Good news for those traveling to the trailhead via the mountain loop highway and FR 49.   The county has just finished grading the mountain loop highway for the spring opening (this week).   I came around via Darrington since the gates were still closed at Barlow Pass.   You are on gravel for 7 miles on the mountain loop.  My first caution is the road surface conditions.   While no potholes, the grading significantly crowned the road surface.  The center section is VERY soft and is already starting form ruts.  In addition to wet, clay like surface, and the result is a slippery surface.   My second warning is the 6.8 miles on FR 49.   It is in very poor shape.   Pot holes next to pot holes within potholes.   Take it slowly.  A SUV is recommended but not necessarily required.   

My day hike was limited to the first 5 miles of trail.   I did not make it up to the shelter.   Overall the tread is in very good shape.   The main obstacles are the down trees across the trail.   Thankfully, the WTA crew up here is weekend will remove most of the trees in this first section.   Until then, it is still under, over, or around.  The trail is still closed to stock.   There are two locations with 36” plus trees crossing the trail (near wilderness boundary).   

This was my first visit to this trail, and I was really in awe of the large diameter trees along the trail.   It is not uncommon to see 6’ plus diameter Douglas Fir and Red cedar.   I am glad these groves still exist in the wilderness areas.   The river has a lot of water from recent rains and melting snow.   I had a snack along one noisy section of white water.   

The mosquitoes are starting to buzz around but not too bad today.   Wild flowers are also beginning to appear especially in the sunny areas.   

I passed two climbers headed up to Glacier Peak.   They sped by while I leisurely  headed back to the car and a snack in Darrington.   

Four of us went up Thursday morning to the mountain loop highway. We entered the highway at around 10 AM, 2 1/2 hours later we made it to the trailhead for the North Fork of the Sauk river. we were in a three-quarter ton Chevy Silverado with plenty of clearance, but the potholes and the ruts were enormous and it was so consistently bumpy that you almost hit your head on the ceiling of the truck and one location on the spur that led to the trailhead we had to strap a tree fallen across the road and pull it out of the way. Our top speed never exceeded 5 mph, which is hilarious as we really didn’t want to go 40 mph. 15 mph would’ve been a dream come true.  
when you get to the trailhead it’s like an apocalyptic scene. There is a massive, and I mean massive tree that came down and it obliterated nearly everything in the parking area. The signage and stuff still stands along with the toilet that is there. The trail has an abundance of down trees over it crawl under walkovers and walk arounds. It’s not absolutely horrible but it’s not ready for prime time by any stretch. We need to get a crew up there to spend a day or two cleaning it up a wee bit. The  plan was to make it to the bridge  and our pace was really good on the trail. It was driving on the mountain loop highway and the access road to the trail that did us in for the day because it ate up so much time we knew we had to conserve time to get back to civilization before dark. Over all   I think it would benefit everybody if whoever manages the Mountain Loop, Highway would post the status, pothole and rut, wise and washout wise of the highway. calling it a road is a stretch. It’s just a constant rut. I’m fully aware that it is winter time / off season for the most part on the mountain loop highway, but maybe a sign at either entrance, describing the conditions of the road currently like someone would with a fire danger warning sign could really help. Nobody wins when a vehicle gets stuck or breaks down due to road conditions and I understand that it’s buyer beware but we could help each other out quite a bit by better communication. Overall, I would highly recommend staying away from the Mountain Loop, Highway until whoever it is that decides work can be done and should be done gets the work done to improve the conditions  

 That’s the end of my rant. 
by the way, I am a crewmember of the volunteer corps of WTA   

Hiked the entirety of the North Fork Sauk River Trail on Saturday 10/14/23. The trail was in great shape with a lot of very interesting mushrooms along the lower elevation part of the trail. Views are great leading up to the intersection with the PCT. The PCT southbound from here was still marked as closed. The Mackinaw shelter is no longer standing but there are some cool campsites at that location near the river. There are a good amount of rusty nails around where the cabin stood - something to be aware of if hiking with a dog. 

Well it happened.  Airplane Fire has closed this chunk of the PCT. 

I managed to time it perfectly, researching my run Sunday morning, only to reach the junction of North Fork Sauk River Trail & PCT early Monday morning to find a closure notice.  Not the end of the world as the trail is still beautiful and I simply turned north for a few miles on the PCT before returning back the way I came.  But loops are better! Definitely a bummer for PCT thru-hikers though as the 15 mile detour has some pretty hefty elevation.

Trails are in good shape (fire aside) and there's always next year.