A late start and I hiked into Macinaw Shelter for the night, setting up my tent just before the rain hit. Comfortable temperatures and very few bugs! Shared the space with a family of three. It rained most of the night and I awoke to low clouds that didn't look like they would burn off anytime soon. So I abandoned my plans to hike out over Pilot Ridge, left my tent standing and overnight gear behind, and dayhiked out to Red Pass and up Portal Peak. The trail was very soggy and surprisingly eroded in places. I found a party of Moutaineers on the top of Portal, also hoping for a break in the clouds. No such luck. I snapped a cloud photo and descended back to my camp, packed up my gear, and hiked out to my car.

Absolutly Jaw Dropping Scenery along the whole hike!!!! On day one i made the treck to Blue Lake. 20\20 Hind sight says i should have packed more water. Pilot Ridge is dry already. There are few options for gathereing water. There are a dirty snow patches just before reaching Johnson Mtn that could be melted and filtered. I elected to just head for Blue lake for more water...This was a mistake as i arived at Blue Lake heat stressed and dehydarated. Camped overnight at Blue Lake...and headed out the Blue Lake High route...which i consider a glorified mountain goat path. It may make some people feel exposed. Still some patches of snow making this route difficult. Once on along the PCT water is still plentiful for filtering. I planned on making this a three day back pack trip. But bulding a bulding thunder storm in the east, propted me to fast track this hike out..This meant a 21 mile plus day out of Blue lake. This loop would best be done in 3 to 4 days not two. I have seen multiple mileage figures for the complete loop. My GPS track listed as 31.717 miles. Yes i did this in just two days. Bugs were minimal. There simply is not enough space for photos on this site to do this trip justice..click this link for more photos. http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7985257 Theres lots of photos.

First off, it took 45 minutes longer to get to the trail head than I expected. It's not a big deal, but I was unaware that the Mountain Trail Loop turns into a hard-packed road and the speed limit drops to 25. So the drive from Snohomish that had been planned at 90 minutes was then 135. Now I know! The hike itself was lovely. Lots of wildflowers in bloom in colors of white, pink, and purple. Someday I'll learn all the names. The river crossing was fine and we helped the kidlets across. The mossy rocks are really beautiful as are the trees. We hiked just over two miles in and turned around. It took around 3 hours at our snail's pace. A beautiful hike, but if I weren't camping I don't know if I would make the drive again.

Road is fine. Some potholes. There is a fairly significant tree blown down early on, and a dicey stream crossing for people like myself who like to wear sneakers. Also, watch out for nettles. No snow on the way to the Mackinaw shelter. I went up to about 4000 feet elevation on the ridge before I hit my turnaround time/ran out of water. There was still no snow at this point. Looking at the ridge on the other side of the Sauk it appears that snow starts between 4000 and 5000 feet.

The walk along the North Fork Sauk River is a gentle but persistant grade through towering groves of cedar and fir and patches of wildflowers, playing "tag" with the river itself. Many a good piece of country has been saved by bad roads, and a fairly uncrowded trail is the reward for the dusty, pot hole strewn miles you have to drive along the mountain loop and Forest Service road 49. Other than a couple groups of overnighters who were leaving as we were starting out on the trail, we had this ancient forest glade to ourselves all day long. The trail was mostly dry, with the exception of the first stream crossing at an avalanche chute that requires either waterproof boots or skillful rock hopping. The rest of the trail is in great shape, with repairs last year to flood damage from 2006, including a new, very sturdy bridge over Red Creek. Red Creek is a treat on a warm day, as the cascading, ice cold waters make a sort of natural air conditioning, a great cool down spot, although anyone taking advantage of the campsites here might find it annoying after an hour or so on all but the warmest of days. Much better camping can be had 1 1/2 miles later at Mackinaw Shelter. The shelter itself isn't somewhere I'd choose to spend the night,since this 1957 creation has seen many hard winters, leans a bit, and looks like it wouldn't keep out more than a light drizzle, but there's a nice fire ring, some fine tent sites and a backwoods toilet with a lovely view of the river. There's a good, small beach with a log that lets you cross to the other shore for exploration. Sitting there having lunch, I really wished I'd had a tent a sleeping bag with me. There are definately bear active along the trail. We saw two fresh piles of bear scat along the way, the first about one mile from the trailhead, the other about a mile from Macinaw Shelter. Are there two bears in this valley, or just one who uses the trail as his highway? In either case, be sure to take the usual precautions, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to see one...from a distance. An unexpected plus: there were several species of colorful butterflys in the open, moist sections of the trail.