We started at Madison Falls on the opposite side of the park Saturday morning and followed the PNT to the Bogachiel trailhead. Descending from the Mink Lake cutoff WEBO we found the trail to start getting a bit rough around the location the river trail crosses the N. Fork. The established campsite at 21 mile was in great shape and occupied as we passed by. About 4 miles E. of Hayak the trail conditions deteriorated a bit. Overall everything is passable but brushy. Between Hayak and 15-mile shelters you find the worst of the trail conditions, heavily overgrown. Again nothing impassable but be prepared to get wet! Around the Flapjack camp mark the trail gets significantly better and continues to improve as you move out. We ran into a trail crew a few miles WEBO of Flapjack that had done some significant work! Overall great hike! Go as far along the trail as you would like and enjoy some solitude!

First off...THANK YOU WTA TRAIL CREW! Trail was in great shape. Secondly, NO THANK YOU to the group of obnoxious tourists who insisted on singing at full volume and competing to see who could scream loudest along the trail (all adults.) Perhaps they do things differently where you are from, but we are here to enjoy the quiet not whatever it was you were doing.

Anyways, this trail is amazing! We took the Ira Spring trail and saw the most amazing trees and mushrooms and all the moss. The Ira Spring trail is up and down, narrow in spots and sometimes rocky so I'm glad we did it first rather than on the return and the trail write up suggests. The river trail was a nice easy cruise back through ferny forest (with a little uphill butt kicker right at the end.) I would 100% go back and do this again.

The last mile or so of the road up is pretty rough, but there was a full assortment of cars at the trailhead, so just take it slow.

This is an amazing hidden gem of a trail.  Beautiful rainforest and river and one of the quietest spaces I've been in a long time, especially because it is not heavily traveled.

We hiked in on Friday and camped at Bogachiel camp for 2 nights with a day hike on the second day. The trail to Bogachiel is in fairly good shape - the one exception is the path that appears to bypass a washout which now requires two sections of steep climb pulling yourself up with a rope.  (Go back down rapel-style.)

Camping at Bogachiel is a bit tricky. There's a camp site just before you get to the North Snyder Jackson Trail.  When you get to the North Snyder Jackson trail (which heads left/north), take a right and wind your way back through the brush to the riverbank for more camp spots on the sand bars.  This is also the best access to the river for water. You can also easily ford the river this time of year and camp on the other side, as two other campers did.

The day hike further the next day, we saw more of the trail is washed out but trail crews were working on a bypass for this, so look for the spur off to the left.  (Thank you to trail crews!)  We didn't get as far as Flapjack so cannot comment on the rest of the trail.

All in all, a beautiful and lightly traveled trail. If you like quiet, birds, and a possible river otter, this is an amazing trail.

My wife and I did a two-night out-and-back with our two grandsons, ages 18 and 11. We hiked about 6 miles and camped at the designated Bogachiel primitive campsite. We did a short day hike further east along the trail on the second day. The weather cooperated. There were a few mosquitoes at times. Overall, the conditions were very good. Overall the trail is in excellent shape.

There are two minor obstructions to manage on the trail. Between the trail head and the Bogachiel camp, there is a section of the trail that has been rerouted due to a major washout of the trail. The first part of the reroute involves ascending a relatively steep, dirt trail. There are two ropes fixed to trees to aid in going up (and coming back down.) It was dry and we did not have any problems but it took some effort and care--at least for the two of us!

On the second day we hiked hiked further east on the trail. At about a mile east of our camp, we encountered a failed bridge crossing. The gap was fairly deep (12 to 15 feet) with very steep, unstable banks on both sides. Clearly, hikers had traversed down and up. We did not attempt to cross. It appeared to be significantly more challenging than the prior spot. 

This is a delightful hike through a classic temperate rainforest. 

Our trip got off to a rough start with a 90 minute traffic jam getting into Aberdeen on Hwy 8.  We already had a late start so our first day was cut short a bit.  We saw only day hikers at the TH and parking was fine late on a Monday afternoon.  The trail was in good shape with well established diversions around washouts. At 6:30 PM we came to a nice spot under a huge Spruce next to the river and called it for the day, though we were only in about 4.5 miles. Lots of gnats but few mosquitos, which was the situation until we got to the alpine zone the last day of our hike.  The next day passed the Bogachiel camp in 2 miles with an impressive log jam of huge old growth timber, and noted only a single campsite set back in the woods a bit.  A huge washout of the trail required some brief bushwhacking through the woods and then the trail continued nicely through the rain forest.  Flapjack Camp is large but somewhat beat up at around 11 miles. From there the trail becomes even more lightly used, beautiful as it winds through the woods but often overgrown with dense stands of salmonberry and huge bracken ferns, and there were many (25?)  blow-downs over the next 15 miles.  The route up the North Fork Bogachiel climbed steadily to 15 mile camp, which unfortunately consists of a shelter and no water, set far away in the woods away from the river and with nasty biting flies and some mosquitos. No no no!  We were tired after 11 miles but noted a bridge crossing about 1/4 mile further up the trail, which provided a scramble down to a small sandbar.  With a retaining wall of river rocks and backfill of gravel we made a tent spot and had a beautiful night under the bridge.The third day was 6.5 miles of moderate elevation gain (1000 feet) and constant blowdowns and bushwhacking.  The trail was always there if you were careful, but you had to swim through brush and use trekking poles as a machete and parting tool. I had no idea so many spiders lived in thick brush, constantly hitting their spider webs with my face.  And blow-downs. But still an incredibly beautiful day of hiking through unbelievable old growth timber.  Hyak camp was legit and inviting, and 21 mile camp was also legit with one large and one small campsite near the river. Still no people. We happily set up camp there under stately old growth timber with their sun -dappled canopy a 100' overhead. Day 4 was a steady 2000 foot climb to the top of the ridge over the North Fork Bogachiel, and at 4100 feet the wildflowers appeared and peak-a-boo views of Mt. Olympus.  The Deer lake cutoff trail from the junction to Mink Lake and on to Deer Lake was as pretty as I'd hoped, a long traverse and ridge walk with some ups and downs and views down into the main fork Bogachiel valley.  The grind down to Deer Lake was sad because we immediately regained the lost 500 feet to get to our campsite at the Potholes, for a 10.5 mile day and 3500 feet of elevation gain.  We hadn't seen anyone in 4 days and BOOM, lots of folks once we got to Deer Lake.  Potholes is at the base of a gorgeous alpine meadow with a stream and several small pothole lakes. Our campsite had a view of the High Divide above us and heather covered hillsides, very beautiful. The only other campsite was smaller and set down in the woods on a hillside above the meadow stream, nice but too much like the Bogachiel. We were happy to have long views again, the Bogachiel is very close and intimate but the views are limited. We were also grateful that there were only two camps and everyone was headed for the Seven Lakes Basin, which is pretty but crowded. Unfortunately, for the first time we were swarmed by mosquitos and biting flies but oh well. We were also surprised after days of warm nights to wake up to 37 degree temps and heavy condensation on our bags inside of our mesh-walled tent, so up went the rainfly at 3 AM.  The hike back down to Deer Lake and onward to the Sol Duc trailhead was entertaining as we watched the early risers show up, then the average start-time groups, then the day hikers, then the late starters.  At Sol Duc falls, which are amazing, we were literally overwhelmed by all the people swarming the trail.  It was great to get to the TH and our pickup whisked us back to our car.  Thanks Woody and Sandy, my most excellent in-laws! My wife and I had a great trip, 40 miles of awesome hiking, 4 days of absolute remoteness and stunning old growth rain forest timber, and one day of alpine beauty, with company. 

My advice for a mortal hiker like us (I'm 64 years old but in good shape) would be to avoid Aberdeen by cutting over at Montesano to Wishkah, have time to make it to Bogachiel Camp on day 1 (about 6.8 miles), then grind out the 11.5 miles to Hyak on day 2, then have a short day to 21 mile camp on day 3, then on to Potholes to get a little alpine camping in on day 4, then out on day 5. Heading out via Mink lake is obviously fine and cuts off a day, but the alpine section was the cherry on top of the trip and worth the extra effort. It's also kind of fun to show up via the backdoor to the High Divide and have people look at you like you're an alien with a 5-day pack. And they still smell like their morning shower...