My co'worker and friend, Lou, and I went on this trail to ""try out"" her knee braces. We wanted something without elevation gain since going downhill is agony for her. We also wanted a trail beautiful in and of itself, with out needing to reach a particular destination. That way we could stop and turn around when her knees had reached their max. This river valley trail is one of my favorites! The Mountain Loop highway from Darrington is in good shape, with a few pot holes as usual. Likewise for the North Fork Sauk river road #49. There were a few rough places that have been washed out and repaired, my passanger car had no problem if I went slow. At the trail head was a forest service camp set up with a huge tent. Further up the trail we met the crew of folks working on re-routing the section of trail that washed out (last year, I think). Other then that the trail was in good condition, for the distance we travled. From the very start, are amazing old growth trees, gigantic skunk cabbage and lots of ferns and moss. Even the Trilliums, were larger then usual! Their blooms were fadded, but the Bunch Berry Dogwoods were starting to bloom. False Solomans Seal was in full bloom along with Rosey Twisted Stalk and Wild Ginger. The Vine Maple is brilliant with it's bright new green leaves. Lou pointed out a Yew tree, to me. I have probably seen them before but never realized that was what it was! In the first mile or so were some areas of trail that had been flooded, from the ridge above, and left rocks on the trail. At about one mile the trail crosses a rocky creek where you get a stunning view of Sloan Peak. When we reached the Pilot Ridge trail junction we stopped and had a nice break down by the river before heading back. It is so peacful to sit and gaze at water rushing over boulders in a creek! As I poked around with my camera looking for the perfect shot of the water to ""frame up"", Lou gazed at the same creek wondering which little pocket would have a fish in it. We had a wonderful time, enjoying all the beauty nature has to offer. The weather was good, cool and great for hiking in a tee shirt. There were occasional sun breaks, and as we were driving back out, some showers.

The Darrington Rangers are indeed good to their word - the Mountain Loop is driveable from Darrington all the way to the washout at Bedal. Though I wouldn't recommend doing much more than tapping your brakes as your drive unless your idea of fun is to be fished out of the Stillagaumish by a tow truck. The Mountain Loop is covered by packed snow and ice starting at the White Chuck and kind of icy all the way from the center of Darrington. Though the snow does do a bit to even out the ruts potholes. FR 49 to the trailhead is where the fun really starts (who knew snow could make such interesting shapes?) and alternates between powder and packed powder bars all the way to the North Fork Sauk Trailhead. Road conditions deteriorate a bit beyond this point, but for now it looks like a moderate clearance AWD vehicle (aka subaru) could make it all the way to the Bald Eagle trailhead. But I digress... Eight hardy souls headed up the North Fork Sauk trail under cloudy skies and above a layer of fluffy powder. We had a spectacular view of Sloan Peak on the way up before dropping into the old growth forest along the banks of the river. I have rarely seen such enormous old-growth cedars and hemlocks. In the snow, this area is just spectacular. Snow frosted old growth, really cool ice on the rocks in the river - just hard to beat. The log crossing to get to Pilot Ridge was a bit dicey (as snow covered logs usually are), but we got across in good order (but a bit of delay in a fruitless search for alternate crossings) and headed up the endless switchbacks to Pilot Ridge. As the snow deepened, we donned our snowshoes, heading towards the even receding ridge. Regrettably, we hit our turnaround time about 500' below the really good views, but that's what happens when you try to snowshoe in deep powder. Probably would have taken us another half-hour to get there, but the weather was already starting to turn to wind and snow. The trail is on moderate slopes in a fairly dense forest and does not cross avalanche slopes - so relatively low danger in this regard. Really great snowshoeing trip, even without panoramic views - which would be possible with a little more time. 4-5"" of snow at the trailhead over frozen ground. Icy crust beneath a couple feet of powder starting around 3500.

We left Seattle on Friday August 6 and drove thru the rain and arrived at the Lost Creek trailhead ahead of the rain. We moved one car to the Sloan Creek trailhead and before we could get back the rain caught us and lasted almost steady for 18 hours or so. The we on this trip were Dona Snow-Miller, Rose Alfred, Sarah Fansler, Ray Delger and myself. We threw things together and headed up to the top of Lost Creek Ridge. We inspected the WTA work up near Bingley gap and report it looks good. At some point in here I had a conversation with a guy and his two sons who were headed to Lake Byrne. He asked us where we were headed and I told him we were doing the loop and he asked me if I had seen the sign about the bridges out and washouts and such. I told him we had not seen it but I knew Kennedy Hot Springs was washed out and several bridges on the Suiattle but it shouldn't be a problem. He kind of shook his head and went away. That night we camped about 1/3 mile beyond the Round Lake cut off at a nice spot just off the trail on the low side. There was ground water running through the site but enough high spots for tents. We did luck out with 30 dry minutes to throw up our tents and get dinner heated up. In the morning we had about one inch of water in our bowls which had been left out the night before. On Saturday we moved on to Camp Lake. Rose suggested that this part of the ""trail' was harder than the up part the day before. It certainly is no walk in the park! The weather was better but we had to imagine the views. Saturday night was dry and we awoke to great weather and we spent a lot of time on the ridge you cross to get to Lake Byrne checking out ALL the views. After spending more time at Lake Byrne we headed down to Kennedy. The upper mile or so of this trail is pretty rough with gradual improvement in tread condition as you decend. Kennedy, the former Hotsprings, is as washed out as all the pictures show. There is camping on the Byrne Lake side of the White Chuck in the trees and the toilet is still there. There is some sulfur smelling water flowing next to the river. We found a log to walk just above where Kennedy Creek enters the White Chuck. At the end of the log we had a short wade off a small island. We found the spring that the cabin used to be near (the pipe is gone). The toilet is still up the hill and there is a camping sign in a tree pointed to the gravel piles. We found the trail that goes south to the PCT and headed up. Soon we came to a new trail with no signs. We went with the new. Soon it merged with the old and soon enough it split again. We went with the new. The new trail goes more east than the old and we eventually ended up at the PCT where the new trail was marked as CLOSED! We headed south on the PCT and soon (1/4 mi.) came to a VERY washed out trail at Sitkum Creek. It took awhile to figure out that trail actually crossed here as it was easy to walk downstream along this mess. We found some logs to cross on. There are lots of logs but its a jungle. Boulder hopping might work. Immediately after crossing you are at the start of the Sitkum climbers route to Glacier Peak. Heading south again we ended up at Baekos Creek where the next big washout is. We camped here before crossing. Baekos was easy to cross on logs and once we found the trail on the south side (its more upstream than on the north side). I need to add here that each of these washout areas are badly undercut in places and care should be used in approaching. So off we go along a trail that has on it a fair amount of limbs and winter debris and a few logs here and there and I'm starting to think about the next place that could be washed out. Its not long and bingo the bridge over the White Chuck appears and its a wreck and the trail crosses over an area of water falls. I looked upstream and Dona and Sarah looked downstream. There is nothing easy up. The place Dona found is below the falls and its fairly easy to climb down the rock slide to the river. There are traces of an older trail near the river. We crossed on a couple of logs, walked up through the trees and gained the trail. The switch backs up the hill are in need of help both in logging and getting a creek to go back under a bridge. The lower Glacier meadows were great and we hiked on up to a place Dona and I had camped about 20 years ago near the cinder cone. And you know what, someone was there! They were the first folks since Camp Lake. We moved away a bit and had a geat evening. On Tuesday we hiked up over Red Pass to the junction with the North Fork of the Sauk trail. The PCT from Red Pass south could use some help as it is loosing its tread. At this junction we finally read an information sign about the area we had just passed through! Just think we may have missed all the fun if it hadn't been raining at the start (like we might have read the sign). On the hill down to the valley floor there is some water, two places in fact way up in the meadows. It was hot. Ray suggested the only thing missing was the devil himself! We camped Tuesday night at Red Creek. A great place to clean up and cool down. Hiking out the last bit we met the first person we had crossed paths with on the trail since Bingley Gap. And you know what, it was George Winters, the ranger out of Darrington whom some of us know. We saw 7 people, hiked about 30 miles and it something like 10 or 11000 feet of elevation change or whatever. Pretty much there was plenty of water. Bugs were low to non-existant and we had a great time.

We did the 3-day loop from Bald Eagle trailhead to the North Fork campground. We car-camped the first night at the campground in order to get an early start. I’ll focus on points that weren’t obvious enough to us beforehand. As noted by a previous poster, the transition from abandoned road to trail at 2.5 miles is gradual. The road doesn’t seem to exist beyond the “turnoff” to the trail, so you won’t notice the turn or transition. As of 8/2/04 there was a small stream a hundred yards or so before Long John Camp. There was also a mostly-stagnant stream at the camp which might be an acceptable water source – I’m not sure. The bug level seemed tolerable, but we decided to continue another mile to Spring Camp. Unfortunately we somehow failed to see this camp. Previous reports as well as the 100 Hikes book don’t say anything about its being hard to find, so we must have spaced out. On the other hand, a ranger we met on the trail wasn’t aware of any campsites between Long John Camp and Blue Lake. So if you want Spring Camp, keep your eyes open. We proceeded to Little (lower) Blue Lake, 13 miles from the trailhead. It took us a total of 8 hours to get here from the trailhead (5.5 hours to Long John Camp and 2.5 hours beyond) at a moderately brisk backpacking pace but with several food stops. Contrary to what we’d read, this was a delightful place to camp. There are actually 3 lower Blue Lakes, one right after the next, the third being the least small, with a good campsite in the trees just to the left of the trail. In hindsight we were glad we’d missed Spring Camp – but only because we’d started early enough to reach the lakes at a decent hour. The next day we moved camp up to the main Blue Lake, a half mile further up the trail and then another half mile off the trail. After relaxing for a while we took a dayhike up Johnson Mt. for spectacular views. Getting there requires hiking back to the main trail, a mile of climbing to about 6100’, and then a trail that climbs another 600’ to the peak. (All the junctions are signed.) The last section features a few dicey spots where the trail is eroded, but it’s doable. The dayhike took around 2.5 hours including lunch at the top. When we returned we took a quick swim in Blue Lake, surprisingly warm considering the 100 Hikes book says it’s usually frozen at this time of year. There were bazillions of bugs (flies, bees, mosquitoes) at both lakes. They were surprisingly uninterested in us (was it the DEET? the garlic?) or our food, but all that whizzing and buzzing made it feel like a combination of O’Hare airport and a lake with way too many jet skis. The third day we were awakened at 5am by the pitter-patter of raindrops on our tent fly. We were glad we’d hiked up Johnson the previous day since we saw very little this day. There is an established campsite shortly before you start the big descent off the ridge; the first water was shortly after we started the descent. Once the descent gets serious, hiking poles or at least a stick (of which there are many for the taking) is a big help. Watch out for the very slippery bridge (over land) near the bottom of the descent. We didn’t see a good log crossing over the Sauk, but the ford wasn’t bad in our tevas. We encountered two other parties during the trip; both had come up the ridge, and both camped on the ridge because they couldn’t make the lake on the first day. If you come that way and don’t like the idea of a dry camp, make sure you start early. You can see our photos at: http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmrNw0aMmTGQA.

I had been hearing so many contradictory reports on the state of the North Fork Sauk trail that I decided to have a look for myself this past Sunday. I ended up going all the way to Red Pass and back in about 11 hours of hiking. Except for the 20 or so trees down on the trail, it is in pretty good shape Here are some of the specifics: Necessary (Green Trails) maps - Sloan Peak (#111) and Glacier Peak (#112). round trip distance - 20 miles Total elevation gain - 4,500 ft Trip time - 11.5 hours calories expended - 5,000 As already stated, there are many trees down across the trail. Some of them are enormous. They slow you down a bit but are generally pretty easy to get around. The log that allowed a dry crossing of Red Creek (approx 4 miles from TH) is no longer there. Bring some sandles and ford it. The water was mid calf - an easy ford. About 1/4 mile of Makinaw Shelter there is a short (200 or 300 yd) section of trail which has been chewed up by the river but it is easy to get through. Within about 1/8 mile of Makinaw Shelter, there is an open section of trail (maybe 200 yds long) which is so overgrown that you can't see your feet. If you pass through here in the morning you will get soaked. Bring 3 pairs of socks! Between Trail Head and Red Pass there are only 2 places where you will see any snow on the trail: About 1/4 mile from the junction with the PCT there is a gully with snow in it - about 15' across. A slip here could be catastrophic, but without too much difficuly you can climb above this patch if you don't have an ice axe. There is no snow at all above the junction with the PCT until you are right at Red Pass. Approx 200 yds short of the pass there is a 100 yd snow patch with good run out - not dangerous. The basin north of Red Pass (Glacier Peak Meadows) still has a lot of snow - but it's perhaps 30% melted out and going fast. There are no biting flies yet and the only mosquitoes I noticed were at Red Creek. Lots of marmots and Indian Paintbrush. Enjoy!