After waking up this morning and seeing the lousy weather it was a bit difficult deciding whether to forge ahead with today's planned hike. I contacted my hiking buddy and she said "let's go for it". And we did and it was the right decision. We drove through rain and endured a very long road starting in Darrington and ending just off FR 49. Parts of FR 49 are covered in potholes and sections of snow and ice. The snow is piled primarily in the center of the road and I was worried about the bottom of my car planing over the snow but it wasn't a problem. There is a small stream of water crossing the road just before the trailhead. I parked just before this water crossing and after walking past it, I realized that we could easily have driven over it. As we hit the trailhead, the rain had stopped.
As for the trail, it is beautiful. The forest is lush and the trees are tall and huge. Not just a few trees here and there, but many big trees making their presence along the way. Snow covers much of the well defined trail but it poses no difficulties. There were a couple of downed trees that were easy to get around. You can hear the river constantly and its flow is hearty. We didn't make it to the collapsed Mackinaw shelter as we spent time going to Sauk Falls and taking a short jaunt on the Sloan Peak climbing route (that trail wasn't very pretty and it quickly led to water and tree obstacles).
We didn't see any mountain views as the forest dominated the trail. Any peek a boo views were obscured by high fog. At the end of the day we felt lucky to have had such a beautiful hike in what appeared to be a dismal day in town.
The privy is open at the TH. No toilet paper so plan accordingly.
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