North Fork Sauk River, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section K - Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass — Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Hiked N. Fork Sauk River trail up to the PCT junction and then from there to Red Pass, where I camped 2 nights. The middle day was spent day-hiking cross-country to the top of the White Chuck Glacier and back. Returned via N. Fork Sauk River trail again on the 3rd day. N. Fork Sauk River trail has some issues: * A short stretch of trail between Rainey Camp and Red Creek has been washed out. It's fairly easy to navigate around this. Follow the newly beaten path. * The bridge over Red Creek has been washed out. The crossing is easily done on logs just a few yards upstream. * About 100 yards of trail before Mackinaw Shelter was extremely brushy. Stinging Nettle is present in abundance here. The trail through this stretch gets very muddy in spots. * At about 4500' an avalanche has left numerous trees across the trail over the course of about a few hundred yards. The first half of this is difficult to navigate. A temporary route straight up through forest exists as an alternative but it can be difficult to follow. The PCT was in pristine condition up to Red Pass. Past there are stretches still covered in snow. Red Pass had some snow providing water. There is very limited camping here. Just enough room for a couple of small tents. On my second day I traveled cross-country from Red Pass to the top of the White Chuck Glacier. It quite an amazing day, exhausting and exhilarating. Even though I had a USGS topo I still had trouble navigating my way to the glacier. This was surprising because the entire route is visible from Red Pass. It just looks completely different up close. The hike out was more pleasant being mostly downhill. The meadows above treeline along the N. Fork Sauk River trail were outstanding. They hold the largest patch of Tiger Lilly I've ever seen, an entire field of them. I also noticed that a horde of mosquitoes seemed to be hanging around the campsite just west of Red Creek. No doubt the existence of this camp is only reason there are so many. Give us all a break and don't camp there in summer. http://www.flickr.com/jasonracey