Followed the Way Creek trail down to the Middle Fork Teanaway river, and back up. 

Road Conditions. Jungle Creek Rd was blocked by several large blowdowns a bit over a mile from the trailhead, and by a few smaller blowdowns close to the trailhead. The lower section of the road had some large mud puddles, which I wouldn't have dared drive through without AWD and a bit of ground clearance. 

Trail Conditions. 3-4 larger blowdowns on the trail that required climbing over/under/around, and that would likely have blocked anyone on horseback or on a motorbike. The ford across Way Creek was an easy step-over, except that the creek has taken over the trail for a few hundred feet, necessitating a bit of bush-whacking and mud.

Bug Status. Brushed off 20-30 ticks, they appear to like slightly brushy, south-facing slopes. Some mosquitoes around puddles in the road. 

Crowds. Met a party of turkey hunters on the road, and one party of hikers on the trail.

Did the downhill option to check out Middle Fork Teanaway River. A lot of ups and downs and a lot of loose dirt and rocks, as you would expect from a trail open to motorcycles. Some sections were overgrown and brushy. Not a lot to recommend this trail this time of year except the solitude - we saw nobody. The river is nice, however. Once you reach the intersection, turning left will lead you a few hundred feet to a river crossing in the shaded forest with a rocky shoreline to rest on. 

This trail would be most useful for access to the Middle Fork trail for further exploration.

Glen99, SoaringEagle, and I got up to Johnson Mountain, and then over to Malcolm Mountain via the Way Creek trail today.

We drove all the way up Jungle Creek road and parked at the intersection of NF 9701 and NF 9701-207 which is around 3500ft. Jungle Creek road is pretty rough with some huge ruts, very muddy spots, and some huge puddles. There are multiple narrow sections where the deadfall from the winter has been cut away. High clearance is highly recommended

The Way Creek trail  starts off on an old rutted out, super steep road. Many trees across this part, but nothing compared to once you are up past 4300ft. So many trees across the trail. Lots of tricky moves to get up and over. On the way back I started to count blowdowns, and counted 45 trees across the trail in one 6 minute stretch of hiking!!! Once you get above the burn zone at around 4600ft the blowdowns subsided.

The last little bit up to Johnson has some fairly easy scrambling, as the rock was dry. We didn't stay long on Johnson summit, as we were a little concerned about the possibility of afternoon showers, which never materialized.

We dropped down a super steep trail and hooked up with the trail that follows the ridge line to Malcolm. This trail has numerous ups and downs, and is very faint at times. Having a map or a GPS track is very helpful. The forest around Malcolm is very pretty as it was spared from the Jolly Mountain fire. The last little stretch up to the summit of Malcolm had some snow, but is fairly short, so we did not use spikes.

The summit of Malcolm has some good 360 degree views. We had lunch, and I checked out the views of all the surrounding mountains with my binoculars. 

We took the same route back. All the numerous inclines on the way back were tiring. Fortunately it was a fairly cool day out.  8.8 miles with 3409 ft elevation gain

We did a couple different day hikes from the Beverly Campground in the Teanaway.  On Friday, May 19 we walked up the Johnson Medra (1383) to just about high point at 5400 ft.  At the top there was still quite a bit of snow along a steep slope and it was getting late so we turned around.  The snow would have been hard to cross.  There was lots of water along most of the trail.  There were also many logs down across the trail.  We could get around, over or under all of them but it was slow going.  The trail also had a fair amount of brush across the trail.  On Saturday, May 20 we hiked trail 1383.1 up to the intersection with Way creek Trail (1235) then hiked 1235 for a mile before we turned around.  Again, there were quite a few trees down across the trail.  There were very few flying, biting bugs both days though we did find 2 ticks on us.  I am sure it didn’t help that we were constantly brushing against and crawling over trees and brush.

We were looking for a somewhat shorter day given the forecast of rain later, so left 29 Pines for the very potholed Jungle Creek road.  We had an SUV and that is helpful as some of the puddles we had to drive through were a bit deep.  The start of the trail is just a wide spot in the road with a small sign on a tree a ways back, so watch your mileage to get here.  As an earlier writer from the end of May reported, there had been some logging out on this stretch of trail, as well as a bit of tread improvement.  The wildflowers along here were quite varied, between more creek side favorites up to the drier slopes below the pass.  However, it had rained the day prior and the shrubbery is starting to get bigger, so beware!

From the saddle, it was apparent to us that the trail work did NOT continue down the other side with the Jungle Creek trail.  No worries, as our destination as to head west, taking the Way Creek trail back to the car.  This stretch of trail had not been maintained, and there were some trees to climb under or climb over, but are all on a fairly steep side slope so one can’t really go off trail here.  There are a few steeper climbs where the motorcycles and bikes that use this trail have really contributed to some erosion.  There was one snow patch remaining, not too difficult to get by.

From the second saddle, we ventured off trail heading up to Johnson Mountain and some well-earned lunch.  The views on top are really something!  Back on the trail, we continued on the Way Creek trail, swinging around the south side of Johnson, until the route joins an older and often steeper Jeep track.  From the second saddle, the trail had again seen a chainsaw, as trees were cleared.  If this trail were to get more use, it would benefit from some re-benching and brushing, and of course, some erosion management on the Jeep track.  Then, we walked the road for 1.7 miles to get back to the car.  A good day!