Pilot Ridge, North Fork Sauk River — Friday, Jul. 8, 2022

After seeing some trip reports from previous years about the Pilot Ridge trail, I decided to check out the trail on this day hike.  From Darrington I headed south on the Mountain Loop highway (also numbered Forest Road 20 once you leave Darrington).  At Forest Road 49, turn left and head east about 7 miles.  Turn left at the sign and travel about 1/8 mile to the trailhead.  From the trailhead I hiked 1.9 miles along the N. Fork Sauk trail.  The N. Fork Sauk trail sees a lot of hiker use because it is the primary access for mountain climbers headed for Glacier Peak.  Along the way I passed a U.S. Forest Service trail crew, who had done a ton of work cutting out trees that had fallen across the trail, and were currently working on improving the trail across a stream.  Even though there were no horse tracks, the section of the  N. Fork Sauk trail that I hiked is now passable for stock animals.

At the trail junction I turned right and traveled south a short distance to the log crossing over the N. Fork Sauk River.  The snow melt was so high the normal log crossing had water 1/3 of the way up the log.  Since one would have to butt scoot across the wet log, I didn't want to get my feet wet, so I went upstream and crossed the river on a jumble of logs that were higher above the water.

I hiked up the Pilot Ridge trail for two and a half hours, doing light trail clearing work along the way, at which point I turned around.  There is one 4 foot diameter log across the trail that needs attention some day (see photo), but one can crawl underneath it for now.