Teanaway Backpack - Bean, Earl, & Navaho July 6-8, 2012

Our route

Headed out to the Teanaways for the first time. Sarah and I decided to throw together a some what off trail ridge and summit adventure. We drove up on Thursday after work and camped near the Beverly Trail head. On Friday we hit the trail at a little before 9 and headed up to the Bean Creek Basin. This being my first real backpacking trip of the summer, I was definitely feeling a bit on the slow side, but we made it up without too much trouble. From the basin the trail turns into a boot path that we partially followed up to the saddle. At the saddle we dropped our packs, put on our helmets and headed towards Bean's summit.

Panorama from the Bean Creek Basin

The top of Bean

The climb up Bean is fairly easy thanks to the nice sticky red rock. We had fund scrambling the many boulders and made it up without any problems. The view from the summit is stunning with the Enchantments right in your face. We couldn't find a summit registry, but did have the peak to ourselves. After some lounging and many photos we headed back to our packs to continue the slog up the ridge to Earl.

The Enchantments from Bean

At this point we were feeling envious of day hikers, as our full packs made navigating the scree and rocks a little challenging. At one point, we dropped below the ridge on the south side to try and avoid some big boulders and ended up dropping a bit too low into some slick scree. After that section, we were able to connect with a boot trail that took us the rest of the way without much problem. The summit of Earl was even more stunning than Bean. You see not only the Enchantments, but numerous peaks to the west in the Alpine Lake Wilderness. We did find a registry on Earl and signed it. 

Panorama from the Summit of Earl

Staurt as seen from Earl

Me on Earl

Cornices along the county line

After a long rest on the summit, we decided we needed to drop down for the night to some where with water. We decided to head down the east side of Earl towards the small tarn that is visible on USGS maps. The tarn was still mostly frozen, but there was a nice creek leaving the snow field. We also found a good flat,dry spot to set up our tent. The scramble down from Earl was not too bad, some scree and some snow. 

Looking towards Navaho from Earl. We camped on the bare ground visible in the basin

Our camp the first night

The next morning we were up early. Our tent, even without a rain fly, was feeling pretty hot by about 6:30. The sun was really blazing. From our campsite, we could see the trail at Navaho Pass and decided to traverse over from our campsite to meet up with the trail. It took us about 2 hours to pick our way through snow and rock and end up at the pass. From the pass, there was an easy to follow, yet very steep trail, up to the summit of Navaho. We were happy that this time we only had on day packs. We made it up to Navaho a little before noon and although we saw a group coming down, we had the summit to ourselves. Again, another beautiful view. On the way down we saw about 6 people coming up and a few other groups on the trail below the pass. It looked like it was going to be a busy Saturday on Navaho.

Looking back towards Rainier, Earl, and our tent

Relaxing on Navaho

We headed back to our camp for some afternoon lounging. We had noticed a campsite up on the ridge just below Earl's summit and decided to make that our destination for the night. We waited until it cooled off just a little and headed back up Earl with our packs. We found the ridge again completely empty and set up our tent. This currently stands as one of my favorite campsites I've stayed at. We had amazing views and complete solitude and it was such a warm night that we could easily sleep with out a rain fly.

One of my all time favorite campsites

A little spec on top of the world (look closely and you'll see our tent)

That evening we scrambled back to the summit to watch the sunset, which was beautiful and we felt overjoyed to be up in the mountains. It was one of those nights that felt like it never really got dark because the moon was so bright and the sky so clear, but we managed to get some sleep. We woke up on Sunday morning at 4:15 to watch the sunrise and the alpine glow fill the sky. Another awesome experience. We headed back to the car via a boot path that goes down the southwest side of Earl and connects with the main trail in the saddle below Earl which took us less than 2 hours. All in all, it was a stellar weekend and a we both came back on a mountain high.

Sunset

Sarah on Earl

Sunset and Navaho

Panorama Sunset

Green lichen on Earl

Sunset over Stewart

Sunrise

Sunrise from tent

Rialto Beach north to Chilean Memorial May 12, 2012

A forecast of sunshine for the weekend meant a trip to the coast! We try to make it to the beach about once per year. It's a great place to go when the mountains are still covered in snow. We were originally planning a slightly longer hike, but after a night of car camping near forks, I woke up with a weird shoulder pain and decided not to push it. Instead we opted for a shorter trip from Rialto up to Hole-in-the-wall and onto Chilean Memorial. 

We left fairly early in the morning and headed out into glorious sunshine. We had some nice low tides exposing lots of rocky beaches and tide pools. We took our time exploring as we went. We were hoping to find a nice secluded beach with good camping. At Chilean Memorial we found just that. There was a great campsite just a little ways up the bluff very near the actual memorial. We had the beach to ourselves...well almost. One solo backpacker came in just before dark, but he was pretty quiet.

We made a yummy dinner and then had a campfire out on the sand. We spent the rest of the evening listening to the waves, exploring around the beach and just relaxing. It was a warm evening which allowed for lots of star gazing. Coast camping moves at a slower speed than most of our backpacking trip. The next morning we packed up and headed back out. Stopping for several photo ops along the way. Great trip!

Crashing waves on a rocky beach

Coming up to hole-in-the-wall

Black Oyster Catchers

Hole in the Wall

Beach Panorama

Star fish

Anenomes

lots of sea stacks

Watch out for that wave!

The view from our campsite

Making a fire

Our camp

Back to hole-in-the-wall

Through the hole!

Derrick Lake

One day, during the cold dark months of winter I was perusing my Alpine Lakes Wilderness map dreaming of sunny summer backpacking trips, when I discovered it--Derrick Lake. It was an unassuming blue spot on the western edge of the map bearing the same name (and spelling) as my boy! At this discovery a dream of reaching the shores of this unknown lake was born.

Fast forward six months to a warm August weekend. After much research and map studying, Derrick and I decided to set out on our adventure to see this lake for ourselves. Now, this was no easy task. Derrick Lake is about 2 miles from the middle fork of the snoqualmie trail. However, those 2 miles involve some intense bushwhacking/route finding up some gnarly terrain. So here is where I give you a word of caution that this hike is not for the casual hiker. It involves very strenuous, at time dangerous, scrambling, crawling, creek jumping, and lots of route finding. In other words, if you are not an experienced off trail hiker with good navigational skills, please don't attempt this--you will only hurt yourself, or worse. And if for some reason you do decide to make this trek, please treat this area kindly and minimize your impact.

Ok with that said, here is the story of our adventure. We left Seattle Saturday after a brief stop to purchase our new epic rafts (think glorified pool toys) and hit the trail head somewhere around noon. The first mile was a relatively flat hike along the middle fork of the snoqualmie river to the Cripple Creek Bridge.

Bridge over cripple creek

Cripple Creek

Here at the bridge we found a boot path heading up the right side of the creek. The path was relatively easy to follow through the forest, despite some rather large blow downs that require some acrobatic skills. We were excited to try out our new rafts, but a little distraught by how much extra weight they added to our packs (these were not fancy light weight pack rafts).

An example of one of several multi-tree blow downs

After slogging along the boot path we eventually hit Tin Cup Joe Falls, a multi-layered waterfall that is very scenic, but a little difficult to get a view of. At this point it was time to cross the creek and begin the really adventurous section of our hike.

The lower section of Tin Cup Joe Falls

After hopping a few rocks we made it across the creek and were faced with a wall of dirt that had to be climbed using protruding roots to wedge our way up. Once above this obstacle we were a little unsure of where to go. In hind sight (we found a much better route on the way back down), we should have bared right and we would have connected with another slight boot path, but at the time we figured we needed to keep going up--so up we went. We were scrambling along to the right of a smaller trickle that enters Cripple Creek just below the falls. The going was extremely slow and filled with salmonberry and devils club. Eventually we hit a rock face that we weren't about to climb and began traversing towards the main section of the falls. Eventually we ended up right next to the upper section of the falls and discovered the boot path we should have been on the whole time.

This is NOT the way to go

The upper section of the falls

Now when I say boot path, don't go envisioning a nice big trail. Really it is just a faint trail of where people have walked in the past and it might not exist year round. But luckily for us we were able to follow this for most of the way. We even found a few pieces of flagging tape left by another hiker. This next section was one of the steepest of the hike and we were starting to regret our heavier-than-normal-packs. And when I say steep, I mean climbing-on-your-hands- and-knees-through-the-dirt-holding-onto-foliage-for-dear-life-steep.

One of the steep climbs (the photo makes it look much mellower than it was)

A nice view across the river valley

Now eventually the steep section did mellow out a bit and transform into what I like to call the "huckleberry fields of despair". Rarely, would I use the word "despair" in conjunction with "huckleberry", but the situation warranted it. Envision for a moment, thick huckleberry bushes taller than your head that you must force your way through as they slap you in the face and attempt to rip off your pack and clothes, while you trod uphill. The upside--many of the berries were ripe! And if I had to chose, I'd definitely pick huckleberries over devil's club and salmonberries.

At some point in the early evening, our boot path returned us to the creek. We then descended into the creek bed for our final challenge of the day--the creek climb. Now, this section would have probably been kind of fun had it not been for the heavy packs and fatigue (both physical and mental) that was setting in. It has been a relentless day, but we were determined to make it. The creek just below Little Derrick Lake descends through a narrow shoot of almost vertical rock walls leaving no real option, but to climb up through the creek. This section of the hike would be near impossible during high water, but luckily the creek was at a reasonable height leaving rocks exposed. However, it was still a tough slow climb, made more intense by the rushing water, constantly reminding you how bad a slip in this area could be.

Where we dropped down into the creek

The climb up the creek (again, this picture makes it look easier than real life)

Luckily, we made it without a slip up to the point where a few large drops make it impossible to stay in the creek and we had to climb up the hill side to the right. This was probably the sketchiest section of the day. Exhausted but feeling accomplished we arrived just before dark at Little Derrick Lake and shortly after to Derrick Lake. We were surprised to be greeted by a group of 3 camping on the left side of the lake. They congratulated us on making it up, directed us to a second campsite over to the right, and informed us that they were heading out first thing in the morning.

Little Derrick Lake

Looking out from Little Derrick

Derrick Lake was a beautiful place with large granite rock slabs allowing you to slowly wade out in the clear waters. The next day was a beautiful one. Despite the extra weight, we were glad to have our rafts and spent the day lounging out on the lake. We had considered exploring some of the upper lakes, but decided to spend a lazy day instead. It was a pretty perfect day.

Derrick Lake Panorama

Reflections

Moon over Derrick

Derrick on Derrick Lake

I think the raft will become a permanent addition to the gear

They also make nice camp chairs

The way down was less intense than the way up, but had some scary moments none-the-less. It took us about 6 hrs to descend and left us quite sore. We passed another group coming in as we were on the way down. Again, I would caution anyone who is considering the hike to only attempt it if you have experience route finding and the ability to climb very steep terrain.