Copper Ridge Loop, Hannegan Pass and Peak — Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019

We arrived at the Hannegan Pass trailhead at 4:00am Saturday morning. There were a couple dozen vehicles at the road's end, with plenty of room to park the car. The road leading to the trailhead from Highway 542 is well marked and well maintained and is fine for any vehicle.

Our plan for the day was to complete the Copper Ridge Loop in one long day, and leave some room for a potential detour or two. In our case, our detour was the trail up to Hannegan Peak. The first few miles required our headlamps, but we could see the sun slowly illuminating the peaks to our right. Once reaching the pass, we got an incredible view of Ruth Mountain as the sun was coming up. Since it was approaching golden hour, we opted to take the 1 mile trail up to Hannegan Peak. We were rewarded with incredible panoramic views of Ruth Mountain, Shuksan, Baker, and the many peaks that would be more clearly viewed later in the day. 

Shortly after our descent from Hannegan Peak, the loop trail begins. We opted to take the clockwise route and experience the ridge and more exposed areas earlier in the day to beat the heat. The first couple of miles are a steady climb upward, but quickly opened up to wonderful scenery and peaks in all directions. The trail rarely gives you flat sections, but most of the elevation that is lost or gained is typically very gentle and usually not noticed due to the beautiful views. After roughly 5 miles on the loop trail, we made a push up to the fire lookout. Spectacular views from up here. From this point, we began descending toward Copper Lake, roughly 1.3 miles from the lookout. For anyone interested in camping up here, this seemed like a superb spot with a good water source and protection from sun or wind.

After a few more miles of scenic ridge hiking, the trail becomes more shaded and starts to descend for quite some time. After a set of switchbacks, you will shortly have to ford the Chilliwack River and Indian Creek respectively. For us, this just meant removing shoes and socks but the current may be more rapid earlier in the summer. Look for the pink flagging tape that will help guide you across the water and take you toward Indian Creek camp. Now the trail turns into quiet forest floor hiking for nearly the entire remainder of the southern loop. There is a bridge to get you across Brush Creek, but the cable car that takes you across the Chilliwack River shortly after appears to be out of service. The river is simple to cross with no shoes and was refreshing to have icy water on hot feet after clocking 25 miles by this point. From here, we had about 5-6 more miles of forested trail until reaching the boundary camp to close the loop. Along the way, there are plenty of places to fill up for water and a variety of nice camping spots above the river. 

Once reaching the boundary camp where the loop meets back up, we had roughly 5 more miles of trail ahead of us until reaching the car. Thankfully, much of the final stretch of trail was both scenic and easy on the knees. As the sun began to set, we were able to get great views of Ruth Mountain and the Ruth Creek valley. We reached the car at 9pm, completing our 17 hour, 37.5 mile day. 

Ultimately, this was an incredible area of the cascades and a wonderful trip overall. For us, it checked all the boxes - a well maintained road and trail, plenty of water sources, ridgeline trails, peaks, wild flowers, and untouched forest floors.