Downey Creek

Parking lot was almost full upon our arrival at 10AM on this Friday. They must not have been day hikers because we encountered no one on the trail. There’s still plenty of evidence of the Sept 2020 Downey Creek fire within the first mile of the trail. Here, undergrowth is knee-high, at best, and the tree canopy is way the heck up there. It’s very dusty on this portion of the trail. Soon after entering the Glacier Peak Wilderness, the vegetation becomes lush and the trees have lower limbs. At ~ 2 miles, a log set as a “bridge” across a tributary to Downey Creek is narrow, uneven across the walking surface and has stumps of limbs in the walking surface. Good balance needed to cross this one 😊. Other tributaries could be rock-hopped across or required clambering over logs in the water. We stopped at the 3^rd large tributary for our lunch, at ~3.5 miles. Beyond that the trail appeared quite overgrown. Besides, we had hoped to reach a location where the trail was at the level of Downey Creek and it did not appear that was going to happen anytime within several more miles. The trail runs along a high, eroded bank of Downey Creek and we failed to find a safe way to get to the creek.

 Downey Creek was our alternate hike for the day. Green Mountain was the original plan, but the air quality was awful. Nonetheless since we came all this way, we wanted to hike and this less strenuous route close to the Green Mountain TH was our opportunity. Still, everyone ended up with headaches and/or raspy throats. Air quality felt much better when the vegetation was dense, but in the burned sections not so much.

There was a note on the TH kiosk asking someone to please bring back a Big Agnes Tent from Cub Lake. Wow, that’s ~11 miles from the Downey Creek TH along the Ptarmigan Traverse. Hopefully they get their gear back.  BTW there’s a trail register & vault toilet at the TH.

 The condition of Suiattle Road is okay if your vehicle has SUV-like high clearance and/or sturdy suspension & reliable tires. There are miles of washerboard surface and potholes that you don’t want to hit at higher speeds.  SUVs and 4WD trucks were zipping along but I, myself, plodded along at 10mph in my minivan to minimize the rattling & pitching (I’ve already had a broken axle due to this type of road. Yes, I pulled aside when another wanted to go faster). I also saw a couple of trucks pulling RVs and other van-equivalent vehicles taking it slow. So, give yourself enough time to get along this road 😊