The salmon are spawning and easy to see on this little hike! This is a hike about the journey, as the destination has been cut off by a broken bridge, you can no longer get to all the ponds and to the nice lunch log by the water. Nursing 2 broken toes, I needed an easy flat hike, knew the Ice Caves would be mobbed, so opted for this. Great fall color today and only 4 other people on trail. We could smell the rotting fish all along the trail by the river, so we were hoping to see live spawning fish. We were able to get a good look just after the little switchback as the trail goes down right to the river about a mile in. We could hear them splashing and see them swimming upstream, we were thrilled! They look black in the water, not the silver or red you would expect. The trail does not see a lot of maintenance so is a bit rough in spots. There are 2 large logs down with a wedge cut for your foot and a handhold, some mud and one little wet rocky downhill spot. The end is anticlimactic, the ponds under the bridge are dried up and the couple with water still you can only glimpse from the end. This would be such a nice hike option off the MLH if the bridge could be repaired. Yeah I know, no budget, sad. The Loop is paved to the TH from Darrington, loo in good shape. 

Unfortunately, the Beaver Lake trail seems to be falling into disrepair.  The initial portion of the trail is in pretty decent shape, but the trail soon becomes brushy.  It looks as though there was some attempt made to brush out certain areas, but others were untouched.  At about .7 mile, you reach the river and the trail becomes somewhat muddy, even though there’s been little rain in the area.  There are segments of the trail in this area that need to be reworked to cut into the hillside a bit so the trail is wider.  There’s also a tree with a notch cut into it that’s a little difficult to negotiate, particularly with a dog.

The end of the trail comes at a bridge that has fallen apart halfway through.  This is Beaver Lake.  To say that the lake is uninspiring is an understatement.  There was little to no water, no signs of beavers and it was not a particularly scenic area.  There are a lot of better trails in the area, including the Old Sauk Trail, and I would use those and leave Beaver Creek alone.

Was out on the Beaver Lake trail to use it to access the Sauk River for knotweed surveying, but considering we hiked the full trail, I thought I’d throw a little trip report up!

Beaver Lake is a great trail and mostly in great shape! The first section of trail is wide and flat and well brushed, but as you get further down the tread starts to narrow and it gets really brushy with lots of STINGING NETTLE, dock, salmonberry, and various grasses. It’s not anything awful, but mind the nettle … it’ll get ya through your thin clothes and it’s extra sting-y this time of year.

Great views of Sloan Peak, White Chuck, and the Sauk River along the trail and several easy access points to the river itself and made for a great day of hunting for knotweed! Even saw some big kitty tracks :)

It would also feel silly of me to not throw in a little link to my Hike-A-Thon page here if you’re feeling extra generous and wanna help kick off my fundraising month! Stay tuned for more photos, reports, and stories from my month of surveying and hiking :) https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/4831195

I arrived at 9:00 am, about 30 minutes after my planned arrival time (SR 530 is closed at Darrington in a super annoying way and I had to go around), to a small, empty lot. There's a vault toilet and some interesting signage to check out at the trailhead. 

The trail starts out nice and wide and in the shade. The river is lovely and clear and cold. There are bunches of birds the entire way, but it's hard to spot them until a little farther into the hike. However, I *did* see a Barred Owl about .3 miles into it, which was a fun treat.

It gets narrower pretty quickly, and with that comes a couple of warnings:

1. This trail is lined with stinging nettle - wear pants and watch your arms, especially if you're with little ones.
2. Stay on the trail - this is always important but here there are parts of the trail that are soft and crumbling just off the path. 

On the plus side, there are thimbleberries along the entire route.

There's a little bit of fun scrambling but mostly it's a fair path, and it's a really short little jaunt. As a fat, I can say this a truly easy walk with a little bit of up and down that gets your heart pumping a little bit, and is great for beginners to either hiking or physical activity. There's an area about halfway to the end point that has fallen apart a little due to slides but it was totally doable - just a little mud and logs.

The "lake" that you arrive at is not much of a lake (perhaps in winter?) but it is a lovely marshy area with a lot of birds and bugs and butterflies and a cool bridge that would be great for a little insta moment. I sat here for a little while and soaked up the solitude. Apparently the trail used to go on a ways but there is now a very clear end. You might be able to scramble forward but it would definitely mean getting wet - I wouldn't recommend it. 

The bugs weren't terrible at all, but I DID pick up a single tick so again - wear pants. 

For my bird nerds: along the way I spotted American Robins, Common Yellowthroats, Song Sparrows, Cedar Waxwings, a single Spotted Sandpiper, a Black-Throated Gray Warbler, Western Wood Pewees, Pine Siskins, tens of Swainsons' Thrushes, and a family of four Red-Breasted Sapsuckers. 

Not too far in the trail became overgrown. Even with the trail maintenance it seems this trail is prone to becoming overgrown unfortunately. However the trail isn't that long so it is manageable.