Visit to Foxglovia 1-24-22

[bobcat]

If I recall from my recent visit, most of the junctions now have signs pointing to Angels Rest or the "trailhead" or Wahkeena Falls.

The trail grid is the same, but there was much confusion over trail names in the past. For example, I can't remember the Devils Fork ever being labeled as such. Now it is. Foxglove Trail had several interpretations as people could only agree about that first stretch coming up from Angels Rest. Then, was that Foxglove going east or going south? I always referred to the one going south towards Devils Rest as "Upper Foxglove," but others called it just "Foxglove" (which it is now). The new signs, if they stay - and there are several at every junction - may actually help matters. Certainly, the area is much better signed than a couple of months ago.

[Petr]

Red Shorts likes the new signs that others have made and put up.
He has helped direct many a lost hiker. One hiker said, "I have GPS, yet I am still lost". Signs will help!
He puts in many hours a week recently working on these USER maintained trails.
Often times, he is first on the scene after major storms and first focus is on making them passable,
and on diverting water running down trails.
He appreciates others work. More than one person has indicated that if any new signs come down,
no more work by them. Red Shorts feels the same way. He has plenty to do elsewhere.
So please, leave the signs up!

[arlohike]

I think it's good to not make the signs for unofficial trails too alluring, but at the same time I think trying to establish names for trails that have no name makes sense, including breaking the "Foxglove network" into separately named trails.

FWIW, I started exploring unofficial trails after noticing some junctions in this area with sticks laid across one of the routes. For a long time, I understood the sticks to mean "wrong way" and ignored those routes ... then one day I realized that if I stepped over the sticks, I could find some cool and lesser known stuff! But at the same time, I knew that once I crossed that barrier, I was on my own and should pay more attention to where I was and how to get back. Perhaps that could still be an intuitive way to direct casual hikers along the more established trails.

[squidvicious]

Digging this up a bit late, but I forgot to ask my question re: Lily's Lane.

I haven't been that way in many years. At the time there was a wrecked footbridge on the trail that had collapsed in such a way that you couldn't really go around, but had to scramble over the logjam that was the remains of the bridge. Which could not have been slicker if that thing had been slathered in Crisco. I made it almost all the way across before my foot shot out from under me and I wound up with my leg jammed down in the debris. How I didn't break it I have no idea, but I do know I didn't have a phone signal, so that could have ended quite badly. I've made it a point not to go back since.

What's that like now?

[Don Nelsen]

I can think of only one bridge in the Foxglove complex and it can be a bit tricky to cross since only the supports remain, the deck is completely gone. Do you mean this one? I don't have a photo of it without the snow but here it is:

There are two or three bridges on the 415 trail and they were fine last I was there.

[squidvicious]

Hmm, it's been a good long time, so maybe it's just grown worse in my mind over the years, but that looks considerably neater than what I'm picturing. Or there was a tree down or something in the midst of it that has all just blurred into "stupid busted bridge that tried to kill me" in the interim.

[bobcat]

I haven't recently done that section of Lily's Lane between the Foxglove and the Devils Fork, so that's where the bridge you describe must be. However, I also don't remember, from the distant past, anything like the conditions you mentioned.