Painted Mountain (Red Mountain), North Fork Sauk River — Monday, Jul. 5, 2004

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

The October storms and winter winds have done some damage on the N Fork Sauk River trail. We started Saturday evening and hiked towards Mackinaw Shelter. En route are plenty of blowdowns and debris to navigate. Definitely not a horse-able trail. One section of the trail is lost due to the flooding last fall. Keep going through the water and poke around for the tread. One creek is a challenge to cross without getting wet. We found a log to shinney, but it was a little scary. It's pretty easy to ford the creek but you'll probably want to do it barefoot or in wading footwear. After Mackinaw shelter, the trail up the avalanche path is in excellent shape, with no blowdowns. We left the trail at about 5200 feet to tag some peaks. We could see Red Pass from far below, where the PCT crosses a steep bit o' snow. Probably need an axe unless the snow is soft there. We passed over point 6910, Skullcap, and Black Mt and wandered over Magenta and Red peaks, with a side trip to Skalabats peak. Then down the ridge to the Red Mt trail. This section has a very scary ledge, covered in pine needles. After that it's maintained trail from the old lookout site the last mile (all in excellent shape).