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.
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