Note: the road to the trailhead will be closed June 22 - July 3rd for repair! I believe closed at the Mountain loop highway, cutting off access for a week. With the dreary forecast and still feeling tired I opted for another flat forest hike, this time with Yumi along for the trip. As a side quest we decided to find a wild ginger flower, which neither of us had seen. Unfortunately we didn't bother to research where exactly to find them and what they look like before hand! Despite a helpful trail-register log from Quark (Did you find Jimmy?) we proceeded to call every weird looking little flower a wild ginger simply because we didn't know what it was. In the end we neither saw nor smelled one. The road in is in good shape aside from some potholes and the gaping chasm near the fork for Sloan creek campground. At the turn off from the Mountain loop a sign announces a road closure from June 22 - July 3rd for repairs! Along with the repair theme a lot of recent work has been done along the trail. A large group was camped out at Sloan creek as we walked through. This was at first puzzling since no vehicle was seen anywhere. We assume it was the trail maintenance crew and their van was parked elsewhere. Lots of freshly cut logs and not a single blow down all the way to Red creek, our turn around point. The creek was really raging and there didn't appear to be any easy log to cross. I believe we did spot the new log which is still standing vertically and rooted to the ground. One large snag was cleared of brush and had a red ribbon tied around it. Not far away on a large tree a metal wire loop was tied, I assume to drag the felled log. I wished this was already in place since I'd hoped to reach the shelter further up the trail. Despite no wild ginger findings it was a nice trip. The sun came in and out of the clouds, rain came on and off, but everything was consistently green and pleasant. Photos: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/northforksauk2

The Mtn Loop highway is completely snow free and open for business. I always enjoy the N Fk Sauk River trail. Currently road 49 (N Fk Sauk Rd) is closed for repairs at about 1/2 mile before the trailhead. There is room for about 3 cars near the repair spot. The FS is installing a culvert - I don't know how long it will be out of commission. You will get wet crossing the creeklet, but it's not a scary crossing at all - it's just wet. Lots of stuff in bloom right now. Tons of wild ginger, and trillium is at it's height. Blue bell, yellow violet, star flowered soloman's seal, false soloman's seal, and bleeding heart. The trail has been logged out recently, and is in good shape. about 4 miles in, the trail is very recently out from under snow - nothing is blooming yet, so if you miss the early spring blooms along the first portion of the trail, a few weeks from now the rest will be in bloom, and likely Red Creek will be crossable by the average hiker (NOTE: The Forest Service is going to install a footlog at Red Creek sometime this summer!)

These three short hikes make for a great day trip, a sort of Sauk Valley sampler, all accessed by the same route, FS road 49. The first hike, North Fork Sauk Falls, is less than two miles after the turn off from the Mountain Loop. We had to approach from Darrington because Barlow Pass isn't open yet, turning on to FS 49 just before Bedal Creek campground. The trail is very short, maybe 1/8th mile with a drop of 100' to the falls, which are thundering and misting mightily with snowmelt on this warm sunny weekend. Watch out for the rickety stairs and loose hand rails near the bottom. FS Road 49 ends 1/2 mile before the trailhead for the other two hikes due to a washout. There's just room enough to turn around and park abot 200' before the washout. Crossing the gully can be done on the uphill side, an easy leap in you're athletic or a short scramble if you're not. The trailhead is an easy 1/2 mile later at Sloan Creek campground. After pausing to pay our respects to a grove of ancient cedars and sign the trail register, we walked about 200 feet and took the trail to the left for Red Mountain. In a steep (800') mile, you'll come to a former FS lookout site with great views of Sloan Peak and the Cadets. The trail keeps going uphill, but unless you're out to explore deeper into the backcountry, this is a good turn around. We returned to the valley and headed up the North Fork Sauk trail. We followed the river for 2 1/2 miles through swaths of huge old trees surrounded by carpets of wildflowers, from huge skunk cabbage to dainty calypso orchids. There's an avalanche chute to cross, along side of a creek at 2 miles, so watch out for hollow spots beneath otherwise hard packed snow. The FS web page said there would be deep snow after 1 1/2 miles, but we only saw small patches in the shade, so it's probably clear to Red creek at 4 miles, at which point it will be August before you can ford there and continue up the valley. We did all three hikes in six hours, but that includes lunch, photo ops and 45 minutes just gazing from the lookout. This would be a great introduction to the Cascades for out of town friends or young explorers.

With my knee still feeling wonky for whatever reason I figured the flatter the better for this weekend. Since I wasn't sure what the weather would be like I brought along both cameras - and my umbrella. As it turned out the pocket camera did most of the work while the SLR stayed tucked safe and dry inside my backpack. I did take it out for some macro shots but overall it was too hard to juggle the umbrella and camera for steady shots. First up, the Old Sauk trail. I wandered along at a slow pace, dodging deep puddles and trying not to slip on the sea of fallen leaves. Very pretty place, lots of moss and toadstools. I made my way to the end and backtracked to the car before heading further down the Mountain Loop. Along the way I was nearly run off the slick road by an oncoming high-speed moron in a pickup truck. Next came the North Fork Sauk trail. The road in was in pretty good shape overall but with all the water fill pot-holes my silver Outback was more of a coffee color by the time I reached the trailhead. I wandered about two miles up the trail before the water started to seep into my boots. It was raining pretty steady now so I turned around. Nice old growth but I didn't see any cool mushrooms on this one. Finally I made a stop at the falls on the way out. They were really roaring right now. The trail down was pretty slick from all the fallen maple leaves. I opted not to work my way down to the base with everything so slippery. I did my best to get a panorama with my little Gorillapod. Soggy soggy day but everything smelled very nice and fresh. Cant remember the last hike I've worn my full on raingear. I'll have to return for these trails again sometime in drier weather. Trip photos here: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/saukriver

The road is fixed and driveable to the parking lot. This is among the best old growth forest hikes near Seattle. We chose to drive the full Mountain Loop Highway; through Granite Falls to the trailhead, and continued out through Darrington. Several cars were in the parking lot, and as we were putting our cameras together, a family with 4 children exited the trail, happy from a day of walking the trail and enjoying the warm, sunny rocks at the riverbank a few miles in. We didn't go very far; we had arrived very late in the day, and there were so many wonderful things to look at! The mushrooms and fungus are coming up; chantarelles, russulae, coral fungus, some wierdo-looking brown stuff (they look like honey mushrooms but I don't think they are), and I was happy to find a beautiful earthstar, and mushroom that I had only seen pictures of. Skunk cabbage leaves as big as any I had ever seen are still green and lush this late in the year. We even saw a few bleeding hearts in bloom, as well as spring beauty! This is such a beautiful place. Last year I hiked to the Red Mountain Lookout -that trail shares the same trailhead as the N Fk Sauk, and shoots off of it almost immediately (look to the left, hard to find in the lush forest). Both of these trails (Red Mtn and N Fk Sauk) have huge old growth trees to gawk at in wonder. This trail is well-maintained (not logged it out yet, because the road just opened last week. We encountered only a couple of easy blowdowns, but I understand there are others farther in). Thanks to MBSNF for getting the road opened for us!