Little Beaver Creek, Big Beaver Trail — Friday, Jul. 12, 2024

tl;dr: Little Beaver Trail is a horrific mess from Perry Creek to the junction with Big Beaver, with one extremely difficult spot.

We (2 adults, 3 teens/preteens, all experienced backpackers) hiked from Little Beaver boat camp out to Big Beaver boat camp on July 12-14. We stayed at Stillwell camp the first night and Luna camp the second.

We overall enjoyed the trip, but the first day was hellish. It was our only day on the Little Beaver trail, and we were prepared for some bushwhacking after reading a July 5 trip report, but it was worse than we imagined. Up until Perry creek it was fine, but after that it got terrible. We bushwhacked for miles through devil's club and some stinging nettle, with all of us getting painfully stung (long pants recommended if you can stand the heat). There were many blowdowns we had to cross, some that took some time.

But the worst part came about a half mile before (east of) the Big/Little Beaver junction. The trail became impassable, and we followed some blue tape markings and cairns on a log across Little Beaver Creek, then to another log, then to a water crossing back to a dry creek bed on the north side. Our troubles still weren't over, as we encountered some more blue tape (on a log about 200' from the river) that led us in the wrong direction; the correct way back to the trail was immediately next to the river along an eroded bank. We'd initially overlooked it because it was incredibly overgrown.

To say that again a different way: there are two conflicting routes through this section, both marked with blue ribbons and cairns; the one that worked for us (going east to west) log-crossed to the south side of Little Beaver Creek, ran us up a second log, then had us wading back across to the north side and then immediately bushwhacking west through a stupendously overgrown ~30' section right near the creek, then hugging the creek on an eroded bank. I believe we followed more or less the same route as the group that posted the July 5 trip report.

That whole 0.1-mile section took us about an hour. Without the advice we got from a party we encountered who had just been through there, it might have taken much longer -- it took that group 2.5 hours.

I would only recommend the section of Little Beaver from Perry Creek to the Big Beaver junction to masochists or those deliberately looking for some intensive bushwhacking practice. If you're already committed to hiking that section, I wish you the best.

We were partly using the AllTrails app for our navigation, and that app says that the junction for the Stillwell trail is about a quarter mile east of where it actually is (possibly an older location of the trail). The actual junction is well-signed; it's right at the first switchback toward Beaver Pass. Stillwell Camp itself is a mess, with the trail down to it so decayed it's been marked with pink tape so you can find your way. Water access at Stillwell is a little tricky.

Our experience between Stillwell Camp and Big Beaver Camp was excellent. Luna camp is very nice (great water access), and so is everything from there to the boat dock. Do note that multiple streams marked as permanent on multiple maps are already dry, particularly between 39 Mile Camp and Big Beaver Camp. Also, the whole hike was pretty buggy.

Swimming in Ross Lake at the end made up for a lot of that pain on Little Beaver. And our kids built heaping mounds of character.