What a wonderful early season trip with almost no people (only saw people around Ross Dam/the spur to the resort, and one other small group near Beaver Pass who was doing the same loop as us, just in the opposite direction. Having multiple days without seeing hardly anyone, camping alone, and being in such a beautiful landscape is such a gift (usually helped by early season and hikes that have less instagram-able and well-known viewpoints).
Our itinerary was this:
day 1: Hike happy panther from East Bank TH, walk service road to the dam, cross dam and hike Ross dam trail, hike big beaver to pumpkin mtn camp
day 2: hike big beaver trail from pumpkin mtn to beaver pass camp
day 3: hike from beaver pass to Perry camp.
day 4: hike from Perry to little beaver camp, take water taxi to hidden hand/ruby arm, hike east bank trail back to TH.
I won’t list out all of the pros and fantastic parts of the hike because if you have looked it up, then you already know if it’s a hike that you’ll enjoy. A few though: Watching newly born fawns stumbling across the trail, bounties of elfin saddles, berries about to burst, immensely large and old cedars, and many complex and beautiful ecosystems from the marshes with skunk cabbage taller than me to the forests that show-case some of the largest W. Red Cedar and Doug Fir I’ve seen, plus many other species.
More information worth noting, however, is about the number of bear signs and trail conditions. We didn’t see any bears, which was very surprising, but we saw so much bear poop (on the trail, as they do that) that we were hyper vigilant. The sections of Little Beaver that were very overgrown and brushy would be a little iffy as just one person because you couldn’t see anything around you, or the trail at all, and it would be easy to startle a bear being solo. Despite seeing dozens of bear scat, no actual bears to report, though we thought we heard a low growl (not a cat growl) about 150 feet below the trail on Little Beaver.
The brushy sections were a major annoyance, but only an issue on Little Beaver. There were downed trees throughout the loop we did (most on Little and Big Beaver unsurprisingly), but most were easy to get over, none were huge or requiring a lot of effort.
There were many stream crossings, most of which were not a problem, but there were a few that required time searching for a log to cross over. Luckily, there were solid log crossings on the 2 streams that would otherwise be impassable (Perry and a stream before Luna, it might be 39 mile? I can’t remember I’m sorry). Just take your time looking for the safest way across and other signs that people had been crossing there too.
At Perry, it would’ve been easy to miss the new trail that leads to the log crossing because of the way we were coming (doing the loop clock wise), but if you came the other way you would’ve found the re-routed trail easier.
At the other major log crossing (before Luna), look for the log that has branches cut off, which makes for a easy way across (and the single tree goes all the way across for added convenience, no need to get off and scramble to another part way through).
Regarding the junction of Big beaver with Little Beaver, you have to take the trail that goes east of Stillwell to cross the creek as there is no bridge (or obvious trail) west of Stillwell. There is a great bridge to the east however, so just go that way and you’ll be great.
Comments