Beaver Lake — Friday, Mar. 27, 2015

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

We headed up to Darrington to do a hike off the Mtn. Loop Highway that we had never hiked. We had hiked and backpacked other trails in the MLH area for many years, but had not done this one. The Forest Service has redone the trailhead parking lot with new gravel and restroom. They even graveled the first 100 yards of a new section of trail down to the old dirt trail. The trail goes up stream along the Sauk River on an old logging railroad grade built by the Sauk River Lumber Company back in the early 1920's. Where the trail starts by the river we could see old timber pilings from a railroad trestle. In a short distance there is a side trail over to the river by a USGS water gauging station and down to a sand bar. Further on the trail is on a hillside just above the river. This section of the trail is slowing sliding down to the water. We had a nice view of Mt. Pugh before getting back into the trees. Near the first beaver pond, a part of the trail has be rerouted from an old wooded bridge across a wet area to a clay hillside. We then crossed a long bridge over a beaver pond where you can see several ponds and dams. We stopped for lunch at the ponds with a view north to White Chuck Mtn. While eating a lone bumble bee came by checking out the flowers on a salmonberry bush. After lunch we hiked by a grove of old growth Red Cedar trees and to the end of the trail at the Sauk River with a nice view over to Sloan and Bedal Peaks. The trail used to continue over to the Mtn. Loop Highway, but the section by the river was washed out several years ago. Only met a few other hikers out on this nice day. Some wild flowers are starting to bloom. We saw a few Mourning Cloak and Northern Blue butterflies. This is a nice river hike with mountain views, plus the beaver ponds and old growth cedars. Hike is a little over 6 miles round trip. Check out the trail before all the trees leaf out for better views. There is even a nice view of White Chuck Mtn. from the parking lot. A little history about the area that this trail goes through. The Sauk River Lumber Company began logging both Northern Pacific Railway and Forest Service land in 1922. They had the White Chuck Camp (near the Beaver Lake trailhead parking lot) and later the Bedal Camp (up by the present day Bedal Campground on the MLH) to house and feed the loggers. On July 17, 1926 the SRLC signed a contract with the Forest Service to log 40 million board feet (a board foot is: 1 foot square by 1 inch thick) of standing timber. The lumber company had six Shay and one Williamette geared steam locomotives, and one rod locomotive. Fifty five to seventy loaded log cars per day where hauled into Darrington to go to different saw mills. They finished logging the area in 1953. Now you can hike on a railroad grade built over 90 years ago.