This was the approach to a climb of Argonaut Peak from the Beverly Creek trailhead. The plan was to bivy at the trailhead to get an early start, but as it turned out we arrived at 7pm, early enough to get a head start on the next day. The Beverly trail required an initial creek crossing, easy enough if you don't mind wet feet. The trail is in great shape up to the Fourth Creek exit where there is occasional snow. The Fourth Creek trail was pretty good to the intersection with Hardscrabble trail, where it is mostly snow. We camped there for the night, then headed down towards Ingalls Creek at 6:30 am. The higher part of the trail is often covered by snow or running water, with frequent blow downs. We relied on gps maps to stay with the trail. As you near Ingalls Creek the trail dries out, although there are frequent blowdowns to negotiate. Reaching Ingalls Creek the stream was fast and deep, out of the question to ford on foot. We found some logs upstream and used them to cross. I am reasonably experienced at this and found the crossing to be very dicey. Returning at 8 that evening the stream was noticeably higher, my knees got wet scootching along the lower log.

The climb of Argonaut made for a very stout day. We never found a trail off Ingalls, the walk up through the woods was steep and difficult, followed by about a thousand feet of 50 degree snowfield, lots of crampon and ice axe practice. At the top we took off our heavy boots and did the rock climbing barefoot. Coming down was labor intensive, by the time we returned to the trailhead at 11 pm we were spent. Beautiful summit, whoever goes up next should take a pencil, as there is none in the summit register. I left a bloody thumbprint in the register, it seemed appropriate🙂

Another Hike-a-Thon hike down, also, my longest solo-hike to date! This was my first major venture into the trails beneath the Stuart range, and I was really pleased with the entire area, especially after realizing how quick the drive is from Seattle.

One of the highlights for this area is really the abundance of loop hikes you can make out of all the intersecting trails. The Ingalls Creek trail acts as a convenient backbone for endless trail combos. Since my original plan of hiking up and over Long's Pass was thwarted by wild fires, I was still able to hike into Ingalls Creek by way of the Beverly Turnpike/Fourth Creek trails.

Starting from the Beverly Turnpike trailhead (located down a slightly questionable road, but my Jetta handled it like a champ!), you can either go for a short-and-sweet day hike up to the ridgeline (with stellar views and huckleberries for dayz), or continue on down the Fourth Creek Trail. From the Fourth Creek trail, you'll head down another 2-3 miles, and swing a left to join up with the Ingalls Creek Trail.

I ended up spending the night a few miles west of the Fourth Creek/Ingalls junction at a super lovely (and huge) horse camp along the river. Unfortunately, I was on a mission to meet up with a WTA youth group (and some llamas), so I ran out of time to make it up to Ingalls Lake, but I would highly recommend you trek the extra mile and a half to see it!

Total mileage: 18 roundtrip
Total elevation gain: 3,500 ft

Linked some trails together for a loop. Started at 0715 at the Iron Peak trailhead. A few cars at the lot but not too bad. Went up Iron then down the other side to Fourth Creek. Descended from the pass to Ingalls Creek. Other parties reported seeing a bear in the area. 

Ingalls Creek has to be forded, but it's not too high, just a little chilly.

Ascended the Ingalls Creek trail to Stuart Pass (note: between Fourth Creek and the Long Pass trail on the Ingalls Creek trail, it's a little brushy). Then traversed from Stuart Pass to Ingalls Lake. It's basically a mountain goat trail in this section and in poor visibility not the simplest to navigate. But clear skies for me.

Ingalls Lake had clouds of mosquitos, but was still well worth it. Used the Ingalls Way alternate since it's lower and likely less snow (I was in running shoes). Met some friendly goats at the pass on Ingalls Way. 

Back down the trail to the road for 1.1 miles and then to the car. 25+ miles (someone who knows better could comment and give better mileage) in 9.5 hours. Fun day. 

Great loop multi-peak summit hike in the Teanaway based on some previous trip reports and adapted. Route began at Bean Creak TH, over to Earl Peak, then a ridge line hike to Bean Peak. After summiting Bean Peak, I descended on the north face toward Volcanic Neck, went around it and then summited Devils Head. I went back the way I came, caught Hardscrabble, then Fourth Creek, then Beverly Turnpike back to the car.

Roads

• USFS Rd 9737 is beautiful. Kudos to the Cle Elum Ranger District! Note: This road is closed beyond the Iron Peak TH due to multiple recurring washouts. This is approx. 1.2 miles from the Esmeralda and Lake Ingalls THs. It will not be repaired until 2018.
• USFS Rd 9737-112 is passable by any vehicle (I drive a Jetta sedan). Take it slow and angle your car so that no two wheels are in a rut or pothole or water bar at the same time and you'll be just fine.

Trails

• Bean Creek is a beautiful trail and is in great shape. The creek crossings are all rock hops.
• The boot path to the summit of Earl is decent, but the tread is slippy in places (small gravel and dirt).
• The off-trail ridge line hike to Bean was appropriately challenging and required some route finding. There are still snow banks on north facing ridges; I routed around most of them and hiked over two. The snow quality is mostly consolidated, but the upper 4" are slush by midday.
• Achieving the summit of Bean requires some Class 2 climbing. 
• There is a faint boot path as you descend from Bean and head toward Volcanic Neck. It occasionally vanishes requiring a bit of route finding.
• At the 4-way junction, head east (right) and look soon for a fainter trail heading north (left) along the east side of Volcanic Neck. The trail here is quite faint and unstable in places. The trail curves around to the north side of the peak and then on toward Devils Head. 
• Hardscrabble needs some TLC. It's overgrown in places, flooded out in others, and a muddy mess in others. It's still a beautiful place to hike through.
• Fourth Creek is rocky and wet in a few places, but otherwise is in OK shape.
• Beverly Turnpike has water over the trail in a couple places just past the Fourth Creek junction. There are approx. 12 trees down across the trail at various points. All are hop overs. There are two logs and some rock so to allow crossing Bean Creek at the trail split. No wet feet required!

Other details: Wildflowers abound. Bugs were annoying, particularly at lower elevations, near water, and at summits when the wind was calm. Trek poles strongly recommended. Bring tons of water. I took four liters and still ran out about a mile before the end.

Total mileage: 11.9 mi.
Total elevation gain: approx. 5,500 ft.

Note: My GPS was offline for 0.9 mi. due to operator error, so this is a best guess.

Quick report: Road is tough going, Jeep used traction control x2 over some major pothole-washouts.  Trails were all in good shape.  Camped in Bean Basin - 4 good sites.  Scrambled up to Bean, no snow on any south faces, ice axe and microspikes not needed unless planning a north face ascent/descent.  Ran the ridge over to Earl and then followed a trail down into Beverly Creek Basin.  Crossed paths with a black (brown in color) bear on the way out, no issues.

Longer report:  Arrived at the trailhead at 7pm for a quick hike into Bean Basin.  The stream crossing was no issue, trail-runners would have been fine.  Got up to the basin in just under an hour, one other camper, so grabbed the site furtherest away, had a quick dinner and drink, before calling it a night.  Pretty cold at night still, almost went w/o a rainfly, but super happy for the extra warmth.

In the AM, made breakfast and headed up the well established footpath to the saddle nearest Bean Peak.  To find the trail from Bean Basin move towards the right and Earl Peak to find the path through the basin.  Steep, but easy climb up.  I ditched my bag and scrambled up Bean, definitely a bit of limited exposed hands and feet climbing required, but nothing sketchy.  Summited and got a lay of the land.  Descended and headed over to Earl Peak on the ridge line.  A fairly obvious footpath leads the way, no snow issues, and Earl is way less "technical" than Bean.  It's about 1.25-.50 miles between and took 45-55 minutes each way w/o a backpack.

Then I grabbed my backpack and re-climbed Bean so I could head over to Beverly.  In hindsight I should have done Earl first, but wanted to get a lay of the land before committing to switching basins for the exit hike.  Climbing down the north face of Bean is easy.  There is an obvious trail descending from Volcanic Neck and once there, there is an actual intersection made with rocks, it looks like a 4-way stop.

I then took the trail (Hardscrabble? County Line? Fourth Creek?) down, leading to the Beverly Creek Basin.  The snow covers the trail pretty quickly.  If you lose the trail, like I did, you'll see a climbers bivy on a flat section to the N/NW or right, from there continue your decent, not following the ridge line to the NW, but head downhill with a more SW bearing.  The trail is there, it's just a creek at this point.  I finally found some other bootprints and re-found the established trail.

From there I followed the trail until reaching a T-intersection with the Beverly Turnpike Trail.  I scouted out the campsites there, but was unimpressed due to a lack of flat sites. The best of the three I saw was to the right, towards Iron Peak, when facing the BTT sign, just after a log used to divert a small creek from running on the trail.  I decided to just hike out and get a cold beer at home with the wife.  So, after filtering a liter of water for the 2.6 miles out I was off.  There were 5-7 trees down on the trail, all easy enough to get over.  Approximately .5m from the Bean/Beverly intersection I heard a rustling in the bushes near Beverly Creek and looked down to see a lone black bear.  I gave him (I didn't see any cubs at least) a good "HEY BEAR", as he scampered up the opposite bank and gave me a good look.  I continued along the trail and was back at the car quickly there after.

If looking for a good spot for a beginner to go backpacking this is it.  Heading up Bean Basin is both easier and has much better camp sites than Beverly.  Earl is a good beginners scramble with almost no exposures and Bean is a good way to test yourself to see if you like or are ready for more technical scrambles.

I'll definitely be back to hit Iron, Bill's, Volcanic Neck and some of the other peaks in the area.  Caltopo.com offered good maps of the area for those like me still without GPS.