I was in this area this morning actually. Instead of skookum falls, I chose to climb up to snoquera falls above camp sheppard. the GPS says that it's about 600 feet up from the parking lot, and I don't think the distance was more than 3 or 4 miles. Past the falls after crossing the creek (easily done with a staff or stick), the trail sort of disentegrates. I scrambled around for about 15 minutes and couldn't find the trail on the other side of the landslide so I turned around. There was only 1 good sized blowdown on the snoquera falls trail which a smaller person could have crawled under. Until the trail is repaired past the falls (or someone shows me where it starts again), I'd hestitate to call it a loop. afterwords I started hiking down and around towards little ranger peak (I think that's what it's called), but I had to turn back so I could get home and goto work. I'll definitely be back to explore in the near future. I didn't see a soul all day, which is probably to be expected on early on a Monday, but the trails seem to be well used. I expect on weekends and in the summer this area sees a lot of traffic. If you'd like, maybe sometime in the next month we could arrange to meet up there. I'd like to hike the skookum flats trail, and a car on each end would certainly make it easier to do in a reasonable amount of time.. smile.gif

Charles Mauch Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, experience comes from bad judgement.
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