White Chuck Bench — Saturday, Sep. 27, 2025

When I arrived at the parking area there was one vehicle just leaving and after that I didn't see anyone else. If you are looking for a quiet place to hike on a weekend, this is it. I hiked with Sykes the dog but he didn't make any noise but he does weird me out when he stops on the trail and stares off into the forest as though there is something out there.

The trail starts out through a forest of small deciduous trees and then into Douglas fir and cedars along with stumps left over from what appears to be a first cutting. The trail wanders away from the White Chuck River and then moves in close and high in about twenty minutes to a nice viewpoint that takes in mountains and the river looking northeast. The north side of the river has some nice deciduous foliage with color while the south side is in the shadows. This area also has a lot of pumice from a Glacier Peak's many  eruptions. We went on to Black Oak Creek where Sykes filled his tank and put a piece of pumice in the water and watched it float around even after it had absorbed some of the water.

We continued on over the foot bridge where the trail  goes through a sort of meadow and small tree mix. It showed signs of brushing not too long ago. We turned around where we encountered the long gain up around a soft ridge.

On the way back after going back over the bridge I noticed that we had gone past a large hornet nest about five feet off the trail. It wasn't noticeable coming in.

There are no facilities at the trailhead except a kiosk informational board but the is a vault toilet at the parking lot where the boat ramp is at near the confluence of the White Chuck and Sauk River is. The road is in good condition except for the section that goes past the boat ramp parking. Any vehicle can make it to the trailhead.