Old Sauk River Trail, North Fork Sauk Falls & North Fork Sauk River — Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

With my knee still feeling wonky for whatever reason I figured the flatter the better for this weekend. Since I wasn't sure what the weather would be like I brought along both cameras - and my umbrella. As it turned out the pocket camera did most of the work while the SLR stayed tucked safe and dry inside my backpack. I did take it out for some macro shots but overall it was too hard to juggle the umbrella and camera for steady shots. First up, the Old Sauk trail. I wandered along at a slow pace, dodging deep puddles and trying not to slip on the sea of fallen leaves. Very pretty place, lots of moss and toadstools. I made my way to the end and backtracked to the car before heading further down the Mountain Loop. Along the way I was nearly run off the slick road by an oncoming high-speed moron in a pickup truck. Next came the North Fork Sauk trail. The road in was in pretty good shape overall but with all the water fill pot-holes my silver Outback was more of a coffee color by the time I reached the trailhead. I wandered about two miles up the trail before the water started to seep into my boots. It was raining pretty steady now so I turned around. Nice old growth but I didn't see any cool mushrooms on this one. Finally I made a stop at the falls on the way out. They were really roaring right now. The trail down was pretty slick from all the fallen maple leaves. I opted not to work my way down to the base with everything so slippery. I did my best to get a panorama with my little Gorillapod. Soggy soggy day but everything smelled very nice and fresh. Cant remember the last hike I've worn my full on raingear. I'll have to return for these trails again sometime in drier weather. Trip photos here: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/saukriver