The trail is in excellent condition to the Mackinaw shelter and beyond. There's a small snow pile covering about 10 feet of the trail just before the shelter and easily crossed. Runoff crosses the trail in several places, so wear your waterproof boots- There are a also a number of meadow crossings with close in brush crowding the trail that are very damp this time of year. I had set out to take four days and do the White Pass/Pilot Ridge loop, however snow fields still linger from about 4,000ft and up, and I was forced to turn back at about the 5,500ft mark. Almost everything is in bloom all along the trail, and mule deer can be seen grazing in the ridge meadows.

After losing the Pilot Ridge trail in the snow at about 4,000', we found our way over the top of Pilot Ridge, down the other side and onto FS Rd. 4920, which led us back to the parking lot. Just walking the dog. (Executive Summary) We started from the parking area around 7AM, and encountered a group of back-country skiers headed for Glacier Peak. They were well equipped with skis and in one case a pink TuTu, so I'm hoping there is a trip report for that. Seemed like a fun group. We got on the trail just ahead of the Tutu Skiers, and with a light day-pack were able to jog all the way to the Pilot Ridge turnoff. The first log-crossing looked dangerous, no bark and water washing over the top. Looking further upstream there was a stack of logs, with the top few high enough to safely cross. One log looked pretty good but has lost about 1/2 the bark and is slippery. There is a higher log with bark on, but a root ball obstacle at the far end. We took that route. Anything a Corgi can do, a Westie can do better! Climbed over the root ball and jumped to the far bank with a Jackie Chan move. There is a lot of switchbacks and a few blowdowns on the climb up towards Pilot Ridge, but with the cool temperatures and the sun filtering through the trees we enjoyed the climb. Got a few nice pictures of a golden-mantled ground squirrel. We lost the trail under the snow at around 4,000'. Lacking a track on my map, I simply headed for an obvious saddle on the the Topo map. A couple of times I spotted sawn logs, indicating the trail traveled this way as well. After a mile of dead reckoning, I gained a ridge just over 5,000 feet. It was about 11AM, and rather than heading back I noted FS 4920 about a mile South and 2,000 feet down the slope. So we headed in that direction. I broke out onto a talus slope with great views to the S. and of Bedal Peak. As we bushwacked lower, I started to see stumps indicating logging. So I had hope the road was nearby. I was grateful the Devil's Club has not yet filled out, the bushwhacking would be much tougher later in the year. We eventually broke out onto the road, and were able to jog back and return over a bridge to the parking lot around 2:30 PM. I was delighted to see that bridge, as I was concerned I would not be able to re-cross the Sauk, and have to go back the way I came up over the top of Pilot Ridge.

The weather forecast was not favourable but it also seemed to be rather uncertain and changing quite a bit so we tried for a lucky break. It did not happen. The NF-49 road is drivable to 300 m (1000 ft) before it forks to the North Fork Sauk River Trail. The last bit is covered by about 40 cm (16 in) of wet snow, should be gone pretty fast. At one point between mile 5 and 6 there is a spot the Forester just barely cleared (washout, water over the road surface). There is lots of fall down branches and debris on the road. The North Fork Sauk River Trail #649 has intermittent dirty snow all the way to 1300 m (4300 ft). We skinned from mile 1 but there was a lot of walking, lot of crossing the short bare ground patches on skis. On the way back we had skins on from Mackinaw Shelter back to where we stashed hiking boots, this worked well for the terrain and conditions (rain on wet, dirty snowpack). Continuous snow from around 1300 m (4300 ft). Made it to about 1850 m (6100 ft) on the S side of the ridge between White Mountain and Red Pass before turning back. Around 1800 m (5900 ft) the snow changed quite a bit from spring isothermal pack to 6 cm (2 in) crust buried under 5-10 cm (2-4 in) of new snow. The new snow was forming proto sastrugi on the spine of the rib we were skinning up. In the depression between the ribs a weak wind slab (possible cross loading). The storm snow was not bonded uniformly, it was sliding here and sticking there. Several natural avalanches on S side (size 1-2, estimated 1-2 days old, likely from solar radiation, the biggest run about 250 m (800 ft), debris field 20 x 20m (70 x 70 ft) seen. No natural avalanche observed on Saturday. Skiing the steep part sucked, the mellow terrain in the treed avy path bellow was much better but woefully short. A long way to get so little skiing done, good physical and mental workout though. Slideshow and google earth screenshots: Attempt at skiing Glacier Peak via White Mountain. https://www.flickr.com/photos/runningclouds/sets/72157644183464542/

There's little I can add to the chorus of praise for this trail and the views & access it affords to the North Fork of the Sauk River, so I'll hit a few practical points for the small army of hikers & climbers who transit this trail on the way to the PCT or Glacier Peak beyond. The #649 has been thoroughly brushed, I'd guess within the past month. The trail tread is in fantastic condition all the way to the junction with the PCT. We counted eleven foot bridges between the trailhead and the Mackinaw Shelter, all in good repair. The new log bridge at Red Creek –replete with handrails on both sides– will inspire gratitude for trail crews, evidence of whose presence is visible in stacks of bridge timbers rough-cut from the massive blowdowns along the route and the odd coffee can of galvanized spikes. We saw no evidence of the foot bridge across to the Pilot Ridge Trail (#652), but we weren't trying to get across so we didn't look very hard. There are a few nice campsites at Red Creek with good water available from the noisy creek immediately east of the campsites. There's a vault toilet in good repair. There are tons of nice campsites in the area of the Mackinaw Shelter, though be warned: this is the first campsite in all my travels where I experienced a woodchuck/wood rat (saw both around...didn't dust for the guilty species' prints) climb 30' up a tree, 15' out a limb, and down 10' of paracord to raid a food cache. I suspect if you contain obvious food smells (exposed nuts, greasy food paper &c) they'd opt for lower-hanging fruit, so to speak. There is much access to good water at this camp, a vault toilet, and good firewood for gathering near camp and just up-trail. The shelter itself appeared to be free of rodent droppings and was more or less dry (one obvious hole in the roof), and is festooned with giant nails for hanging stuff. Some of these are not bent down on the inside/outside and are sharp/rusty, so mind your head! There are a few freshets in the 3000' climb between the Mackinaw Shelter and the junction with the PCT, but none you'd consider an ideal or reliable water source. I've pumped snowmelt from an elk's footprint in dire straits before though, so let your exigent thirst be your guide. tl;dr-a gentle walk in the woods to the Mackinaw Shelter; kink-inducing climb to the PCT. Mind your water in the 2nd half.

A winter weather warning was issued about a day before we were going to hike the North Fork Sauk Trail. Saturday morning, we set out for the Verlot Public Service Center anyway. The man at the counter didn't know how the roads would be. He said one guy had tried to go up the Mountain Loop Highway that morning, but turned back at Barlow Pass. We headed towards the pass in hopes that we wouldn't be forced to turn back. The worst part of the highway was at Barlow Pass, but it wasn't too bad at all. Road 49 off the highway was in good shape, except for a tree that had fallen across the road. After ten or fifteen minutes with a hatchet, we were able to pass through. Snow was falling when we started hiking at about 1PM. Our goal was to get to Mackinaw Shelter for an overnight stay, but we didn't know what to expect on the trail since it's about a 1000 foot gain from the trailhead. The forest is absolutely beautiful, especially covered in snow. I imagine this could possibly be the last weekend of the year to hike this without snowshoes. At times, in the thickest parts of the forest, there was no snow on the actual trail. In other places, there were a lot of puddles. But mostly we were trampling through snow (without snow shoes), especially through the clearings. We crossed several streams with water across the trail and quite a few bridges. We reached Mackinaw Shelter at 4:30, just as it was getting dark. Snow was coming down hard. Needless to say, it was freezing. We cooked dinner and tried to start a fire with some of the wood that someone had left in the shelter, but it was just too wet. With nothing else to do, we got in the tent around 6PM and stayed there until about 7:30AM. Loooonnng night. All night, we could hear wind gusts coming down off the mountains and then hitting the trees above us. That was followed by clumps of snow falling off of tree branches and pounding the ground around us. We woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland. The river is right there for water. We started back towards the trailhead a little after 9:30AM. There was a lot more snow on the ground this day. Snow was about 1.5' in places, making it difficult to hike through. It was an awesome hike though, especially in that weather. Arrived back at the truck around 1PM and headed back towards the Mountain Loop Highway. We did stop off and hike the short trail down to Nork Fork Sauk Falls, which I highly recommend. Instead of going up Barlow Pass again, we went towards Darrington and roads were great. I would love to come back in summer and continue up towards the PCT and beyond.