Whether you are thru-hiking or section hiking the Bigfoot Trail is ripe for exploration. Most thru-hikers will start in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel in mid-June and hike north. The advantage to this approach is that the snow in the higher mountains to the north will have time to melt off and river levels will drop so crossing them will be less dangerous. We have had a cold spring with snowpack at about 70% (on average) of normal therefore snow will linger into June and stream crossings (Stuarts Fork and Wooley Creek) will be high until then. Another important consideration for hiking the Bigfoot Trail in 2021 is the trail’s yet unknown conditions after 2020 Slater and August Complex Fires. Please be safe out there!
If you are out as a week-long or weekend warrior, there are many trailheads to get you out and looking for cool trees along the trail. Check out our section by section descriptions HERE. Or, use our INTERACTIVE MAP to zoom in on the trail. While you are out, maybe you’d be interested in helping with our citizen science projects! The first and easiest is to join our INATURALIST PROJECT and add your observations from along the trail. The other way to to climb to one of the six WILDERNESS HIGHPOINTS and contribute to our photo-monitoring project.
Another advantage to hiking from the south at this time is there will be a trail work crew clearing the trail for you deep in the Yolla Bolly. If you get there after June 25th, we will have had time to clear much of the brush and downed trees in one of the most remote sections of trail in California.
If you do get out on the trail or have questions about conditions, please be in touch! bfta[at] bigfootrail.org
how are you getting people thru the torched Smokey Creek area ?
While I have not personally been through there, it seems that reports and satellite imagery indicate the upper reaches of the South Fork Trinity are in decent shape. The road walk from Smokey Creek to Highway 3 is surely hot and exposed…but no reroute as of yet.