Downey Creek, Milk Creek & Suiattle River Trail — Saturday, Nov. 8, 2003

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Suiattle River/Downey Creek trails: With the recent floods I was curious to see some of the damage in one of my favor areas, Suiattle River and Downey Creek. The reports indicated the road was washed out at the 14 mile point. My plan was to bike the 9 miles to the end of the road and hike the Suiattle River trail to check out for myself to see if the bridge across the Suiattle on the Milk Cr trail was really gone. I have posted some photos at http://www.mtnmike.com/WTA/Suiattle and I have made reference to the specific photos in the write-up that follows. Yes the road is was out at the 14-mile point (at the Huckleberry Mtn TH), but its now almost repaired (see repair.jpg) but I would guess that it will not open till spring. This is a new place for the wash-out. The banks of river are constantly siding and are very dangerous. It took about 1 hour to bike the road to the end. The road was in good shape until I reached Downey (see downeycr.jpg). Luckily there was a thin slice of the bank remaining, which I was able to get through. They are working to repair this section too. The next little challenge was Sulphur Cr (see sulphurcr.jpg), had to go under one log sitting on the bridge. The logs on the Sulphur Bridge puzzled me how they got there (the water must have been rushing like crazy). Upon reaching the Suiattle River trail at the end of the road, there were two cars in the parking. I certainly would not want to be in their shoes when the floods were occurring (be interested to hear there stories). Maybe the real reason the road is being repaired is to get the cars out before the winter snow damages them. The hike to the Suiattle River Bridge was fine. Yes the bridge is gone. Photo taken last November of the bridge (suiattlebr.jpg) and view (suiattlerv.jpg). Here is the new view of the former bridge site (bridgesite.jpg) and the view looking down the river at the former bridge (suiattlerv_new.jpg). Notice the difference. From what I could see, the river is doubled in width. The amount of debris is incredible (riverview.jpg), log piles everywhere. There is a 30” log across the river up stream about 1/4 mile that may survive the winter (logcrossing.jpg). Down stream 1/10 mile is another log but it probable will not survive the winter. I decided to go down stream looking for the old bridge. The 5 foot steel I-beam bridge I would guess would not be washed too far, and I was right, 1/10 mile down. The bridge steel was bent a bit but still together (see bridge1.jpg, bridge2.jpg, & bridge3.jpg). One warning, the river is pretty dangerous. I stepped in some wet sand and sunk to my knee with one leg. After the bridge tour, I continued hiking up the Suiattle River trail about 1/2 mile. A couple of areas of the trail was gone. One 100+ yards section is gone and the old trail is now in the river (trailgone.jpg). I had some time to hike one of my favor trail’s, Downey Creek. This trail suffered NO damage in the 2.5 miles I hiked it to the major stream. The trail is in great shape with no logs or limbs (thanks to me) on the trail at far as I hiked. Chris will be happy to here that his rock culvert is still working. I had hoped to see the log at the 2.5mi stream blasted out (Forest Service has a contract to do this and replace the Puncheon next year, I hope this still gets done). I stopped to view the bridge over the Suiattle heading to Circle Peak/Rat Trap pass. There is a 70-foot gap at the far end and river is pretty much using this course. From what I could assess, a portable bridge could be installed without too much trouble. Photos at http://www.mtnmike.com/WTA/Suiattle