Bean Creek Basin — Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

Thick black clouds took the place of the usual Stuart Range view as I drove by Cle Elum. The North Fork Teanaway road was not dusty, a rare occurence in August. Although a few sprinkles fell on the drive in, the skies had cleared by the time I reached the trailhead. The humidity was relatively high for this normally dry region. The trail is in good shape, showing no ill effects of the climax avalanche which came down the gully just upstream from the first Bean Creek crossing. Both crossings of the creek were fairly easy, and the first one had several logs in the stream (good for hikers, bad for horses). From the saddle, I followed a steep but obvious way trail to the top of Earl Peak. The rain had cleared out most of the usual summertime haze, and the Stuarts were their usual awesome selves. The County Line Trail could be seen heading down into the basin north of Earl, but then disappeared until Navaho Pass. Numbers: 3.5-4 miles and 3400 feet of gain to 7036-foot Earl Peak. 2:15 up, 1:30 down, and some sore legs the next day.