Sauk
1 - Bedal Campground to Whitechuck River (Upper)
| Difficulty | II-III |
| Length | 8.6 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 37 fpm |
| Gauge | Sauk River Ab White Chuck River Nr Darrington, Wa |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 1440 cfslow runnable |
| Reach Info Last Updated | January 9, 2026 |
Projects
Beginning high in the North Cascades, the Skagit Wild and Scenic River winds down steep slopes, through forested hillsides and wide open valleys, eventually reaching Puget Sound. The rivers of this system – the Skagit, Sauk, Suiattle, and Cascade – flow through rugged wilderness, forestlands, rural communities, farmlands, and [...]Read More
River Description
This is a good beginner run but be sure to go with experienced paddlers and make sure you have good boat control skills. Wood hazards can be significant and may require some precise manuvering. This run is also one of the most scenic trips through the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, flowing through majestic riparian forests in a beautiful river valley–it stands out as a true gem of the Wild and Scenic River system.
The run starts out on the lower section of the North Fork Sauk before soon joining the confluence with the South Fork a couple minutes downstream of the Bedal Campground. The river starts of with lively class II rapids. The best rapids on the run are in the first four miles where the river cuts a course through class II/III gravel bar rapids interrupted by occassional boulders. Although you will encounter a couple sections of bedrock, most of the river freely migrates across the floodplain contributing a constant supply of wood as the river carves new channels through sections of forest.
Once the rapids taper off, the river meanders back and forth across the floodplain but still continues along at a good pace. On a clear day, you will have great views back up the valley and into the Glacier Peak Wilderness. High above the valley on river right you will pass by Pugh Mountain and if the river is at a medium flow you will find several gravel bar beaches that make great lunch stops or a campsite for an overnight trip. Bring your firepan and practice Leave No Trace Camping. Overnight use seems to be increasing and boaters have reported increased evidence of impacts.
This section of river finishes off with the best rapid of the trip at Rocky Road, a fun class III drop just upstream of the Mountain Loop Highway bridge. You will recognize the approach by a gaging station on river right. Within a short distance of passing the gage, the river enters a short section of bedrock-constrained channel with several boulders that create a fun t
...River Features
Bedal Put-In
Access is available in the Bedal Campground where an access site has been established with a load/unload area and path to the river. Parking is available outside the campground on the upstream river right side of the bridge across the river.
Rocky Road
Final rapid just before the take-out as the river bends to the right and passes under the bridge. Located at USGS river mile 31.9.
Whitechuck Take-Out
Access on river right immediately downstream of the Whitechuck River confluence. This day use site is administered by the Forest Service.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportHad a lovely time on the Upper Sauk from Bedal to Whitechuck. We had two portages, one tricky sweeper, and a handful of log jams that the current pushed towards. The mountain views were gorgeous!
Flow was 1400, Sauk above Whitechuck, on Saturday May 24th.
Our two portages were easy to spot, with plenty of time to find slow moving water over a shallow cobble bar to get out. Easy, quick, portages for kayaks, packrafts, or light rafts. Would be more challenging in a heavy raft due to some big trees you have to work your way over or around. 48.1390511, -121.4293259.
There was one nearly riverwide sweeper that posed a challenge. 48.1652211, -121.4580400. There was about 6 feet of passage on river right, but a few guard rocks made that line a bit tricky. Unlike the other wood hazards near cobble bars, this one had a cut bank on one side and a long jam on the other. Portaging would be more challenging.
Otherwise, the majority of the other wood was along banks that the current pushed towards. Would be dangerous for a swimmer, but someone in control of their boat would be fine.
We paddled from Bedal to Whitechuck in mid-June 2024 and found several significant wood hazards approximately 4-6 miles below Bedal. This is a dynamic river and the channel is continuing to adjust to the slope and sediment changes from a major channel avulsion over a year ago. Rafters should anticipate three portages along cobble bars and over large logs. Stopping will require hasty parking on a cobble bar with moving water and no eddy. Kayakers could successfully run this section without portaging, but it requires numerous log ducks, cautious boat scouting, and at least one dicey ferry above an unassuming but dangerous strainer.
Group of 8 packrafting this section on 6/17/23 at low-ish flows (don't remember specifics). Read reports from last year about the multi-tier logjam before starting so we had our eyes open. As of this weekend there was one spot that required a portage around a channel-wide logjam, 4 miles from the put-in at the exit of a right-hand bend. There's a two-boat eddy on river left at the apex of the bend that the jam can be seen from, and an easy ferry across the current to a gravel bar on river right to take out. We portaged across a very shallow adjacent channel and put back in about 50ft from where we took out. This was the only area where packrafts could not get through. There were a couple other places on this section that required an easy duck under a log in a packraft with no problem.
We ran the Sauk from Bedal to Backman on June 5, 2022, and somehow missed the previous trip report posted in November 2021. Either way, we identified the suspicious looking wood structures, pulled off, and scouted from both sides of the river to determine the hazard is a multi-tiered log jam complex and there no safe route through and no easy portage along the edge of the river.
Luckily upstream of the jam a couple hundred yards was a relatively open river bar that led to a mostly abandoned channel that didn't require a portage over a giant game of pick up sticks. We hauled our 3 heavy a** oar boats a little over a 1/4 mile to continue our trip downstream. The rest of the trip was awesome with the lower gage reading 15,000 when we pulled off. Even though I love this stretch, I'm not planning on running it for a couple years until this jam opens up! Be safe out there!
Ran this today (3 packrafts and one hardshell kayak) at 1300cfs. I last ran it mid-October, before the recent big floods. Since then, 1-2 channel-spanning logs about a third of the way down, but more noteworthy is that halfway down the run, a big meander bend was cut off and abandoned. The river cut a new channel through the woods, mowing down about 10-15 acres of forest. New channel section had 1-2 channel spanning logs, but real mess was downstream back in the original channel, where all that forest got dumped. Currently completely impassable, piles of trees everywhere. We did a half-mile portage around it all and boated the second half of the run without incident. Hopefully some of the new wood blows out in future floods. Be careful!
Ran this today @2000cfs with one packraft, two SUPs, and one hardshell kayak. Only the last drop would likely prove too challenging for an advancing beginning in the II+ range (can exit above this via Beaver Lake Trail), but this run often has wood hazards. As of today there is a river wide tree with limbs hovering one foot above water roughly midway through the run on a hard right bend into a headwall, just past Falls Creek confluence. An easy portage on river right above the bend if you ferry early. Once running the bend the right side is shallow, making it difficult to power to the intended eddy on the inside of the corner, resulting in being pushed toward the tree. Thankfully, there is a small eddy just before the tree on river left, big enough for about two kayaks. Tree can portaged on river left with some scrambling.
I floated this section yesterday in a 16' SOAR inflatable. 1,000 cfs is definitely right on the cusp of being unrunnable for all vessels. None of the channels we chose had strainers, but at higher levels some of the trees/logs we passed under would come into play. It really was a beautiful stretch of river, just a lot of work dodging rocks and dragging the boat occasionally.
A trip on the Upper Sauk from Bedal Campground on the North Fork Sauk.