OHT recently

Anyone been on OHT recently. Planning on a trip next week to shores lake. Going to hike the loop and bit more.

Wondering how high the creeks are and such.


Thanks

If you hike the loop in a clockwise direction from the bottom, you will cross a creek at about 2.7 and then again at around 2.8. This will be the two biggest creek crossing you will have on the entire loop. This creek is one of those mountain creeks that is largely dependent on the amount of rain for its flow rate. The majority of time the first crossing is a dry boulder-hop, but the second crossing can be a wet crossing if there has been a recent rain. If you happen to get there just after a rain and the creek is really up, look on the right side of the falls and you can negotiate a climb up the side of the hill right at the falls, follow the creek for about 1/10 mile and rejoin the trail. That way will let you move on and not have to cross the creek at all.
One tip - camel up on water and carry as much as possible with you as this is also the last real source of water until mile 10 on the loop trail. You can get water up on top at the campgrounds on White Rock Mountain, but that is about a mile off the trail.
UL

I've heard the trails aren't very well maintained around there.

Yah they were in rather poor condition. I did the White Rock Rim loop and shores lake loop overnight. Just got back awhile ago.

Trails seemed to be degraded in some areas. Markers and such missing. Though there has to be people to keep them up. If there in poor condition it will keep the yahoos off the trails.

Was just the tread itself in poor condition? Or was it the entire trail corridor? Was it grown up, not just in annual weeds, but actual trees and bushes? Was there a lot of deadfall? Would it be hard to find your way, with the markers missing, if you weren't paying close attention? Is there only a "trail" because of people walking on it, or is it kept up by maintainers? If this is one of the most popular hiking areas, this report is not very encouraging...

There was a lot of dead fall but the trail was easy to follow. Most of the dead fall was on Salt fork side.
Overgrowth wasn't bad only a bit on the OHT where the 2 sides connect.

Though with all the rain it would be expected and on the OHT the trail was a bit washed. Caved in on me and when 330lbs (me with my pack on) go down its not fun. HAHA

I believe on the left loop leaving shores lake quite a few markers where missing. I did not find them anyway. They could have been blown down. I had the OHT guide by Tim Ernst and it was great but it sucked not finding the mile markers. But as I said with the rain and heavy seasonal growth and leaves still on the trees it made seeing much harder.

I still had a fantastic time having to pack up camp yesterday in the rain and getting soaked.

I would recommend that anyone getting ready to do this wait until the leaves are off the trees so you can enjoy the views more. When I went to White Rock Mt. rim loop it was like walking in a cloud. I stayed well away from the bluffs.

I would say the maintainers haven't been through in a while but I think all the rainfall is the main factor and things will definitely improve with leaves off the trees.

Going to hit the cherry bend section in a few weeks for a 4 day trip but going to make sure there is no rain!

I did see other hikers. 2 guys set up camp from me in the rain at night and saw a hiker with her dog.