3 night trip doing the full loop! We did Boundary - Copper Lake - Boundary. Overall trail was in good condition although the section from copper lake down to the river was pretty overgrown. There is a lot of sneaky elevation from Copper Creek back up to Boundary too, so last day was TOUGH (19mi, ~3000ft down/4000ft gain) but worth it to make the last day hiking out a bit easier. Absolutely phenomenal views along the entire ridge line, be sure to give yourself enough time to spend at the lookout!!

Trip was from the Hannegan TH to Egg Lake and back.

Day 1 (Thursday): started the initial hike to Hannegan Camp at 8PM (shout out to my trail angel Connor and his partner who were camping at the TH who gave me some spare AAA batteries when I discovered my headlamp was dead, d'oh! Pack your spares - don't be an idiot like me!), so it was a night hike, arriving at the CG around 10PM. Would not recommend night hiking in. It's extremely challenging to see and navigate the campground in the dark and my sincerest apologies to anyone we disrupted while trying to find a space to sleep. We set up tents, located a tree to hang our remaining smellables, and went swiftly to sleep.

Day 2 (Friday): The toilet at Hannegan Camp is incredible. Higly recommend! The cooking area is also a beautiful space to make breakfast and bask in the beautiful glacier to the north. Packed up and left the CG around 9AM heading to Egg Lake. Helicopter was circling the area for what felt like hours, low and slow. Unsure who or what they were looking for, but certainly left a foreboding feeling.

But back to the hike! Lots of ascent, then descent, would recommend taking your time and enjoying the scenery and wildlife. Saw some birds: golden crowned kinglet, red-breasted nuthatch, and a singular grouse in a tree along the forested area. Every hill we tackled revealed more peaks and snow in the distance. Smoke cleared up quite a bit. A couple of areas with really loose rocks so it's helpful, but not necessary to have poles. There aren't many water opportunities along this stretch. Much of this portion of the trail is fully exposed along rocks, so wear your sunscreen.

Arrived at Egg Lake around 1:00PM and had lunch, took a refreshing and brisk swim (although my friends would argue it wasn't so bad). Only saw a couple trail runners and one other backpacker during this entire day. At this point, we decided that doing the loop might be beyond our abilities, so we decided to hike back out the next day instead of pushing towards our next permitted camp site at Indian Creek. There is a bear locker for food and other smellable storage. One member of our group hiked up to the Copper Fire Lookout and returned about three hours later. Compostable toilet here is just fine. Lots of robins, ravens, marmots, chipmunks, and other fun wildlife. Had a little trouble sleeping due to the sounds of mice around our tent. Dead silent evening otherwise.

Day 3 (Saturday): leisurely morning since we were in for a long day. Left Egg Lake around 8:30AM and took minimal breaks along the path, arriving back at the TH around 1:30PM. There were a ton of people due to Labor Day weekend, and most said they intended to camp at Hannegan Camp, so something to keep in mind since that is the only campground that does not require permits.

It was lovely seeing the hike we did in the daylight! Watched a pika taking a drink of water, marmots basking atop rocks in the bright direct sun, and the same birds that greeted us along our trip in. Arriving at the TH we were shocked to see how many cars there were! If isolation is your goal, would recommend trying this on a weekday instead.

The full Copper Loop is now open (it had been closed past Copper Lake due to fires in 2022), and judging by the bootprints, I was one of the first to hike it. I reserved my campsites online. The first day, I hiked to Copper Lake. Views were gorgeous, huckleberries and thimbleberries were abundant, and there were almost no bugs. There was a lot of uphill and stretches of rough rocky trail, so I was pretty tired when I got to Copper Lake. The campsites there were lovely, with excellent flat tentpads, a bear locker, and composting toilet. There are signs for the toilet; the bear locker is on the way there. I was the only one camped there. 

Descending from the ridge the next day on the newly opened trail, there are a couple of miles of trail that are overgrown with ferns and huckleberry bushes. It wasn't hard to follow the trail, but it required paying attention. The trail goes through some burned areas, marked by charred tree trunks and abundant new undergrowth. Partway down from the ridge, I came to a section where crews have been clearing the brush and making new treadway. It was an odd sensation, walking on soft, newly disturbed dirt that hasn't been packed down yet by the boots of dozens of hikers. 

After descending from the ridge, the trail fords the Chilliwack River, which was mid-shin deep so no problem. The suspension bridge across Indian Creek was high and bouncy, so could be a problem for someone with a bad fear of heights. Crossing back over the Chilliwack River, there's a choice of a ford or a cable car. The cable car was pretty easy to pull across (I didn't have gloves and don't think they're necessary), but would also be difficult for someone who fears heights, so they should probably take the ford. 

I camped at US Camp, which has a number of widely spaced sites. There was one other party there, far enough away that I couldn't hear or see them. 

On the way out, I ran into a NPS crew that had been doing trail work. I thanked them profusely, of course. 

A great hike with amazing scenery. f I were to do it again, I'd take at least four days, not three, and give myself time for side trips up Hannegan Peak and to Egg Lake. 

FYI the Copper Ridge loop trail is now open! We didn't do the loop but we encountered folks who said they were the first along the trail as it had just opened. My son and I did a 4-day backpack trip, starting last Monday afternoon during the heat wave. Easily found a parking spot at the trailhead where there is an unstocked outhouse. The trail from there to Hannegan Camp, where we spent the first night, is a steady uphill, sometimes very exposed and other times through a shaded forest. Dunking our heads in the creek about two miles in saved us from the heat and allowed us to carry minimal water and restock along the way. We arrived at Hannegan Camp around 7pm - just about all the sites were full but a couple women kindly offered the other end of their rather large site. There's a toilet, a nice creek, and signs for a "cooking area," though it was never really clear where the cooking area is - we just cooked a ways away from our tent which is best practice. It was challenging to find a good tree limb from which to hang our food but we did pretty well considering - we didn't want to carry a bear can since the rest of our nights would be spent within the park where there are bear-proof metal boxes. The women sharing our site got up super early and left without packing up, I assume to hike up Hannegan Peak. This seems like a good way to get to the top close to sunrise if you've got a couple days. We didn't end up going to the peak because we figured the view at the Copper Ridge Lookout from the same elevation would be similarly amazing.

Next day we continued over Hannegan Pass and up to Silesia Camp, another very hot hike along a relatively dry trail that is sometimes shaded and other times unbearably exposed- no water between Boundary Camp and Egg Lake (which is a half mile and 500 feet downhill from the main trail). Silesia is perched atop the ridge with amazing views but also pretty exposed. There are two sites, one amongst a cluster of trees and the other with an in-your-face view of Mineral Mountain. We chose the less exposed one for much-needed shade and protection from wind, and we never regretted it. There are a few spots away from the site for cooking with excellent views - one facing north toward Egg Lake and the other south toward Mineral Mountain. In the evening we trekked down to Egg Lake with all our water bottles and Katadyn Base Camp filter bag, took a stupendous swim and loaded up on water, which lasted until our hike out two days later. Egg Lake was lovely but crowded; lots of pikas and marmots whistling from the avalanche chute on the west side of the lake, my son got some great pictures of them.

Next day there was relief from the heat with some cloud cover and we hiked up to the Copper Ridge Lookout - by far one of the most amazing hikes I've done in the Pacific Northwest, with a trail that winds along the ridge climbing to more and more expansive views. Hung out near the Lookout for over an hour just soaking up the beauty. There's a composting toilet up there that was surprisingly well-used though not for shy folks as it's pretty exposed. There is also a large patch of snow I suspect will be there the entire season for those desperate for water at that point.

Our hike out on the fourth day was much more pleasant though with fewer views as there was cloud cover and cooler temperatures. There were multiple groups doing work along the ridge and the loop - one group doing biology-related field work for the National Park and two others doing trail work. We especially appreciated the care given to us by the former group during a strange experience on our hike out, just west of Boundary Camp. The group was ahead of us and stopped to hike with us past a man lying literally in the trail on his sleeping pad, with a rifle propped against a nearby tree. As we passed he briefly opened his eyes and mumbled something about "only sleeping from one to three last night" and needing to rest. When we got to the pass the group leader radioed staff about the situation (either the forest service or national park, not sure which since he was right on the border). If you happen to be that guy reading this, I'd love to hear your point of view - to all of us it was unnerving. Overall a well-maintained moderate trail through some of the most incredible scenery in the Pacific Northwest, and right now there are flowers in bloom and tons of ripe berries!

Thanks to the wonderful rangers in Marblemount and Glacier who helped the 4 of us change our permit after our original plan for a 4-day trip in the Cascade Pass / Sahale Arm area was made unwise by a fire. I'd been torn between there and Copper Ridge anyway so I was thrilled we were able to get walk-up permits for here. 

On Saturday we did the relatively short hike to Hannegan Pass Camp, but it took an exhausting 3 hours because of our late start (due to Marblemount detour) and the heat. We were told to expect crowds there (no permits were available at Boundary Camp) but we easily found a fine site for our 3 tents and there seemed to be enough for everyone even on a nice summer weekend. One member of our party did a sidetrip to Hannegan Peak. The bugs were terrible anytime we stopped on the trail and in camp -- biting flies during the day and mosquitoes at dusk. That's when I realized that I had somehow failed to pack my headnet as my friends had, so...

On Sunday morning I decided to ask hikers heading out if they'd either sell me their headnet or lend it to me to be returned, cleaned, along with homemade brownies. The first person I asked insisted on just giving it to me, an incredibly nice gesture which I will pay forward. Then we hiked 7.5 hours to Copper Lake. The only significant water sources between Hannegan Camp and Copper Lake are a waterfall about 10 minutes before Boundary Camp, Boundary Camp (which requires a 5 minute walk down from the trail and then back; we each carried 3 liters from there), and Egg Lake (only in a bind since it requires descending a good distance off the trail). Much of the climb on the ridge was nicely shaded in forest. We enjoyed the (unstaffed) lookout despite a fair amount of smoke in the sky. The smoke cleared and the sun came out when we reached Copper, and the ensuing swim was a highlight of our trip.

On Monday we hung out for a while at Copper Lake, taking a walk onto the peninsula. Then we returned to the lookout and were entertained by a family of a mother and 6 baby ptarmigans, before proceeding to Egg Lake in 4 hours. We took the first campsite, near a bear box and toilet; there seemed to be another toilet but no bear box for the other campsites at the end of the lake, so those foiks had to come back to the bear box near us.  Our campsite came equipped with a paperback book and a paintbrush, more interesting than the stray tent stake that you typically find. (We carried them out.) Unfortunately a chilly breezy fog descending on us that afternoon and evening, making a swim unappealing. But it meant we found no bugs (and, more important, no bugs found us) despite previous reports that Egg Lake was super-buggy.

On Tuesday the sun came out, with moderate temperatures, for our hike out, which took 5.75 hours. We took a cooling, cleansing dip in the stream by the trailhead before heading to Graham's for some real food.

Flowers were amazing throughout the trip.

I asked the ranger when the full Copper Ridge Loop might reopen after the 2022 fire damage. He said a crew was working on the PNT section adjacent to the loop this year, and then would start on the loop next year and probably spend a couple of years on it. Obviously that is neither official nor certain but it would mean no loop until at least 2027. 

The road to the trailhead is full of big potholes but any car can handle it.