Brian and I got a late start on friday for our three day 30 mile loop in the Glacier Peak and Henry Jackson wildernesses. It had rained pretty hard right up to early afternoon. However, by 1:45pm we were up and running, crossing the log over the North Fork Sauk River to the 3,000 ft. ascent up to Pilot Ridge. Two hours and twenty minutes later we were on top of the ridge as the clouds from the earlier rains continued to linger making things moist and wet. We arrived at our evening's camp site, Freeman's Camp, 8.5 half miles from the trailhead. It was a good day considering the late start and the humid conditions.

Saturday morning the skies were clearing and Glacier Peak was bright and beautiful as usual. What a stunning volcanoe on a bright, blue sky summer morning! We had twelve miles to go that day so we headed out at about 9:00am and commenced to do some serious hiking. Upon arriving at Blue Lake, we met up with two fine ladies whom we had met at the trailhead, and replenished ourselves with water. The shortcut over to the Bald Eagle trail is a thigh burner, but well worth it for the views over to Mt. Daniel and Mt. Hinman. We spent the majority of the day hiking the PCT up to White Pass and being amazed at the scenery and views around every corner we took. We made camp that evening in a meadow just below the Pass looking up at White mountain.

Sunday morning we headed down the PCT for just one mile to the North Fork Sauk River Trail, and decended 3,000 ft. to the river and the ancient shelter. From there it was approximately two hours (5 miles) to the trailhead and the truck. After our loop we drove to Darrington where I purchased a Diet Coke and some Doritos (an Ice cream Cone and Pringles for Brian). Man, that tasted good! We were back in Bellevue by 4:30pm which made for a nice steak and beer supper with my better half (who let's me feed my hiking addiction very patiently) that evening. It was a 29.3 mile loop over an extended weekend that I'll never forget, given that it was my initial trip on this section of the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Stunning and grand to say the least. I've included a picture of the Monte Cristo Peaks and Sloan, plus a late afternoon shot of Glacier Peak. I highly recommend this loop for in-shape backpacking lovers.

Clockwise, no need to carry much water up the switchbacks. Good streams flowing above timberline both before and after you reach the PCT junction. Good water near White Pass (streams coming off White Mtn). Water at Indian Head Peak, Indian Pass. The 2 good streams draining the east basin of Kodak Pk. are the last water until Blue Lake (there may have been some at Dishpan Gap, not sure).

Counterclockwise, there are exactly 2 streams crossing the trail as it switchbacks up to Pilot Ridge (not counting 2 wet muddy spots). The second is near the top of the switchbacks and is your last water until Blue Lake, although there are snow patches below Johnson Mtn. Pilot Ridge is quite dry.

Blue Lake: not a good place to build fires, OK? It's stripped pretty bare. Not a good place to leave fish guts and 2 lbs. of once-perfectly-edible trout steaks in the lake right at camp, nor elsewhere (I am not making this up). If you want to attract large wildlife to the camp area for future visitors to enjoy, try frying up a pound of bacon and scattering it liberally about; that might work even better.

If you do the Blue Lake High route, the 6500' summit NE of the pass is worth a careful visit on tiptoe. Don't so much as overturn a stone; it isn't trashed by careless climbers' feet like popular summit areas. Great view. Or just leave it alone and enjoy the similar view from Johnson Mtn.

Met a fellow on the PCT who crossed the Suiattle River; apparently there are log crossings to be found near the washed-out bridge.

The logjam crossing at the N Fork Sauk might be interesting when it's wet and dark.

The Darrington Rangers are indeed good to their word - the Mountain Loop is driveable from Darrington all the way to the washout at Bedal. Though I wouldn't recommend doing much more than tapping your brakes as your drive unless your idea of fun is to be fished out of the Stillagaumish by a tow truck.

The Mountain Loop is covered by packed snow and ice starting at the White Chuck and kind of icy all the way from the center of Darrington. Though the snow does do a bit to even out the ruts potholes. FR 49 to the trailhead is where the fun really starts (who knew snow could make such interesting shapes?) and alternates between powder and packed powder bars all the way to the North Fork Sauk Trailhead. Road conditions deteriorate a bit beyond this point, but for now it looks like a moderate clearance AWD vehicle (aka subaru) could make it all the way to the Bald Eagle trailhead.

But I digress... Eight hardy souls headed up the North Fork Sauk trail under cloudy skies and above a layer of fluffy powder. We had a spectacular view of Sloan Peak on the way up before dropping into the old growth forest along the banks of the river. I have rarely seen such enormous old-growth cedars and hemlocks. In the snow, this area is just spectacular. Snow frosted old growth, really cool ice on the rocks in the river - just hard to beat. The log crossing to get to Pilot Ridge was a bit dicey (as snow covered logs usually are), but we got across in good order (but a bit of delay in a fruitless search for alternate crossings) and headed up the endless switchbacks to Pilot Ridge. As the snow deepened, we donned our snowshoes, heading towards the even receding ridge. Regrettably, we hit our turnaround time about 500' below the really good views, but that's what happens when you try to snowshoe in deep powder. Probably would have taken us another half-hour to get there, but the weather was already starting to turn to wind and snow. The trail is on moderate slopes in a fairly dense forest and does not cross avalanche slopes - so relatively low danger in this regard.

Really great snowshoeing trip, even without panoramic views - which would be possible with a little more time. 4-5"" of snow at the trailhead over frozen ground. Icy crust beneath a couple feet of powder starting around 3500.

The trail to Johnson Mt is very long from Sloan Creek Campground... but easily done in a day from where road 49 crosses Sloan Creek. We took that secret passageway (definitely travelled on a regular basis) up 2500' to the Pilot Ridge trail. This trail has no blowdowns from peak 5404 to Johnson Mt. Maybe it could use some minor treadwork but really no problems. Views from the old lookout site range from Glacier Peak to Daniel/Hinman and Stuart, Sloan Peak, the Monte Cristos, etc. It's a fun trip!