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Upon Sauk Mtn.
5,537' elev.
July 24, 2002
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Sauk Lake © Ken James McLeod
After work today in Marysville, I headed up the Skagit and drove up the Sauk Mtn. road. A steady stream of vehicles came down as I drove up...turned out to be a Mt. Vernon Hiking Club just completing their assault of Sauk. At the Trailhead (near 85 degrees and with a blue-sky day), the black flies and deer flies were out in force...put on the deet, grabbed my hiking/climbing gear and set forth like a bullet out of the barrel or a horse out of the chute. Made the never-ending switch backs to the top in about 40 minutes without too many water breaks, my clip was pretty fast and having stretched the legs recently in the Buckhorn Wilderness and the Mt. Skokomish Wilderness in the Olympics, plus getting out a lot, I flew like the old days...Like The Wind!
The wildflowers were blooming provusly! From the saddle where a group of 10 year old boys were, being led by two nice looking ( late 20s) women of the North Cascades Institute, I traversed the snowfeild still present to the old Lookout site. Took many photos of the surrounding area, including Sauk Lake far below...still about 80% frozen! I didn't go down to it nor did I intend on doing any fishing after seeing the condition of Sauk. Having not packed too much lunch, I picked Glacier Lily roots and ate many of them.
I then climbed many of the rocky peaks that loomed left and right a few hundred feet of the old Lookout site, a few were rather precipitous, and one made me rather nervous free-climbing the rock...my legs began to shake! "Don't fall Ken, too much ahead yet in life," ran thru my brain. Afterwards and back down to more level ground, I got the camera out and began taking wildflower shots, as well as doing some small glissading on the snowfield. Mt. Baker, Shuksan, and Glacier Peak dominated the horizon of peaks, and the Sauk and Skagit River far below looked placid and not so mighty. Upon arriving at the Trailhead again, I talked to a guy who had lost his dog up there on the mountain earlier and had been searching for him the whole day. "No sign of him" I stated. The guy and his wife intended to stay the night in their camper, hopefully finding their dog in the evening or next day........
for more photos of this climb see:
KJM
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