North Fork Sauk River — Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

If you seek solitude and mystical old growth in a mellow trail, North Fork Sauk River is probably the one for you. This trail is in the best shape of any trail of any that I have ever hiked, it is very smooth with few rocks and roots to trip you up. There is also the largest variety of mushrooms along this trail than on any other trail I've been on. There are only a few actual river access points along this trail but it's still worth the hike. At about 2 miles in is the Pilot Ridge Trail split, and at about 4 miles is the new bridge crossing of Red Creek. We hiked all the way to the Mackinaw Shelter (5.5 miles) and proceeded to line the beach with numerous cairns. The hike in took about 3 hours, we stayed at the shelter for about 1 1/2 hours, then it took just under 2 hours to get back.