North Fork Sauk River, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section K - Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass & Suiattle River Trail — Saturday, Sep. 24, 2016

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Day1 Entered in on North Fork Sauk River trail#649 off of FR 49. Started early because we were anticipating the dreaded 3 mile incline. Got on trail about 9:00am. At about 5 miles you come to the Mackinaw Shelter next to river. It's a nice place to camp or stop for lunch. The next 3 miles are a doozy, 3000ft gain in 3 miles. With full packs this was pretty challenging. The trial takes you to the PCT junction and is beautiful and well worth the pain. We continued on another 3 miles to camp. Plenty of room for several tents and water near by. Day 2 Headed out early with goal of making the 15 miles to Mica Lake in time to enjoy some sun at lake. As with most hiking its never 100% the way you anticipate. The section has many down trees which really slows you down. Everything is passable but a few required pack removal. Had a bear sighting but by the time we realized what we were seeing it scurried away. We ended up having to pull out head lamps and arrived at Mica Lake in the dark. The reward was very nice camp right next to water. Apparently this area can get very windy but we were blessed with a nice evening. Day3 Today we knew we had only 8 miles so we enjoyed the morning. The sun was out and the lake is beautiful. This was a straight 4 miles down to Mill Creek wooden bridge and then 4 back up to camp. We had been told there would be no water so we filled up at the Mill creek bridge. When we arrived there was a small bit of water. I did not take a good look at it but the Thru hikers that arrived and camped with us seemed used it and seemed to think it was great. We were up about 5575ft. The sky was clear and stars out. Day4 This was my favorite day. We had 12 miles to camp most of it was down. Absolutely beautiful section. Meadows with blueberries, flowing streams, amazing views. Towards the end of day we were in old growth forest approaching Suiattle River. We passed Vista creek camp site and made our way to the camp by the bridge, or I should say under the bridge. It is not easy to see how to get to it but if you go up on the bridge and look down you will see the camp. This is a very established camp. Nice flat spots, two fire rings and even benches. The camp is right next to river actually loud enough that it makes it a little hard to hear. Day 5 We left the PCT and took the Suiattle River trail #784 out which was about 6.5 miles. This is an easy trail through old growth next to the river. You cross a few streams and it is very pretty but now amazing view down this low. Headed out on FR #26 Side note. If you have someone coming in to meet up with you on the Suiattle trail it helps to know that there is a bridge still on the PCT with camps sites on either side and then about 20 min further once you exit PCT trail and get on Suiattle trail there is another bridge with camp sites on either side. Our pick up sadly ended up spending the night alone due to the misunderstanding.