Flapjack Lakes via North Fork Skokomish River — Friday, May. 23, 2025

This is a hike with a really great payoff at the end. The view of the Sawtooth ridge is spectacular. Getting from the trailhead to the junction with the Flapjack Lakes Trail was uneventful. A couple of the waterfalls are pretty with the amount of water in them right now. The Flapjack trail was generally in good condition up to the junction with the Black & White Lakes trail. It's only half a mile from there to the lakes, but the trail gets steep and rocky and rooty for that last half mile. Encountered the first snow about halfway between the Black & White Lakes junction and Flapjack lakes. The snow was only patchy most of the way up from there, but some of the patches required careful attention due to being bridged/undercut in a few places. Most of the patches were easy to navigate. At the lakes, some of the tent sites are snow free. We found one snow free by the lower lake, in the area between the bear wire and the privy. It appeared that there were a couple of clear sites down near the water on the upper lake as well. Just a bit of challenge navigating around the lakes generally, since the snow patches were a bit deeper here. If the warm weather continues, though, I would guess that within a few weeks almost all of this snow will be gone. The isthmus between the lakes was mostly snow-free, and this is where to get the great view of the Sawtooths. We did not attempt to go up to Gladys Divide on this trip.