The Sauk Mountain OG

I can’t remember when I first learned that there was an “old” Sauk Mountain Trail that had been decommissioned when they built the “new” Sauk Mountain Trail but ever since, I have wanted to find it and hike it. Maybe it was while perusing the pages of NWHikers or maybe I saw a hint of it on an old map at some point, but it has been on the “to-do” list ever since. When I snowshoed up the forest road for the new trail back in 2016 I kept an eye out for it but now I know I was way off.

The original trail started from just off SR 20 east of Concrete and took about 5.6 miles through the forest to reach a junction with the trail that leads down to Sauk Lake. I guess no one had time for that?

So they built a new one that starts about 8 miles up a forest road off SR 20 and cuts a steep stack of narrow switchbacks into meadowed avalanche terrain to get you a mile high and connect with a trail that loops around to the summit. It is super popular and crowded, often with large groups, dogs and trail runners. Definitely better for a non-holiday weekday.

The hubs and I rarely get an entire weekend away to backpack let alone hike but we had penciled in Labor Day Weekend early in 2022. When it arrived, of course, there were hot temperatures, wild fires and holiday traffic to contend with. Where could we go that would not mean sitting in a parking lot or breathing in smoke?

I suggested an attempt at the old Sauk Mountain Trail as we had scouted it once before just to find out where it started off Conrad Road just east of the junction of SR 20 and SR 530. He was game and already had some hunter orange to wear from our hike two days before where he ran into hunters while bushwhacking. Learned his lesson when hiking at the beginning of bear season!

We got up early so we could be at the trailhead by 7:30am, expecting to have the trail to ourselves until we met the new trail and we were right. The parking was limited, maybe two cars possible but it was just us. After signing into the register, we began our adventure. The trail left from the back of the Barr Creek Conservation Trail on a loop, our route took the left hand side Story Book Trail to get there.

The trail was in great shape and it was about .3 miles before we reached the signed junction for the Old Sauk Mountain Trail and a nice bench for admiring Barr Creek flowing in small cascades along the trail.

It was easy to follow in most places despite it slowly losing definition to passing time and no maintenance (except for a few locals who come in with clippers to keep the lower section clear). There was a spot around 1770 feet and 2 miles up that caused me to lose sight of the hubs, though.

Whether due to last night’s rain or just typical for the terrain, this area had water flowing over it in several places, the soil was saturated and the vegetation was thicker than anywhere else in the forest. It was short in duration but chewed up the legs a bit with blackberry and nettle. We had to just push right up through and hit the trail again a few hundred feet up.

A noticeable pileup of trees at a switchback in the trail was the most tree gymnastic we had.

Some parts of trail were wide where they follow old logging roads and some was narrow and sloughing. A switchback at about 2650 feet made for a nice spot for a snack, a bit level and a large log to sit on. It had the faint memory of a road switchback. This is one of favorite parts of hiking older trails, if you pay attention you can often spot where logging or mining roads zigzagged up the sides of the mountain. It is hard to imagine now how they rose up such steep angles.

My favorite section was about 2900 feet and 3.4 miles where the understory cleared and the entire surface of the forest was covered with bright green moss. So fairy tale like! We also crossed two piles of bear scat at the beginning of the ridge around 3140 feet and 3.7 miles up. Luckily we didn’t spot any bears on this trip.

The forest began to open up on the ridge and we encountered more than a few meadowed areas where the trail was simply gone. There were large holes in the soil to avoid twisting an ankle but plenty of other bare patches for stepping up on. There were remnants of blue flagging to confirm we were headed in the right direction eventually but missing in a few places that made the route a guess at times. We had our first view out to the valley in a westerly direction at 4.8 miles and 4060 feet up!

We reached the junction with the Sauk Lake Trail at 4940 feet and 5.6 miles, turning left. I hadn’t seen this perspective of the mountain before, such a lovely basin. Here was our first encounter with people, some heading down to the lake.

The junction with the Sauk Mountain Trail was at 5230 feet and 5.9 miles and then it was on to the summit. As was to be expected, the summit was busy but the 360 views made it worth it. Fall was in the air and after sweating up from SR 20, we quickly donned our puffies. The hubs debated scrambling to the true summit but we soon agreed once was enough having done it in 2018 for my birthday.

Before deciding on the Old Sauk Mountain Trail, I was wary that my knees would not make it back down so the hubs said he would take one for the team and take the old down while I took the new and he would drive up to get me. So, I hung out at the summit for while knitting and he made it back down to the car in about 2 hours (we took 4.5 hours to slog up it).

My total mileage was just shy of 8 miles but a round trip on the old trail would be closer to 12.3. I would do the old one again just for the tranquil forest but it was super convenient to have someone come get me at the new trailhead to save the knees.

I put together my pictures in a basic video. You will notice the hubs is easy to spot in his hunter orange attire. Running into two hunters on Round Mountain earlier in the weekend convinced him to run out and purchase some color so as not to be mistaken for a bear (the hunters reported he sounded a bit like one coming down through some brush). And knowing that someone has already been killed on Sauk by bear hunters, neither of us wanted to tempt fate!