Fun family hike, suitable for all ages, stroller friendly. Limited River views, Beautiful flowers.

We met our friends, Anya (Girl and Dog) and Russ, at the North TH which is 3.6 miles from the MTN Loop HWY intersection in Darrington. The forest is beautiful with its moss covered bigleaf maples, cedars, hemlock and Douglas firs. The green of the moss and fern covered forest floor adds to its beauty. The turquoise color of the river enhances the beauty of the area. We saw a pair of common mergansers, a few fungi, and many areas of British Soldier Lichen on some of the Doug firs. We stayed on the main trail until we saw the sign for the middle TH. We took this trail and ate lunch at one of the many picnic tables in the area. There is a large paved parking lot, a toilet, and a garbage can. Here the new ADA graveled 1 mile loop begins. We returned to our TH via the upper section of the loop which eventually connected to the main trail. It was good to share the beautiful, sunny day with our friends and their dogs!

Sometimes I wonder...it was cold and rainy and I was headed out hiking...is this obsession? Old Sauk seemed like a nice enough choice for a day like this. The generally heavy canopy kept most of the raindrops off, and I was far from soaked through when I finished hiking. My only regret was that my mind was too busy working on other things to absorb all the sounds of a drippy riverside walk. The river was quite full, and a lovely grey-green colour. The trail had some patches of compact, icy snow on it, but nothing particularly slippery. Trail was mostly clear of debris, and the one large down tree that was there was quickly being dispatched by a WTA work party.

Nice, rather flat wood/river walk. On a Thursday afternoon, it was mine alone. No other cars, no other people. I was hoping the little burst of colder, wetter weather might have caused a mushroom flush, but there were only a few early ones peeking out so far. The trail follows the river, but the views are mostly peek-a-boo. The ADA portion of the loop was maintained fairly well, but I would guess a typical wheelchair user would get a bit of a bouncy ride and probably want a helper for some of the sections that have larger and more loose gravel. Because it's so flat, it can be a pretty quick hike, so if you're looking to spend a day out, you might want to have a second short trail in mind to fill out your day.