Friday Hike Of North Fork Sauk River

I’m not quite sure how I picked this hike for a beautiful Friday but it was a long one. I keep extending my range down Mountain Loop Highway for new hikes. This one was a good one but it really took too long for me to get there and back. I left the office about 10 AM and didn’t get back until well after 9 PM. It took two hours to get to the trailhead and then two hours to get back. So it turned out to be a really long day. I think I’m going to investigate camping out in the area next year so I can spend more time hiking and less time driving back and forth. Another 4 hours on the trail would have drained me completely but this hike took a 3 hour ascent before I started seeing any really good stuff.





There is a 2 mile hike through an old growth forest before you hit a sign where the trail branches. You then cross a pretty active creek that is a good 20 yards across. On the way over, we crossed on one very large tree that fell down and it extends a good four or five feet above the creek. Coming back, tired and less confident, I decided to cross the river. This was a mistake as the rock were slippery and I fell (with iPhone and Camera in pocket). Both iPhone and Camera came out great but the hiking book in my waist pack didn’t fair so well. Lucky to be sure and a lesson learned for future hikes. Bogie got swept away a little bit but it swept him right back to shore. I knew that the worst thing that would happen is that we would end up a couple hundred yards down river but we made it across OK. I don’t have any real good pictures of this part of the creek but it is your standard torrent for the area.


There is a long vertical climb of switchbacks and I needed to stop occasionally to get my wind back. I was sweating like I was back in a high school wrestling practice. Here is a picture I took with timer. You can see even Bogie thought I smelled bad. (grin)




Here you can see some of the meadow shots that are (according to the book) about 8 miles into the hike. This is where I needed to turn around to be assured I wasn’t hiking in darkness on the way back. If I could have hit the trail about 8 AM instead on Noon, I think I could have gone much further. Again, I would have been too wiped out for a 2 hour drive home, so camping would have to be the plan.





Speaking of camping, it was nice driving back in the area after dark and seeing all the campfires in the area. It looked like a remarkably good time for all those folks and I’m going to have to consider this carefully. My little experiment of seeing how this hiking thing goes ... is beginning to become a more serious pastime for me.