North Fork Sauk River — Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2014

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

I knew this was going to be a hot one, so started out on the trail at 6:30am. The Mountain Loop Hwy Road was in great shape, but Road 49 had quite a few potholes. From the trailhead to Mackinaw Shelter I encountered no blowdowns, but there were clearings where the nettles were encroaching on the trail and had to semi-bushwhack. Found no issues with the trail after Mackinaw Shelter and the upper meadows were melted out with excellent displays of wildflowers. Hiked this last year at the same time and the melt out is way ahead of last year. I usually find a nice cool breeze at the higher elevations, but today the heat was brutal! The normally eager dog who wants to hike all day wanted to turn around about a quarter mile from the PCT junction, so do to the heat I turned around. The heat was not to bad under the forest canopy, but was very intense in the nettle fields. As usual the views in the upper meadows were outstanding the only drawback being the heat. Was back at the car by 2:45pm. If you make the extra effort to continue past Mackinaw Shelter you will not be disappointed.