We have been enjoying the final days of summer with high Cascades hikes, mostly in the Indian Heaven Wilderness. We hiked an annual favorite, the Sawtooth Mountain Loop at the north end of the Indian Heaven Wilderness.

Starting at the PCT trailhead on FR 24, we hiked 6.5 miles with 981 feet of elevation gain over Sawtooth Mountain with a return on the PCT. We met three thru-hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail but otherwise had the wilderness to ourselves.

I also found a new pika colony in a large boulder field below the Sawtooth Mountain Trail where we heard some pika calls.

Rain the day before brought some mushrooms popping out of the forest floor. A few late flowers still were blooming, but mostly we saw fruits of native plants and fungi.

Beware that the roughly 5 miles of unpaved FR 30 beyond the Lone Butte Sno Park is extremely rough and full of potholes. We were late arriving at the trailhead due to the need to drive slowly.

An alternate access mostly on pavement is a longer drive from the Vancouver area, going through Trout Lake and taking FR 88 up to Big Tire Junction, then veering northwest of FR 8851 to loop around Big Mosquito Lake and then south on FR 24 to the trailhead.

We chose a new-to-us hike in the Indian Heaven Wilderness, the Sawtooth Mountain Loop at the north end.

The day was warm, about 75 degrees, with an east wind gusting to 25 mph, which felt good.

We started at the intersection of the Pacific Crest Trail with Forest Road 24, the Sawtooth Trailhead. We hiked south on the PCT, encountering several thru hikers hurrying north. These hikers are cutting it close to make it to Canada before bad weather sets in.

In 1.3 miles, we turned onto the Sawtooth Mountain Trail 107, which is the old PCT/Cascade Crest Trail before it was rerouted in the 1970s to contour around Sawtooth Mountain instead of going over it. The trail switchbacked up the north slope of Sawtooth Mountain, passing several viewpoints.

In about a mile, we reached the high point, passing about 100 feet below the jagged summit. We saw a scramble trail to the summit rocks but decided not to attempt it, particularly with the strong wind gusts we would encounter on top.

We switchbacked down the south slope, with a stop for lunch in the shade, then hiked across the saddle between Sawtooth and Bird mountains. Lots of views along this section and good bird viewing, including a migrating adult bald eagle and ravens doing some group social activity.

We descended to the south junction of the Sawtooth Mountain Trail with the PCT at 3 miles total. We turned north and headed back to our start through mature Pacific silver fir forest. At 4.4 miles, we closed the loop and continued on the PCT back to FR 24 for a total 5.7 miles and 960 feet elevation gain. We decided this was a keeper to do again in the future.

we started at the Sawtooth Trailhead off of 24 and hiked on the PCT and took the fork up to Sawtooth Mountain. I had my dog and mom with me who aren’t accustom to linger hikes so we turned around and went back the same way once we reached the summit. The weather was perfect, a little breezy, but not cold. I’ve hiked many different sections of Indian Heaven but this definitely had the best road to the trailhead (I have a sedan and the road was a lot of gravel but in great condition) and there were very few bugs (definitely not what I expected having hiked in the lake sections of Indian Heaven before). Overall the great short 5 mile hike suitable for a variety of hikers.

A lot of the hike descriptions I've seen give driving directions from either through Trout Lake or Carson. I took Hwy 503 from Woodland/Cougar to FR 90. Here are my driving directions: --From Woodland, take Hwy 503 east, which eventually goes through Cougar and becomes FR 90 --Stay on FR 90 until you get to Curly Creek Rd. Turn right on Curly Creek Rd --Turn left on Meadow Creek Rd (signed Wind River Hwy), which eventually turns slightly right and becomes FR 30 --Turn right at FR 24 For the most part, the roads are in good shape and well marked, with the exception of the unpaved portion of FR 30. This part of the road had lots of narrow ruts, almost like bulldozer tracks, making the the road bumpy and slippery. I took the PCT down to the Sawtooth Mtn trail, climbing up Sawtooth Mtn from the north and going down the south. Once I got back to the PCT I continued south until I got to the Wood Lake trail. After that I took the PCT back up to FR 24. My total distance was around 10.5 miles with around 1000' of elevation gain. The PCT and the Sawtooth Mtn trails are both in decent condition but the Wood Lake trail is in pretty bad shape. The section between the PCT and the first pond you encounter is fine, but once you get past there the tread is terrible with lots of drainage problems, including water across the trail and lots of mud. As I got closer to Wood Lake I started noticing a lot of fresh cougar tracks. I decided to turn around when the lake came within view. If you don't feel like dealing with the bad trail conditions, the first pond along the Wood Lake trail is a nice spot to stop. Hopefully this trail will get some attention at some point, it seems like it hasn't had any maintenance in a while.