Sauk Mountain, Sauk Lake — Thursday, Jul. 22, 2004

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

It is amazing what 95 degree weather will do to the number of people on a trail. In this case the entire trail is on an open hillside and even on a Saturday we saw only 4 other people. We hike up the trail at a good clip. It was nice not to be packed in congo-line style like usual. We climbed to the old lookout site and then over two peaks to the summit. From here we could see the smoke from two forest fires. I understand why they put a lookout here. We headed down in early evening to camp at the lake. The lake trail is in good shape and obviously gets use than the main trail. We picked up loads of garbage from the campsites near the lake. Including a 12ft by 12ft tarp. Then we walked around, and partly across, the lake picking up more garbage and dismantling some fire rings. The night was warm and the bats were out all over the lake. The next morning we headed to the summit and reached the lookout by 7:20am. We were surprised to see other folks making there way up from the parking lot. We enjoyed our oatmeal at the summit and headed down. The flowers are in full bloom and so are the bugs. The mosquitos were especially pesky near the top.