Suiattle River Trail — Friday, Apr. 17, 1998

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Working six days a week doesn't leave a fellow much time for hiking, let alone volunteering. Lucky me, a whole weekend off. I tried to come up last weekend, however, snow in Oso detered me. Only three cars at the trailhead' I thought this was like a superhighway of a trail. The trail is wide and flat, hardly a stone out of place. I suspect this is due in part to the efforts of the Backcountry Horsemen, whom I have seen working on this trail. Here a camp, there a camp. At six miles is a wonderful camp at the Canyon Creek crossing. A perfect place to introduce your children or spouse to camping away from the car. The Canyon Creek bridge (originally built in 1953 by the USFS, and redecked in 1989 by the Backcountry Horsemen) will be receiving a much needed overhaul this spring/summer. Check with the rangers before planning a cross-creek adventure. I feel very fortunate to have seen no evidence of horses on this trail. I saw a couple in their 60's moving quickly up the trail, one of only two groups I saw today. Plenty of wildlife was visible, as the noisy river drowns out loud footsteps. I let a lady with two big dogs running up on me have it. Nobody likes it when someone's (gr) dogs run at them. All in all, no rain, so I give it a ten. It took five hours to do the twelve miles.