Darrington Trail, Lake Folsom in Spring is Outstanding

Just came back from the run and I'm still glowing. Highly recommended! If you want to check current conditions, the Alltrails entry has frequent updates.

I've been on the first three or so miles from the Salmon Falls end before but never did it this way. As of today 21 April 2019 after a wet winter, it's green but there are no puddles; a few stream crossings but nothing tricky. I did an A-to-B with car shuttle starting on Rattlesnake Bar Road near Peninsula Campground and ending at Salmon Falls Bridge, not quite 9 miles. Do note that the first ~0.5 miles from the Peninsula side were extremely overgrown, i.e., the trail was clearly a creek until recently and is filled with thick green vegetation - not enticing since I saw a rattler on the way in. So I went up on the side of the hill and bushwhacked back it was still better than the first part of the trail! After that, no problem.

I took a lot of photos and instead of trying to pick the best I'll just use them all instead of obvious duplicates. Enjoy!






Above: close to a half-mile of this. Out of concern for snakebite danger I bushwhacked on the west side of the trail up on the hill.









Above: Pressed-down grass where deer probably slept last night.





















































HIC SAPIENTIA EST. QUI HABET INTELLECTUM CONPUTET NUMERUM TOXICODENDRON. Definitely worse in the middle portion of the trail.





































I took this one because there were (I would guess) large trout splashing about in the shallows here, and you can see them.