Day 7 - Sauk

River Section: Sauk
Guide Book: Jeff & Tonya Bennet, Page 161
Flow: ~ 3600cfs at Sauk (~50% of this on the river)
Rating: Class III - IV
Gradient: 42 fpm
Put-in: Whitechuck River
Take-out: Darrington Bridge
Date: July 10th, 2009

We wanted to run Suiattle River (a tributary of the Sauk) but were thwarted by the fact the road to the put-in has been washed out for over 3 years. This looks like a spectacularly beautiful river that must be run at some point in time, once the road is repaired and restored.

The fall back option was to run the Sauk from whitechuck river to Darrington. The gauge at Sauk read about 3600cfs and per the guide book this meant we had about 1800cfs on our run.

The section from Whitechuck river confluence to Clear Creek is Class III - Class IV. Even at these "low flows" this section had 3 good Class III+ rapids that would be more significant at higher flows.

Below Clear Creek, the river peters out to become a slow Class II float.

In the future, I'd take out at the Clear Creek bridge on the mountain loop hwy. This results in a easy bikable 6 mile shuttle and about 4-5 miles on the river.