Backpacking trip in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest along the abandoned Suiattle River Road, with day hikes along Downy Creek and Sulfur Mountain trails, into the Glacier Peak wilderness.
Andy and I took 3 days to hike along the Suiattle River Road this past weekend. The weather was mostly cloudy and spitting rain for most of the trip, but we lucked out on our second day and ended up with at least a little sunshine and a dry sky to enjoy our campfire under.
Day 1: While the company was great, the hiking was not the best. Day one we hiked 14 miles total, but 8 of those miles were along the very boring Suiattle River road. We knew it would be this way – such is the price you pay for seclusion – but I can say that it wasn’t worth the monotony. We found a pretty sweet campsite at Downy Creek, set up our tent on the sandy banks, and headed out for the Downy Creek hike. The 3mi one way trip was pretty & lush & uneventful. We ended the day after 14mi of walking by passing out before sunset – I blame the Makers Mark and the Beef Stroganoff.
Day 2: We headed out for our hike up Sulfur Mountain looking forward to some actual vertical elevation (4000ft) and decent mileage (10mi round trip). The f0rest was absolutely lush, and we certainly got our fill of the greenery as we wound our way up, up, up into the clouds and eventually snow. The snow level kept us from continuing on at the top of Sulfur Mountain, where we had our lunch and turned back the way we came.
We ended the day by taking a quick day hike up Sulfur Creek hoping to find the hot springs that our Green Trails maps eluded to. While Sulfur Creek lives up to it’s name, we did not find the source of the stink in the form of warm pools of bubbling water. We found a cairn at one fork in the trail that lead to a great view of the creek, but no hot springs were to be found. After scrounging up some firewood, we headed back to camp and enjoyed a nice long evening by the fire. All told, we put in about 16mi on Sunday.
Day 3: Our last day was nothing much to speak about – a long hike along the 8mi Suiattle River road back out – but ended fantastically at the Darrington Burger Barn.
Pictures uploaded Here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kmwoley/20100529SuiattleRiverRoad#