Only 3 other vehicles at the trail head. No pass required. Quick 3.5 moderate hike up to the campground. Some spots over grown but manageable. Dog friendly. Toilet at the top with running stream for water. Great low key over night trip. Stars were epic. I’d do this one again.!

USFS Road #38 is in very good condition. Only 3 vehicles, including ours, at the trailhead. The bridge across the Middle Fork is solid. The trail climbs steeply to Mazama Park. Saw mountain bike tracks in the mud along the trail. This was a surprise. The trail is in very good condition: no obstacles such as logs. Good stream for water halfway up. This is a good trail if you're up for a workout, as it is relentlessly steep. Bugs were present but tolerable. Killed several. Three USFS personnel accompanied by a dozen teen volunteers were making trail improvements in Mazama Park. Flowers were gone but berries were ripe.

There is road work in progress starting around mile 5. They have started grading, brushing, and filling potholes. There were some sections that had deep, loose, new gravel. No work had been started after mile 7, there are some deep potholes and the brush is getting thick in places. 

The logs across the middle fork Nooksack at the crossing near the trailhead are in place and seem solid. The first one was a little bouncy though. 

The trail is in fair condition for the first 2 miles. The trees that are down are easy to get over or around and the rocky sections are dry. Thefirst mile had a lot of forest flowers.  The steep switchbacks of the second mile have a lot of big trees to look at.  Patchy snow starts where the trail starts to ease up and enters the yellow cedar zone near 4200’  It quickly becomes mostly snow covered with intermittent patches of trail. Many of those patches of trail were under water.   Route finding was necessary.  Postholing was also a thing. There were also some steep sections through the Ridley creek moraines that required use of hands to get up, and in one spot, spikes to comfortably descend. Because of these spots I’m glad I left the dog at home. Mazama  camp was mostly snow covered but the area around the shelter and tree islands are melting out.  Nice day, but the snow travel was difficult at times and the postholing will get worse before it is gone completely. 

We decided to check this trail out to beat the crowds at other more popular trails given the warm weather. We brought microspikes & snowshoes to prepare for any type of trail conditions. No issues at the river crossing. We used the two log bridges to cross safely. Snow line was a bit higher than expected at around 4,200 elevation, but we still ended up turning around about a mile from Mazama Park given some deep post-holing, and some snow bridges. We never made it to the open meadow for views, but figured we might have to turn around. No major obstacles on the trail. Some blowdowns to cross, but nothing too wild. The elevation gain with the short mileage was no joke for our winter legs. 😆 We enjoyed the peak-a-boo views, warm weather, and river crossing nonetheless. The 13 mile road to the TH was driveable, but definitely some gnarly potholes along the way.

The log bridge over the Nooksack is still in great condition, and the trail is its typical rugged self with some fresh blowdown here and there (nothing major). The snow made the trail difficult to follow above 4300ft. Luckily the snow was very firm early in the morning and I didn't even use the snowshoes I had packed.