30.06.2014
A mostly great hike to a gorgeous deep blue mirror of a lake. I say mostly because the first half-hour or so takes you through a clear-cut. At first the trail follows an old road which is greening over very quickly (and has numerous bear deposits), but then it hits a section of logging slash where there is no trailbed at all. Pick your way - carefully - over and through the maze of downed trees and aim for the pair of trees flagged as if to make a gateway. Beyond that, there is a foot bed to follow along with the flagging which leads up into the unlogged forest. Now you can relax and enjoy the rest of the hike.
I'd say this is not a trail for novice hikers - it's more of a flagged route with signs of a trailbed here and there. But it's a little gem for the more experienced. Also, I would expect the fireweed growing in the clearcut to reach waist or head height later in the season, possibly obscuring the flagging and/or the trail so now is a good time to go. You wouldn't do this hike as a day-trip from Vancouver: spend the weekend in the area and camp overnight for free at one of the nearby forest recreation campgrounds (or somewhere along the FSR) before heading up the Downton Creek valley to do a couple of day hikes.
The Downton FSR is in good shape and manageable with 2wd. A few small rocks here and there to avoid or clear off the road but nothing major. The bank reinforcement at 5.5 km looks to be holding up. After the Branch 2 junction, the alder is creeping in so wide vehicles can expect a pin-stripe or two. High clearance is not needed; however, the grass is growing up along the centre line for a portion of the road, and there was one puddle in a dip about 100 m or so before the trailhead that would need care in a low-clearance vehicle.
Flower report: in places, the FSR is currently lined with flowers galore, mostly paintbrush and white bog orchid. On the trail, wild strawberry near the beginning, alpine marsh marigolds aplenty, western anemone in its pre-moptop phase, lots of little spring beauty, some globeflower, sweet coltsfoot, many subalpine buttercups. Sitka valerian is in bud and indian hellebore is growing up fast. Even the (pink, white and yellow) heather is only just flowering.
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