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This four day trip was too long to bring along my girls, but a friend, Brad joined me. My wife helped get my car dropped off at the Suiattle River Trailhead and a family friend, Patty, was able to give us a lift to the North Fork Sauk River Trailhead.

That is where we started just after noon on Wednesday and we were both familiar with the route up to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Rushing the first five miles made for a slow climb up a steep hill. The trail gains 4,000 feet in four miles to a meadowy junction with the PCT between White Pass and Red Pass.

It was close to dark and we broke north to Red Pass in hopes that the only decent spot just off the trail was available. Having already eaten dinner on the climb up, we were glad to find the campsite free! Headlamps helped us setup camp and quickly came sleep.

This night was the first time ever that a mouse woke me up on the trail. The wind coming up from the North Fork Sauk River was loud against the tent, but not like the mouse crawling above me on the netting of my inner layer. I slapped at it and the mouse moved a bit. I slapped it again and he scuttled away never to be seen again. As you can imagine, I stayed awake for quite awhile after that.

The next morning was beautiful with the river valley full of fog. There was a small fire we could see above Red Creek in the distance. Brad had energy to climb above Red Pass a bit after we climbed out of our campsite.

Now heading down the glacial carved basin toward Glacier Meadows, we started to see some fellow hikers. There was a perfect waterfall in this area on the White Chuck River that was just out of reach from our phone cameras. The PCT drops following a beautiful creek until it crosses the White Chuck and heads north.

Many creeks are crossed of all different sizes, most of them silty from glacial melt. An iconic spot on the PCT is the old junction with the Kennedy Hot Springs Trail. This was a very popular spot that is now buried by the powerful White Chuck River.

Kennedy Creek was another spot that brought back memories for me from when I was just a kid. My dad, sister, and I had to cross a log over this raging creek in order to get out of a rain storm when I was twelve. Of course my dad asked me to stop halfway across the log so he could get the perfect picture...

The PCT leaves the creek and starts climbing Kennedy Ridge, intersecting another old trail along the way. We had our dinner at a campsite on top of the ridge, but decided to get in a few more miles before camping. As the fog rolled in, we found quite a few spots to choose from at Pumice Creek. Heading to bed with talks of rain in the morning.