Trail:West Fork Humptulips River
From Evergreen Trail Guide
This page needs help Feel free to edit it if you feel you can improve it. (You do need to register/sign in to edit pages.)
|
| |
| Name | West Fork Humptulips River |
| Tech Rating | 
|
| Grunt Rating |
|
| Singletrack | 100% |
| Fire road | 0% |
| Paved | 0% |
| Total trail | 12 mi. |
| Alt. change | 800? |
| Latitude: | 47.378812847143 |
| Longitude: | -123.79448962216 |
| Nearest medical: | Grays Harbor Community Hospital, Hoquiam, WA |
| Page adopted by: | Ethan |
| Get Directions | |
Trail Overview
If you like hiking rainforest valleys like the Hoh, Quinault, Queets, etc, and want to *bike* a trail like that, go check out the West Fork Humptulips Trail. This trail is a lot like those, but without the crowds! And it’s one of the longest trails open to bikes in Olympic National Forest.
However, maybe one of the reasons it doesn't get much traffic is the inconvenient fact that, over the course of its roughly 12 miles, the trail fords the river about 20 or 25 times. The best time (or perhaps, the only sensible time) of year to ride this trail is late summer, say August and September, when the river flows are lowest. The one time I rode here was a hot September day in 2006; the roughly ten river fordings we did (between Campbell Grove and the Lower Pete's Creek Trail) were only about a foot deep.
How to find it
From Hoquiam, go north on US-101 about 25 miles to FS 22 (Donkey Creek Road). Turn right and drive 8 miles to the junction with FS 2204. Turn left on 2204; about 4 miles later is the main trailhead, right before FS 2204 crosses the WF Humptulips River. This is about 1 hour from Hoquiam.
About 10 miles further on FS 2204 is the Campbell Tree Grove Campground, which has great camping and is also the upper trailhead for the trail. During that 10 miles you also pass the Lower Petes Creek Trail, which can also be used as an entry point.
Typical Conditions
Expect brush and a few logs over the trail; this is one of the lesser-maintained trails in ONF. It’s probably a good idea to check the ONF website, or call them, before going to check on current conditions.
Call the ranger at (360) 288-2525
Current Conditions
This is where folks will report how the trails were on a recent day.
Turn-By-Turn Guide
The ONF website says that the entire trail length is 17.0 miles, but the Green Trails maps shows 13.6 miles; go figure. Based on what we found, and looking at a USGS topo, the 17 mile number seems more accurate.
Starting at main trailhead, it’s about 8 miles and 10+ river fordings to the intersection with Lower Pete’s Creek Trail. This provides one entry/bailout point. During this distance, there’s also a few potential bailout points where the map shows old (and probably overgrown) logging roads come fairly close to the trail/river. These could potentially be taken to fairly easily get out to FS 2204. Obviously, only do this if you have GPS or at least good sense of direction, map skills, etc.
From the intersection with Lower Pete’s Creek to the Campbell Tree Grove campground, it was pretty much exactly 4 miles. This is the only section we rode (plus the LPC trail). We forded the river about 10 times during this stretch.
Past the Campbell TG campground, the trail is supposedly is more narrow and brushy than that the previous sections. In about 3 miles it crosses FS 2204 again. Past FS 2204, the last 2 miles get really steep. Overall, the entire section upstream of the campground is probably not worth bothering with.
Local Points of Interest
Here you might list nearby places to get a bite to eat, nearby bike shops, etc.
Misc. Information
Here you mention anything that doesn't fit in the other categories.
Advocacy Information
Some summers might have work parties, and some might not, depending on funding, etc.
This is USFS land and trails.
