The biggest problem on this trail is the derned blueberries.They continually stop a hiker from making any progress.We did the best we could to eradicate this problem,but barely made a dent. The trail is steeper thanI thought it would be. Saw a bear and her cub,and lots of dark blue bear scat as well. See ya on the trail!

The Mallardy Ridge trail is the one sane way to get to Cutthroat Lakes, and Bald Mountain. It is about 4.5 miles to the lakes, with a 600 ft. total gain, but includes numerous ups and downs, so it can be strenuous in both directions. The DNR road from the Sultan side was locked, so we went to the ranger station at Verlot, who handed us a flyer describing this hike. We had thought about the Bald Mtn. trail, but it is over 10 miles one way. This is a gorgeous hike, with dozens of lakes at the end of the trip. The first 2 miles are an easy walk. It gets a bit harder at 2 miles, as it starts to climb. The lakes are beautiful, with numerous camp sites. Bald Mtn. is an easy climb above the lakes. The flies were pretty bad, and they went away as we applied bug repellant, then the mosquitos found us. It urged us to keep moving. There was almost no snow on the trail. This was a great day hike, and we will do it again.

We wanted to hike in to Cutthroat Lakes the easy way, by Road P5000 as described in Best Hikes With Children, but when we called DNR, we learned that road is permanently gated and locked, because there has been so much vandalism and garbage there. So I guess we'll have to do it the hard way again, by way of the Walt Bailey Trail.

This trail trailhead is at the end of FS Rd #4030, 7 mi east of Verlot (Mountain loop dr). The first 1 1/2 mi are snow free and in good condition. Solid snow is encountered at the first meadows at about 3800 ft. The snow is relatively easy to walk on, but I still pooped out and couldn't make it to the end. This area will probably be better around mid june. The road to the trailhead has several nice views.