Storm damage repaired, vast wilderness access restored

It was eleven years ago this week that a powerful storm roared through the North Cascades, causing severe flooding and cutting off access to one of the state’s largest wilderness areas. Now this weekend, there is cause for celebration.

Outdoor enthusiasts can now access hiking trails and back country using the Suiattle River Road, seven miles north of Darrington, which has been blocked by storm damage since 2003.

“The Suiattle was the primary western access to the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area which is the largest national forest wilderness area in the Pacific Northwest,” said Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest trail coordinator Gary Paull.

The October ’03 storm and flood did a lot of damage in the Suiattle River drainage.

“It destroyed numerous bridges on the trail system, it wiped out road bridges, it took out sections of road, it took out big sections of trail and this affected areas near Glacier Peak and North Cascades National Park and up by Mt. Baker, primarily,” said Paull.

By 2006, forest bridge engineer Peter Wagner, with the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest said repair work had begun when another devastating storm hit the area, the same November storm that did so much damage at Mount Rainier National Park.

“There were three sites that were damaged in the 2003 flood and in 2006, we had a contract awarded and had started work on the repair of those sites when the second flood hit in 2006 and that eliminated access to our reconstruction project so we had to cancel that and start plans for doing more repair work,” said Wagner.

The two floods affected several miles of the Suiattle River Road, also known as Road 26, cutting off access to popular trails and campgrounds.

“It’s been extremely quiet up there, we’ll put it that way,” said Paull. “The extra 10-11 miles of road-walking to get up to a lot of the trails has been daunting for folks.”

But now, eight years and $2.7 million later, the 23-mile long Suiattle River Road is open again, all the way to the end, providing access to the wilderness. Although, there is still a lot of clean up and trail maintenance that has been neglected over the years. The forest service is counting on help from the Washington Trails Association, Backcountry Horsemen of Washington and the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Two campgrounds are not expected to re-open until 2016.

The Suiattle River Road also provides access to the Pacific Crest Trail and a route to communities east of the mountains, including Stehekin, Holden and Trinity.

“It’s a big area. I mean, the Suiattle drainage itself encompasses an area that’s nearly the size of Mt. Rainier National Park,” said Paull. “There’s just tremendous opportunities for all sorts of outdoor recreation from fishing, berry picking, camping, fantastic high mountaineering routes.”

The community celebrates this Saturday with a private, 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony at the cutoff to the Suiattle River Road, off SR 530, in Darrington, followed by a public event at the Darrington Community Center at 12:00 Noon. They’re calling it “Rediscover the Suiattle.”