Trail was beautiful and well maintained with a few trees down, but easily to get over. Unfortunately after about 2 miles, I had to turn around as big snowfields made it impossible to find and stay on the trail and I started post holing up to my hip, but I’ll be back. Trail should be, weather pending, great in a few weeks.

Just wanted to leave the instructions on how to get to the TH so others can find it as it’s easy to get lost

From 101 turn left onto W Skokomish Valley Rd, drive 5.4 miles (when you pass Bambi farm you’re close!). Road will veer right and become FS 23.
Stay on FS23 for 13.4 miles (wta says 8, that’s not correct). There are lots of roads turning off, but stay on 23. You will come to a y-intersection at 9.2 miles, stay to the left (right goes down to bear creek campground, spider lake, and a few others, so if you see signs for that, you went too far, go back and turn right onto 23 and up the hill).
Go for another 4.2 miles, and you’ll reach another Y-intersection, veer right (about 1/10th of a mile in will be a road marker on right for 2361, after going thru a gate). My GPS labeled this road as FS2319, so it took me a minute to find! At about 1.8 miles from the gate, you’ll cross a bridge.
Stay on 2361 for 3.2 miles, then veer left onto spur 600. About 40’ in you’ll see a brown 600 marker (it’s small and easy to miss). Follow this road 2.1 miles and you’ll have arrived. Please note, this spur as deep drainage ditches and a low clearance vehicle would be hard to maneuver thru.

  I went down Church Creek SHELTER to Laney Camp and out the access road halfway to Harps Shelter, which is below the Upper South Fork Skokomish trailhead parking area.

  The trail needs some brushing and tread work, especially the part of the trail that is stock accessible.

  Horseflies were very active.  You can cross the river now to the other part of the Lower South Fork Skokomish trail.

  HEADS UP:  after coming down the switchbacks and before the dry creek bed, there is a paper WASP NEST in a small fir tree right next to the trail, about 4 ft. high.

This was not an easy trailhead to find in spite of having search4solitude's pretty good directions with me.  It is definitely more complicated than implied by the straightforward directions in the Hike Description.  Not all of the roads out here are well-signed and sometimes the sign that does exist is not in the most visible place--easy to miss some of them.  After trying what seemed like every possible combination of wrong turns on wrong roads, I consulted a reader board at Brown Creek Campground (on my second unintended visit to the campground) and found a good map and directions posted on it.  I took pictures of those and they are included in this report to hopefully prevent others from wasting the amount of time I did.  Note:  If you get to Brown Creek Campground, you missed a turn.  Don't bother trying any of the roads around the campground.

So, later than planned start on the trail, but I was still only the second car at the trailhead at 10:15 am.  This trail is rocky and rooty in many sections, but is easy to follow.  There are several very large downed trees across the trail.  Most of them are easy enough to crouch under (all of them I thought were to big and/or inconveniently placed on steep slopes to make going over a viable option).  The first one, which is quite close to the trailhead, is the most difficult.  The clearance is low and it involves a fair degree of intimacy with the dirt to get past it.

This trail is a good workout.  It is up to a saddle, then down to the lake and then up/down  again on your return.  While you will hear the creek from time to time, it doesn't particularly follow the creek.   The "waterfall" isn't much more than a trickle right now and there are no grand views or panoramas--though from the top the view back down the slope you just climbed is fairly impressive.  The forest is the draw here and the size of some  of the old growth trees is amazing.    There were some wildflowers, including the first bear grass I've seen this season, lots  of birdsong, and solitude.  I didn't see my first fellow hiker until I arrived at the lake.

Satsop Lake is pretty, tranquil, and relaxing, but it is hardly breathtaking.  It does look like it would be a good place for a swim on a warm day, but I didn't indulge.  I followed the trail beyond it and in a fairly short distance (less than 1/2 mile) it came out to another forest service road and trailhead where a family with fishing rods was just arriving.  Kind of deflating in a way to know that others can simply drive up to a lake that you just hiked up and over a saddle to reach, and must return that way!

The hike out contained my adrenaline rush for the day.  After leaving the lake and the very few people who I saw there, I re-entered the quiet and dark forest to hike back up to the saddle.  Perhaps 30 minutes in and about 1/4 mile before the waterfall I was shaken from my thoughts by the sound of an animal loudly exhaling and the rustle of alder and huckleberry bushes and the snapping of twigs.  I looked perhaps 15 yards upslope from the trail in time to see a large mound of black fur arcing out of the alders followed by large back paws as the bear leapt over a downed tree, fortunately heading up slope and away from me.  He stopped about 20 yards higher up the slope and turned around and looked at me.  At that point, I could not tell if he was sitting or standing as only his head was visible above the bushes.  It was a very large head and he was clearly a very large bear.  

I know what you're thinking -- in the moment, everyone's bear seems larger than it probably is.  Kind of like the "one that got away" that fishermen always talk about.  Fair enough.  But, I've seen my fair share of bears and this one was big.  I was kind of frozen in place for a moment and I tried not to make eye  contact (all the while wondering, is it bears or mountain lions you're not supposed to stare at?  Which  one do you try to stare down?).  Somehow we seemed to reach a simultaneous agreement to move on in opposite directions.  I moved farther up the trail and he moved diagonally up the slope in the opposite direction.  It was all kind of cool when  it was over, but it was the closest "surprise" encounter I've had with a bear.

I do recommend this hike.  But, don't do it for the creek, don't do it for the waterfall, and don't do it for the lake.  Do it for the forest, the spectacular large old growth trees; do it for the solitude; do it for the workout; and perhaps to be startled by a ginormous black bear!

Wildflowers galore on this early June hike. A few very large logs over the trail requiring crawling under.  Maybe they will be cut through soon, but a very big saw will be needed.  The sign for the several roads to the trail head are just past the entrance to each road and not so easy to see. So be sure to watch your speedometer to make sure where you are as indicated in driving directions.  This is a fairly rigorous hike for 70 and 80 year old hikers (Us!), but the wildflowers, huge old trees and absolute quiet are worth it for an early summer hike.  The trail description say 2300 ft elevation gain, but that is about 1100 feet up to the pass which you have to do twice going and coming back.  This old growth area was never logged, which why this is a special hike.

Beautiful trail! Not a single person around and no traces other than a small place for a fire next to the lake. There were still a couple small patches of snow but not much. There are some trees down across the trail and lots of obstacles like roots and rocks. I was pretty tuckered out by the time we got back to our rig to be honest. The flowers and berries are growing crazy right now, it’s beautiful! The road ( FR 2222 from Montesano) had potholes and was passable but I wouldn’t recommend it in a low vehicle. The trailhead is on the right side of the road and the sign isn’t immediately visible from the road but it’s fairly obvious, there’s a little pull in to park.