Excellent rendition of all the available camping spots along the Mountain Loop Highway and near the Wild and Scenic Sauk River and the Stillaguamish River.
No particular river rafting outfitter is mentioned as offering trips on the Sauk River and so I thought it would be appropriate to list the four commercial outfitters authorized to run the Whitechuck to Darrington stretch of this well-kept whitewater secret.
North Cascades River Runners, Downstream River Runners, Alpine and Orion River Rafting http://orionexp.com
The Sauk River lost some of its cachet over the last decade because of massive flooding that destroyed the bridge at the launch site and graveled in all of the rapids. But it is slowly healing and the punch of the whitewater is coming back.
It's best whitewater shows up during June and July. However, every now and then, due to the glacial melt, it can be very good during the first two weeks of August as well.
Rivers are cold in the state of Washington. Gushing down the slopes of the North Cascade mountain range, westbound toward the Salish Sea and eastbound toward the Columbia, Washington rivers are the result of melting snowfields, diminishing glaciers, brisk Pacific Northwest rainfall and subterranean cold water springs. Meanwhile the Skagit River has all of those factors plus it is water spilled through turbines released from the depths of a very deep and very cold Ross Lake. For those specific reasons, it is not unusual to be wearing neoprene throughout the white water season in the grey and mossy Pacific Northwest. Even on the Skagit in August. And when the river is running high in the spring from snow melt, not only is the temperature of the water frigid (prolonged exposure to 70 degree water induces hypothermia - as I can attest to on a pleasant afternoon without a splash jacket on the Pucon River in Chile) it is moving rather fast. 'Swimmers', as we call persons over...
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