This was a three day trip starting on the North Fork Sauk with stops at White Pass, Blue Lake via the High Route and ending on Pilot Ridge. My partner and I brought our two dogs who were total champs considering how challenging this route can be.
Day 1:
First and foremost, big shout out to the members of the amazing work party who went through this area ahead of us. Great work! Big thanks!
The North Fork Sauk was such a pleasantly shady ramble through the woods. The abundant water along this section makes it easy to fill up before the hot, dusty, butt buster of an ascent to the PCT and eventually White Pass. There are still a few little streams flowing across the switch backs, so the dogs had easy access to a quick drink. From the pass we headed down to a great campsite in the little basin where you will also find a privy with an excellent view. Bugs were not nearly as bad as I expected.
The Garmin said this was an approximately 14 mile day despite the map suggesting that it’s only 10.2. Our average pace leads me to believe the Garmin might be more accurate, but who knows.
Day 2:
The section of the PCT was gorgeous and absolutely covered in flowers! The lupines in particular are at full bloom right now and the blue berries are starting to ripen up on the high sunny slopes. There were a number of places to get water before tackling the Blue Lake High Route. Don’t forget to check out the view point right at the trail junction. The high route wasn’t as intense as the description suggested but it is indeed narrow, exposed, dusty, and traverses a small scree field on the lake side. I just focused on my footing and took it slow. I was also grateful for the added stability from my trekking poles. Blue Lake had a handful of sites to choose from when we arrived around noon and the dogs enjoyed cooling off in the lingering snow field.
The Garmin and map were in consensus this time, clocking in around 10 miles.
Day 3:
Before heading out in the morning we made sure to fill up with as much water as we could carry. There are NO good water sources between the lake and the creek midway down the absolutely relentless decent to the North Fork Sauk. Also,make sure that you do not miss out on the views from up on Johnson; it is absolutely worth it (period).
The first half of the day was spectacular considering the magnificent views on Johnson and the relatively mellow route along the exposed meadows and then slowly down into the forested section of Pilot Ridge. But then we began our descent in earnest and by the time we got to the river my knees felt like they were ready to explode. This section of the trail is quite steep and therefore has experienced a lot of erosion to the point where it occasionally feels like you’re hiking down a creek bed. Lots of blow downs here too, but nothing hard to navigate. The logs across the river are pretty easy to cross though they all require getting up and over another log midway across.
Side note: If your dog is not capable or comfortable with crossing a log 4-6 feet above the water while also clearing a 2’ high log OR fording the river, this may be a tricky section. One of my dogs had luckily gotten very used to hopping over logs along the Pilot Ridge descent and was able to cross with relative ease. The other dog jumped in the river a swam to the other side like a freaking otter with zero prompting (pointers, am I right?!).
Again the Garmin and map were way off. Map was closer to 10 again with Garmin showing closer to 14. Curiouser and curiouser.
Overall, 10/10, totally worth it and appropriate for rugged adventure dogs.
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