North Fork Sauk River, Harold Engles Memorial Cedars & North Fork Sauk Falls — Saturday, Jun. 13, 2015

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

This is hands down my favorite area on the Mountain Loop Highway. There are several trails up FSR 49 that leaves the actual Mountain Loop from just north of the Bedal campground. The area is remote, green, has tons of big trees, lots of moss and a river running through the valley. It offers some of the best examples of what a Western Washington forest is in my opinion. My friend is having surgery soon, wanted an overnight experience and to see some pretty sights so off we went to this outta the way place on Saturday afternoon. We approached from the south side of Mountain Loop and cleared Barlow Pass onto the dirt portion of the road. All in all the roads aren't bad but there are some nasty sections of potholes on the loop and FSR 49 that leads up the North Fork Sauk River. We saw plenty of cars on the road so if you take your time you'll have no trouble reaching your destination. The North Fork Sauk Trailhead parking area was full when we arrived late Saturday afternoon. Most of the hikers were on overnights to the PCT according to the trail register. It must be true because we saw just 2 hikers when arriving at camp and that's all we saw the whole time on the North Fork Trail. We took it easy on the trail looking to simply relax in the forest versus laying miles down. We hiked the 2ish miles to the established camp spot at the spur for the Pilot Ridge Trail. With summer growth in full swing it wasn't easy to see the river but you could hear it! We set up camp then walked another half mile or so up the trail enjoying the big trees, moss and river views along the way. Back at camp we started a small fire and enjoyed a big bottle of the homebrew blackberry hard cider I made as the sun went down. In the morning we lingered, loaded up and made our way out but our adventure wasn't over yet. We stopped at the Harold Engles Memorial Cedar which is one of the largest cedars I've ever seen and then at North Fork Sauk Falls. Be careful at the falls, there's not a lot of room at the viewing area and one misstep could prove disastrous. The falls were moving pretty good, even with the low snow pack and were loud. All the trails were in great shape with no obstacles but North Fork Sauk was brushy in places. It was a great way to spend some time in the forest with a good friend.