You will currently see a sign warning you that the area is closed. We saw another car and just figured that on a weekend, the logging operation would be shut down so we would not be chased out. You can make the call as to whether you want to do that or not. We had no issues on a weekend and saw three other people out on the trail = one coming out from a day trip, and two others heading in when we were departing.
Be aware there is no water on the trail! It is 19.2 miles and 5000 gain in and out so be prepared. You will walk about 2.7 miles on the road. You will see a road going straight and another main road heading steeply uphill. Go straight, and you will see the trailhead sign soon = trail is to the right. You will head up through the clearcut = great views of sound and the Brothers plus in early June the rhodedendrons and bear grass were magnificent. You pop out into the logging area. The trail has been obliterated in here, but if you follow the road up and to left, you will see a connector trail back to trail. At about three and half miles, you enter the forest and stay there for about five miles. It contours and goes up steeply in places. Flowers were fabulous the whole way! The last 1.5 mile is open and much steeper. There is not much debris from the old fire lookout on the summit, but the views are phenomenal of Rainier, the Brothers, other Olympic mountains, the bay, and the lights of Seattle at night.
Backpacking: We backpacked only because we knew there would still be some residual snow patches at the summit was the flattest and had a small campfire ring = very bad to use if no snow nearby. You might have been able to fit two small tents here. The next in about a mile was not flat but had a view and is adequate. There is another reasonable small spot just below the summit. We spent two hours at the summit enjoying the view plus we took four liters of water each just in case and stashed one liter each at the halfway point. We found little information about camping along the trail, but we found three SMALL one tent possibilities = 7.5 miles and cooking dinner plus melting water.
Dave's GPS Track