Big Beaver Trail, Luna Peak — Friday, Aug. 13, 2021

Pro-tip: definitely coordinate with Ross Lake Resort to and from Big Beaver CG.

On Friday, 8/13/21, my buddy and I started our smoky trek from Big Beaver Campground towards Luna Peak. On Big Beaver, there were some minor stream crossings, but the trail was otherwise in good condition. At Luna CG we did not encounter any bees, as previously described. We walked another mile past Luna CG before descending towards our Big Beaver Creek crossing. There was a solid log crossing on the lookers-left side of Access Creek (near N48° 50.6488' W121° 12.8590'). We then started our trek foolishly up the left side of Access Creek. There was no climbers trail on this side, the huckleberry bushes were relatively thick, and we found a few groves of slide alder which impeded travel immensely. About 2/3 of the way until you reach the final boulder fields (which open to Access Creek Basin), we decided to cross to the right side of the creek, and found the climbers trail. This improved travel significantly. (Side note: on the way out, we took the climbers trail (which intermittently disappears but is easy to find again) all the way to Big Beaver Creek (starts near N48° 50.6331' W121° 13.0217'). Outside of the top 15% of the trail, the rest is on the the right-hand side of the creek. The previously described, robust log-jam (in old trip reports and on other sites) is no longer in place, as Big Beaver Creek has shifted it 90*.)

We set up camp in Access Creek Basin. The next day we took the middle gully up to the ridge and then caught the climbers trails to Luna Col. These dip down a bit, but avoid many of the snowfields we crossed. The scramble up to Luna Peak's false summit was strenuous, but not technical. The view at the false summit is arguably better, and the class 4 down climb to get to the true summit did not seem worth it. Fred Beckey reportedly details a route to the true summit, though we did not take this. Though there was still some smoke (8/14), it was considerably improved from the day before.