I have been wanting to see the condition of this one so a few of us headed out to try it this morning. The first section of the trail is in pretty good shape, with some downed trees but nothing too difficult to cross. We had a bit of snow last night but it was melting off pretty quickly as we hiked.

As a previous trip report mentioned, there is a big tree down and a slide/washout around 3/4 mile in that is quite difficult to pass. We clambered down the slide onto the sandy river bank to get around it but even this wouldn't be feasible if the water was much higher, so I wouldn't recommend it. On the way back, those of us without the dog were able to scramble over the tree with some difficulty, but this is a tough spot to cross.

The rest of the trail had more downed trees, a lot of branches down, and some muddy sections, but again nothing too difficult with a little clambering and good boots. The trail is pretty and follows the river on a fairly flat grade. We reached the bridge over the lake which is now the trail end, as the bridge is closed partway across due to damage (I think it's been this way for a few years now). It's a nice little trail, would love to see it fixed up in future! 

The past two days I spent about 10 hours fixing up the Lookout Tree trail.

Yesterday I parked at the Lookout Tree trailhead (signed), about 3 miles up the Mountain Loop from the Beaver Lake T.H..  Trail down to the Tree is pretty good already, most of the few visitors here stop there.  Almost immediately beyond, the brush closed in, and I got to work.

Tons of branches down, trail would have been hard to make out in places without the flags.  I tackled most of it, came back today to finish.

This morning they were grading the Mountain Loop at the end of the pavement (hooray!) so I parked at the Beaver Lake trailhead.  No other hikers. 

I had to slosh across the river channel between the trails, didn't take off my shoes, so had wet feet all day.  Less than knee deep, not too cold.  You could (and should) go barefoot comfortably across the channel, up the beach, and back across before putting your shoes back on - bring a towel.

There was a little left to do, about 3 hours.  Nice to be able to finish the work from the opposite end rather than having to pick up where I left off.  

The Lookout Tree trail is now the good way to access the Beaver Lake trail beyond the broken bridge.  These are both part of the same old logging railroad.  The 5 government trucks I saw here 3 days ago tells me there's a $100,000 fix in the works someday, but for a few hours of my time, now we have this again.

When I arrived at the Beaver Lake trailhead there were 5 government trucks in the parking lot, and no other hikers.  Good luck getting past the view- platform/ Trail End.  Plus I didn't have a Pass. 

So I started driving toward the Lookout Tree trailhead 3 miles farther up.  I ended up parking at White Chuck Viewpoint and walking to the T.H. due to snow on the road, turned out to be short-lived.

Trail is signed, drops to Lookout Tree, then gets very brushy and eventually connects to Beaver Lake trail.  River channel must be crossed twice to get past slide area.  First crossing about a foot deep, getting back about 2 feet.  I just pulled up my pant legs and sloshed across, super easy!

Look for yellow (used to be green) flags on bank indicating Beaver Lake trail. This part of the trail is getting worse with neglect. 

When I got to the trailhead the trucks were pulling out.  Outhouse is unlocked.  I walked the mile back to my car at White Chuck Overlook.  I will work on this one soon.

(Apologies, I uploaded 4 pictures to the report but the WTA server rejected them as two large; first time I have encountered that problem.)

Had done several weeks of hiking along Puget Sound and wanted to see what winter had done to mountain trails, so headed to two low-lying trails just outside of Darrington, Beaver Lake and White Chuck Bench (upper end).  Beaver Lake had a portion of the trail wiped out at about 3/4 mile where a large tree and a slide have fallen over the trail.  I managed to scramble over the fallen tree, but it was not easy given the steepness of that section of the trail.  The trail now ends on the trestle bridge over Beaver Lake, where a few trees have taken out a section of the bridge.  You can still see the vast beaver ponds and much evidence of active beaver work on nearby trees, but unfortunately this blockage limits the hike to 1.5 miles one-way only, cutting off the last half-mile and the grove of old-growth cedars which are right after the trestle bridge.

Skunk cabbage are just starting to poke their heads up in the wet bogs before Beaver Lake.  Heavy snow started to fall in the second half of the hike, but there was only a dusting along the trail.  Only saw one other party of two during the short outing.

Then headed up the White Chuck River Road (Forest Road 23) ~5.5 miles to check out the White Chuck Bench trail from the upper section.  The road had about 6-8 inches of packed snow in the middle (but clear tracks on either side) in the last half mile or so, so high-clearance vehicles are required to reach the upper-end trailhead (there is a trailhead at both ends of this ~6 mile trail).  Several logs that had been blocking the road looked like they had been recently cut out and removed.  

 The trail was fairly recently completed and is in fine shape save several trees down in the 2 miles I did and small slump at about 1/2 mile in.  The new trail is an engineering feat and climbs high and away from the river in order to avoid future trail washouts, but the river is visible from various vantage points along the way and you can generally hear it.  Only a dusting of snow for most of this section, except for the first few yards right after the trailhead, where it was 4-5 inches deep but had many human tracks. I had done the same trail from the other end in December, and it's great to have a new fairly long trail that is largely accessible in the winter.  It's a beautiful moss-carpeted forest for much of the way.  Nobody was on this trail today. 

As others have noted the trail was very overgrown with stinging nettle - long pants highly recommended!!!

A tree took out the bridge a while back so that is where the trail abruptly stops, which made for a 2.7 mile round trip. 

Being that close to Darrington calls for a quick stop at River Time Brewery. So many people filling their growlers! Unfortunately their Hefeweizen was out, but the Irish Gold made for a tasty alternative and went well with the pizza.