Sauk Mt. Full Moonrise Hike

Sauk Mountain Full Moonrise Hike

Join us for a special early evening day hike to the summit of Sauk Mountain in the Cascade Foothills.  Sauk Mountain was the fire lookout location where eventual Zen priest Phillip Whalen spent the summer of 1953.  The lookout building is long since gone. The same summer his friend Gary Snyder was lookout on Sourdough Mountain.  Later Whalen was also a lookout on Sourdough.  In his poem "Sourdough Mountain Lookout" Whalen wrote -

"Then I'm alone in a glass house on a ridge
Encircled by chiming mountains
With one sun roaring through the house all day
& the others crashing through the glass all night
Conscious even while sleeping"

On this hike we will attempt to capture some of the experience Whalen spoke of.  We will arrive on the summit just as the late summer sun is setting over the Skagit Valley and the Salish Sea, and then moments later view the full moon rise over the Picket Range off to the east while the mountains go down in sunset glow.

The hike is a short climb of just two miles and 1,200' of elevation gain (four miles round trip).  It is a very popular hike and we are sure to not be alone on the summit.  Bring warm clothes and a wind breaker to put on for some summit-time hanging out, water, a snack, and be sure to bring a headlamp for the hike back down.

We will meet at the Red Cedar Dharma Hall at 3pm to form carpools for the 1-1/2 hour drive to the trailhead. We will expecting to get back to the Dharma Hall by about 9:30pm.