Sauk, N. Fork

The Forest Service opens the North Fork Sauk (Forest Service road 49) July 20 restoring access to the Glacier Peak and Henry M. Jackson Wilderness Areas along with the Pacific Crest Trail from the Darrington Ranger District. There are only two major access points into the wilderness, the North Fork Sauk and Suiattle River Roads. “I’m excited this road is open,” said Peter Forbes, Darrington District Ranger. “We have been working hard to open access back into the wilderness,” he said. The Suiattle River road remains closed at mile 12 until repairs can be made.

Be sure to scout out the take-out above North Fork Falls.

As of December 18, 2004 there are no log portages on this run. There are a few logs here and there but nothing that spans the channel.

This is the last 3/4 of the left side of the
island rapid.
Halfway through the run a long class IV+
rapid appears, the river drops continuously
for about a 1/3 mile, this picture is just below
the start of it.

As of 27JUN2004 this run was fairly clean. We had one wood portage where there were a couple trees that had fallen in from the left at one of the bigger boulder gardens (the one with the massive log jam on river right). There was additional wood here and there that could largely be avoided if you took the correct channel.

Grab the eddy on river left upstream
of this drop and then pick one of the
slots depending on levels and your
preference.