White Pass - Pilot Ridge Loop, North Fork Sauk River — Monday, Aug. 25, 2014

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

What a fantastic loop! My 45 pound aussie mix and I spent 3 nights along the way at : Mackinaw Shelter, Indian Pass and Blue Lake. The hike description well outlines the water situation right now, tho there were a couple surprises of sources between the mac shelter and white pass (wish I hadn't carried so much up!) and again between Indian Pass and Dishpan gap. Elk shared my camp at Indian pass. The high route to blue lake is tough, but I only needed to lift assist my dog over bolders twice going up. Sure wish I had packed my deet bug repellant, as the "natural" stuff didn't do the trick. Particularly while filtering water at inspiration pond and the ponds by indian pass, mosquito heaven. The last 2 miles of pilot ridge trail coming down to the north fork has several large trees covering the trail (Ranger also mentioned this and said they wouldn't get moved for some time). But if you've made it that far, climbing over a few big trees is not a problem. The log crossing at the end was much easier than had been described to me by the ranger. No bark left on the log, but it is quite wide, and my dog and i both felt comfortable crossing the north fork sauk after a long day of hiking. Next time I would allow for 5 nights, and do side trips up Red Pass and Johnson mountain for sure, or even just for another day at the beautiful Blue Lake. On two of the days I went at least 8 miles without seeing another human. Blue lake on a wednesday night hosted 2 large groups, and I would imagine more on the weekends. When the weather is clear like it was this week, the views are incredible. I will seek out ridge loops more in the future!