Hiked the East Bank trail to Noisy Creek and back.
The road and trail are in great condition with just a few trees across the trail easy to step over or around and a few creek crossings. Even Anderson Creek was pretty straightforward.

We started at 10:00 am with two other cars at the trailhead and only saw 4 people all day.

This is lovely easy hike along Baker River and then Baker Lake. The first good views of Mt Baker and the lake start at about 3.5 miles. The views are totally worth it, especially on a clear day like today.

On this sunny day in December the sun never actually hit the trail, so it was quite frosty and the boardwalks and bridges are VERY slippery. Use caution on wood surfaces and at creek crossings. Microspikes were not needed today, but I’d recommend bringing them on colder days just in case.

Out and back overnight from south trailhead to Silver Creek campsite. Anderson Creek still easily crossable with the bridge out with minimally wet feet at trail route (slightly trickier dry crossings by rock or log just upstream for those more confident in their footing and more picky about dry shoes). A few uncleared windfalls across the trail, most significant just south of Maple Grove campsites requiring a chest height scramble over the remains of a large fallen snag, all others were small enough to step over or around. While certainly not a destination-worthy leaf-peeping the occasional maples are beginning to turn for a lovely bit of additional color.

Had Silver Creek campsite to myself, everything well maintained and in good condition. Bear vault present and functional, open air pit toilet clean and in good condition.

Passed a handful of day hikers and one or two other campers, and a few trail runners. Wait quite a few trail runners. Wait how are there this many trail r-- oh, they are all wearing bib numbers. Yes, my research for this trip missed that I'd picked the weekend of the Baker Lake 50k and 25k. By no means ruined my trip but if you're hiking this in the fall you'd probably do best to plan it around the first weekend in October if you don't relish sharing the trail with several hundred runners. "On your left" will be echoing in my head all week...

This day hike on a Thursday afternoon with my Dad was lovely. I think we managed to find one of the only spots in the area without rain that day! 8 cars at the trailhead including ours, passed very few people. Only hiked about 2 hours and then turned around due to a time crunch on our end (my bad for not leaving the house early enough) but could have walked all day. No bugs, ripe blueberries and huckleberries. Views of Kolchan and Shuksan including some cool clouds even with the backdrop of an overcast sky. As the signs at the trailhead indicate, the bridge over Anderson Creek is out but the crossing is fairly straightforward to do without much trouble (see photo). No campers present at Anderson Point, and there was only one motorized boat plus 2 jet skis on the water the whole time. Quite a contrast from the week/weekend before where the lake and campgrounds were completely full!

Hiked this as a one-night backpacking trip, Friday night to Saturday. I intended to stay at the Noisy Creek campsites, but when I got there all the tent sites were taken up by two big groups who had boated in. Annoyed me a bit since I walked all the way out there with a heavy pack (I wish there was at least one site that would be hike-in only) but alas, I had to continue on to the Silver Creek campsites (1.5 miles further down the trail). Turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I liked the layout of Silver Creek much better! Plenty of room for tents (at least 5 defined tent spots but room for more and a few stealth spots nearby), plus the view of Baker was better. Bear boxes are at both sites which was very good because I saw a lot of mice who were too eager to try and score food.

Saturday morning I hiked back to Noisy Creek and went up the trail to the old-growth trees. Very pretty, but the trail continued on much farther than I had the energy to push myself, I'm curious how much further it goes! After that I took a swimming break in Baker Lake near where Noisy Creek enters into the lake. The water was so clear, blue and the perfect temperature for swimming. I could've stayed there for hours if I didn't have to hike the 4.5 miles back out. The hike through the forest is beautiful too, I love all the bridges you cross. Bugs were fairly bad, but still a great time. There was a lot more people hiking in on Saturday, so if you want to overnight on Saturday definitely start early!

Road in was in great condition, there's a pretty long gravel section but not bad at all and easily passable by my low clearance car. 

Beautiful trail with lovely scenery and bridges. We got a late start, leaving the trailhead around 3 pm, so camping at Noisey Creek on a Saturday was a challenge... lots of larger groups and boat campers. We found a small spot to nestle into and were content, but it was definitely the last spot in the area and very populated. That said, swimming in the lake was wonderful! I came home with a few bug bites, but the bugs were otherwise not noticeable. A good mild-moderat hike to get back into backpacking after a while. Would do it again, maybe in the off-season.