I took a great five day trip over the 4th of July to the ridge area between Ingalls Creek and the Stafford Creek drainage. I started up the Iron Peak trail, encountered quite a bit of snow at the saddle, and camped on snow the first night just beneath the saddle. The next day was a quick trip down to the junction between the Beverly Creek and Fourth Creek trails. There was some wayfinding to be done, since some of the upper parts of the trail are still snow covered. The trail from that junction into the Bean Creek Basin area is clear and easy to follow, and the wildflowers in the upper meadow at Bean Creek Basin are spectacular, like a big purple carpet. From here the trail climbs about 1000’ to a saddle in the ridge between Bean Creek and Standup Creek, and a great lunch with clear views of Mt. Ranier and Mt. Adams to the south. There is a great camp at this saddle, clear of snow for the most part, bring water from below. After lunch, it was down another 1000’, traversing a broad slope of yellow wild flowers, to Standup Creek. The trail fades in places here, but occasional cairns mark the way well enough. Up again to a saddle on the shoulder of Earl Peak, another great (but dry) campsite, and a thrilling view down into the Stafford Creek drainage. Just below the saddle there is a lot of snow covering the trail for about half a mile, and I found it difficult to relocate the trail below where it begins crossing the many seasonal tributaries of Stafford Creek. The real trail is clear once it emerges from beneath the snow, and once you find it. The next day was a day hike up to the saddle at Navaho Pass, clear of snow all the way up, and passing a fantastic meadow with good camping, and more good camping on the barrens above, just below the ridge. I followed the ridge left from Navaho Pass, up another shoulder coming off of Earl Peak. All along this ridge walk, you are face to face with the entire Stuart Range and Mt. Stuart, across the valley of Ingalls Creek. Oh, yeah, and Mt. Ranier again to the south. You really cannot beat these views. The next morning brought a quick walk out down the Stafford Creek trail in light rain, and a ride back to my car thanks to some friends, and the trip was complete.

Drove east from Seattle until we ran out of rain, looked north, and decided to see if the Teanaway area was accessible yet. It was, if just barely. The North Fork Teanaway road is blocked by multiple snowdrifts and one good size log, about 1 mile before the Beverly Creek road turnoff. The Beverly Creek road has more snow, and another blocking log just above the bridge at the halfway point. We road-hiked to the Beverly Creek trailhead, crossed the footbridge - in great shape - and just before reaching Bean Creek, headed up the southwest ridge of Earl Peak. We ran the ridge up to the saddle where the Bean Creek trail crosses over into the Standup Creek valley, then hiked up to the summit of Earl Peak. Sunshine and mostly blue sky all the way, but with plenty of clouds blowing through to remind us of what good fortune we were having. It was too windy and cold on top to stay long, so we dropped back down to the Bean/Standup saddle, then had a terrific glissade down into Bean Creek basin. Jogging down hill on near 100% snow covered trail went fast, and we were back to the Beverly Creek trail quickly. What we could see of the Bean Creek trail - mostly just the general ""lanes"" it runs through - looked to be in good shape. However, much of the lower part of the trail, from half a mile above Beverly Creek down, is under 10-20 feet of avalanche tailings, and is impossible to see. Probably no real problems, unless the full flowing Bean Creek does a little more bank under-cutting. A very nice day, and a nice easy scramble in fine conditions. I think it is going to need a serious warm spell before the entire North Fork road is open, though!

Looking for that perfect ""loop"" trip with spectacular,changing vistas,nobugs,no people and lots of sunshine' All the above were true this day off the Teanaway. Follow the 100 Hikes,Alpine Lakes, description for the Black Tooth saddle.The hike starts on the Beverly turnpike linking first to the Fourth of July trail and then the County Line trail.The Black Tooth saddle is at 6400'on the east ridge of Bean Pk,point 6743.This ridge is an easy walk,scramble to the summit of Bean.From the summit an easy decent can be made to Bean basin to pick up the Bean creek trail.This trail intersects the Beverly turnpike trail less than a half mile from your starting point. Highly recommended. Allow 3+ hours up,2 hours down.

Our mission was to climb Mary Peak, aka peak about 0.5 miles SW of Bean Peak. WE started up from the Beverly Creek trailhead under cool clear skies. Soon, we met the ford of Bean Creek, which was not bad at all. Continuing up Beverly was a profusion of wildflowers, changing in character as we gained elevation. At the junction with the Fourth Creek trail, we turned right on more eroded, less used trail to Fourth Creek Pass, where we encountered our first snow of the trip. At this point, we left the trail, sidehilling east up the northwest slopes of Mary Peak, following snow a good part of the way. Ice axes were definately handy. We got to the northwest ridge of Mary at approximately 6200' and then generally followed the ridge to the summit. Great views in all directions, Stewart range, Teanaway country, etc. To close the loop, we glissaded down snow slopes into the Bean Creek basin, then cross country to connect with the Bean creek trail. From here, straight shot back to the car. Great trip!!

Earl Peak has been on my list of trips to do. With a beautiful weekend ahead and fresh snow it looked like the perfect trip. Drive up Teanaway River Road. Then just before the Beverly Creek Campground and a small bridge, turn right and drive about 1 mile to the trailhead. I was honestly surprised when as we were putting on our gear we say 8 others head up the same trail. Even with the good weather I thought this might not be a popular trail. Looks like I was wrong. The trail follows Beverly Creek. Then, when it meets up with Bean Creek the trail heads right up the drainage below Earl Peak. We chose not to follow the trail that takes you to the ridge south of the summit. We chose instead to follow Bean Creek to about 5400’. Then we headed almost due north to a small saddle. From this saddle we planned to follow the ridge to the summit from the northwest. At the saddle we sat down for a nice quiet lunch. We could see the 8 others from the trailhead all standing on the summit. It did look a bit crowded from were we were sitting. After lunch we followed the ridge up to Earl Peak. By the time we got there everyone else had left and we had the place to ourselves for about 45 minutes before we headed down. For the trip back we chose to head southeast from the summit and meet up with the trail just above the switchbacks. The upper stretches of Earl have lots of scree and the fresh snow on top of this made coming down just a little hairy. Once we met up with the trail we followed it back down Bean Creek and eventually back to the car. This is a pretty easy trip that is well worth the great views. Mt Stuart was close enough that it felt like we could reach out and touch it. We could even see Mt Adams and Mt Rainier to the south. Stats: 8 ½ miles, 3600’ gain