Woodland trail along the river, just what we wanted. This trail is a fantastic easy hike, just our speed. Trailhead is well marked off road with a large forest sign (brown and yellow). Drive across the road to the boat launch for toilets. This trail was interesting because the terrain changed often. There's an uprooted tree that is bit tight to get around leading to a landslide area that's a little sketchy as the path is very narrow. A patch of slippery muddy clay made for messy boots further on. It looked like WTA had been there recently as several blowdowns had been attacked with chainsaws, making our passage quite pleasant...thank you! Trilliums, salmonberry blossoms and bleeding hearts on the trail! Walk across a foot bridge to Beaver Lake and on a bit further, you'll come out on the Sauk River and the trail disappears. Roundtrip is about 3.5 miles out and back. This would be lovely in the fall, too. We like to take mini-adventures when we hike and today was no different. We drove across to the boat launch and took the forest road up a bit. We stopped on the side of the road. We walked out on a LEDGE with a view of the valley below-it was STUNNING but very dangerous because we think the soil under where we were standing was compromised.

This is a no elevation hike that follows the river off and on. The trail takes you through Beaver Lake and ends at the river's edge. I think the trail is about 4 miles round trip. It was quite overgrown in spots and there were plenty of nettles to deal with. If it were cleaned up a bit, small children would have no problem on this hike. Beaver Lake is kind of a misnomer. It's more like Beaver Pond. Not really much of a lake at all and certainly not someplace you'd want to dip your feet in. It was quite dirty. Along the trail we saw many tiny frogs. They were everywhere. The kids really enjoyed that. We saw fish in the river (must have been spawning salmon). And suprisingly off in the distance, I saw a beaver at the pond. One very unpleasant thing about this hike was the horrendous stench we kept smelling. I have no idea what it was but all along the trail you would get wafts of what smelled like the inside of an outhouse. It was truly awful. We didn't linger long on any part of the trail. So for that reason alone, I wouldn't recommend this hike. To read more about our adventures go to http://1retromama.blogspot.com/2011/10/beaver-lake-trail-629-mountain-loop.html

A quick jaunt to one of my favorite lowland trails in early spring (I guess you could say we're in early spring this late in the season). This is a great place for forest flowers - tons of bunchberry (Canadian dogwood) are beginning to bloom, the bleeding heart is abundant, but almost finished for the season. Lots of birds here, skunk cabbage leaves are big, salmon berry, big trees - you name it, it's here. Nice stroll in the woods. The trail can be muddy near the Beaver lakelets, but there are work parties scheduled this upcoming weekend to do some tread work and finishing work on some re-reoutes (reroutes are around the washouts from a few years ago - the big one is still there, of course). From Darrington, turn right onto the Mtn Loop highway. Trailhead is on the right, directly opposite the Whitechuck Boat Launch.

Its easy to miss the trailhead, since it's not marked from Mountain Loop Highway. After crossing the Sauk River, directly across from the White Chuck Boat launch is an unmarked road on your right. The parking area is up there, and the trailhead itself is down the trail about 50 feet. We brought Joey, our little Jack Russell with us for the journey because it's an easy-going hike. At first the trail is very nice and close to the beautiful, rushing, and powerful Sauk River. As you continue though, the trail gets more and more muddy. You can see that people have worked to help minimize the muddiness (large rocks, gravel, shovelled away, drainage pipes), but it was still very muddy. Today was a gorgeous day and there wasn't any rain yesterday, but there were many small paths of water running across the trail. Venturing even further the whole atmosphere changes from a foresty riverscape to a totally awesome swamp adventure. I admit I was a bit disappointed with Beaver Lake itself. I would call it Beaver Swamp. It is neat to see the beaver activity, like the dam and some trees that had been chewed away. Right around Beaver "Lake" there was an increase in mosquito activity, so bug spray is recommended. We continued past the bridge and past the swamp area. The trail started to become overgrown with ferns. We both got nettle stings on our hands, so be sure to watch out for them near the trail. We decided to head back instead of pushing through the ferns. Overall, this is a pretty relaxing hike and very peaceful. There was a lot of birds singing, mossy forest, and rushing water. It's very flat, good for kids and pets. We recommend wearing boots (for the mud), full-length clothes (for the nettles), and bug spray (for the bugs).

The Whitechuck Bench trail is slated for repair/reroute this summer, and will once again be 6 miles long, terminating at the Whitechuck Road. Currently, you can walk about a mile and a half before hitting the trail-stopping washout, where it’s a nice drop to the river to bask on large rocks in the sun, when the river is low enough to do so. From Darrington, take the Mtn Loop Hwy toward Barlow Pass. Turn right at the Whitechuck Boat Launch (sign on left) and cross the bridge over the Sauk River. Continue up the road a couple of switchbacks and past the gravel pit area. See the Whitechuck Bench trail sign on the right. This trail starts in a recently logged area, but within 5 minutes, you’re in old second growth forest – My guess is that this forest was logged about 70-80 years ago, so the trees are big here. There are quite a few large cedars, and hemlock & Douglas fir are battling it out to see who among them wins the battle of succession. There are a few silver firs here, too. The forest floor is a blanket of moss, Oregon grape, and false lily of the valley – more lilies on this trail than I have seen anywhere else. Groves of alder are dotted here and there as well. The trail is close to the edge of the slope, there are some open views of the Whitechuck River, and a chanced at dollops of sunshine. There is evidence of recent bear or cat activity here – lots of scratched snags, freshly dug holes in the trail tread, snuffled up chunks of moss, and there was one very old alder snag that was recently upturned – I assumed by a critter looking for chocolate truffles. Or slugs. I walked to pretty Black Oak creek. This particular creek is interesting because it has a thick border of mid-sized alders lining each side of it, more than any other creek would typically have. I don’t know when this flood even took place, but it must’ve been big – Black Oak doesn’t seem to have reached that flood stage since. I have an old, old map that shows a trail leading up the side of the creek, but to investigate means bashing through salmon berry and devils club. I hung out there awhile, and headed back. I wanted to sit in the sun at the edge of the cliffy spot where the road switchbacks down toward the Boat Ramp. Nice place to have lunch, and views of Whitechuck, Mt Pugh, and the Whitechuck Valley are very, very nice indeed. Next I went to Beaver Lk trail directly across from the Boat Launch (turn right off Mtn Loop instead of left to the Boat Launch). This trail never disappoints when you’re looking for skunk cabbage (at the appropriate time of year, of course). The last time I was on this trail, my buddy Jim Kuresman and I met Phyllis Reed, biologist with MBSNF, who pointed out the old railroad pilings near the trails’ beginning, used as a bridge to cross over the Sauk River. This trail is lined with bleeding heart and yellow violet– for almost a full mile (and beyond, if you feel like negotiating the washouts). Acres of wetlands are home to thousands upon thousands of swamp lanterns (skunk cabbage). None of these flowers are at their height yet. I’d give it about a week for the bleeding heart. Maybe a bit longer for the height of the swamp lantern show. O yeah - and the trail is also lined with nettles. Locals hit this trail to picked nettles for whatever they use them for. I think greens – apparently if you boil ‘em, they’re tasty, but they don’t hurt you when they’re slidin’ down your gullet, or after they plunk into your gut. The trail now officially ends at about a mile, where it was washed out in 2003 (or 06 – I’m getting my disasters mixed up). The FS has tried to survey a re-route, but you see, there’s this rocky cliff in the way…. The 2 washouts are get-aroundable with just a bit of hassle (“hassle” being a relative term) - but if you have little kids, the current end of the trail is good enough – with the washouts, there are now impressive views on this trail where there were no views before.