Baker River — Saturday, Apr. 14, 2007

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

Headed out to the Baker River / Baker Lake on Sunday, 4/15 in an attempt to check out the Noisy Creek Fir, a supposed nearly 14 foot diameter Douglas Fir (biggest in Cascades I think) that resides a little ways up Noisy Creek. Baker Lake Road is washed out approx. 3 miles before trailhead, as previously reported. The washout is reasonably simple to get around on foot, and the road has no significant obstacles, quite a few downed trees though. The initial part of the trail, before the suspension bridge, has one pretty bad blowdown, but it's getting pretty well traveled and is far from impossible. The big expensive suspension bridge is still there, thank goodness, and so is the bridge over a side creek closely afterward. Only problem is that it appears that creek jumped its banks during the flood, so there is a big dry creek channel right after the bridge. Not really that big of a problem since it's dry. After a mile or so of good trail, while still backtracking along the river, the trail confidently shoots right into the river's current channel... The trail is gone. I bushwhacked along the bank for at least a good third of a mile without any luck. It's not terribly difficult bushwhacking, and the trail may reappear eventually, but at the time being, the east shore of Baker Lake and Noisy Creek is most easily reached with a boat of some kind... I did not continue up the Baker River past the suspension bridge, but I did talk to a couple who went to Sulphide Camp and said that it was reasonably passable with some washout and blowdown difficulties. No disappearing trail syndrome though from what it sounded like. Looks like it's going to be a difficult few years.