We did a loop hike utilizing the Jungle Creek and Way Creek trails, in the sunny Teanaway River region. The Jungle Creek Trail is in fine shape, although steep and narrow in places. It follows a lovely valley with a small but lively creek. With all of the snow this winter, everything is lush and green, with marvelous wildflowers blooming everywere. At the top of the ridge, we veered left onto the Way Creek Trail, which traverses steeps slopes to a junction with the Koppen Mountain Trail. Good views and a few snow patches in this section. Continued hiking the Way Creek Trail, which traverses around to the south side of Johnson Peak, where there are more views and wildflowers galore. The trail eventually turns into an eroded jeep trail that plunges a thousand feet to the Way Creek saddle and trailhead parking lot. From there, we walked the forest road 1.5 miles back to the Jungle Ck Trailhead. The loop hike totaled 8 miles and 2800' of gain. All of these trails are open to motorcycles, but use is light. The trails are dry and in good condition, excepting some sections of slumped and narrow tread.

The Way Creek Trail provides access to some nice uncrowded, Teanaway mountain country. Blowdowns have been removed and the tread is in remarkably nice shape, once you get beyond the initial, miserably steep jeep road section. The trail is technically open to motorbikes, but few seem to try it, probably due to the wheel-unfriendly steep sidehills that the trail traverses. Great flowers are out now...lupine, indian paintbrush and many others. I proceeded as far as the Koppen Mountain/Jungle Creek trail junction. The Koppen Mountain trail is virtually unmaintained and can be difficult to follow. Snow is gone completely. No other hikers were seen on the trail Sunday.

Malcolm Mtn features great views of the Teanaway area and a summit you likely will have to yourself that includes a bronze plaque dedicated to the Midnight Tenor of Malcolm Mtn. This report will tell you how to find the user trail that takes you very close to the summit. From the end of the Jungle Creek road hike north on the Way Creek trail. The first 800 feet of gain or so is a steep jeep road and then the real trail begins. At about 4,800 the trail crosses a side ridge. From here there is a wonderful view of Malcolm Mtn. Also from here look to the right of Malcolm a bit and you will see the Koppen Mtn trail traversing a steep slope. Not far beyond here is a trail junction. The Way Creek trail ends. The Jungle Creek trail heads east and the Koppen Mtn trail heads north. The trail signs here seem a bit confusing. Look around here so you do not try accidentally try to hike out on the Jungle Creek trail. Continue north on the Koppen Mtn trail until the saddle just past point 4,938 on the Teanaway Butte quad. (For you gps users - 10 655911E 5248474N, Datum = NAD27) This saddle has a nice log where we ate lunch but trees block the views. The trail now appears to split. You take the user trail that continues straight ahead and climbs. (The somewhat fainter fork traversing to the right is the Koppen Mtn trail. It traverses a steep east facing slope and then regains the ridge. This portion of the Koppen Mtn trail is more of an easy scramble than a trail hike.) From the saddle, follow the trail uphill. Just before you leave the woods and enter an open scree area, look for a trail traversing left on a gradual climb. Follow that trail to the top of the ridge northeast of the summit. (10 655541E 5248522N, Datum = NAD27) Note - this would be an easy turn to miss on your hike out. At this ridge top turn left and follow the trail. After you pass a few hunter camps and a springy area, you arrive on top of a different ridge due north of the summit. Here there are more hunter camps. Turn left and follow the trail south toward the summit. Near the summit the faint trail disappears and the terrain becomes steeper, so we'll call the last bit an easy scramble. Caution - This would not be a good hike to do in hunting season! The round trip is about 8 miles and around 2,500 total elevation gain. The hike out includes some (groan) uphill parts. Bugs were minimal.

We did this 10.7 mile loop on the west side of the Teanaway valley on a pleasant, cool and partly overcast Sunday and never saw anyone else. The hike begins from Beverly Creek on the Johnson-Medra trail and follows the creek for about 2-1/2 miles, then climbs at a rate of 1,000 ft/mile for a mile and a half to Medra Pass. Very nice and varied views there, including west into the Middle Fork Teanaway country and east towards Mt. Stuart/Ingalls. Continued south following trail 1225, the Koppen Mtn trail. I was surprised to read another very recent report of this trail as it looked like nobody else had been on it this year! It took a small amount of route finding, the trail pretty much disappears in places or just spreads out into a series of game trails but as long as you are careful to stay on the ridges and follow the right ridge lines (it cuts over one ridge about 1/2 down) it's fine. If you were doing this loop the other way it might be easy to accidentally bear left to Malcolm Peak since it looks like a trail in that direction may get more use. Once we hooked up with the Way Creek and Jungle Creek trail it was obvious these trails get more use and someone had recently cut a lot of deadfall, thanks. Some signs of motorcycles but utter solitude the whole way. A very nice loop.