This is a nice little trail for a short day. I hiked up Beverly Creek off the N Fork Teanaway Rd to the junction for the Fourth Ck Trail and took that trail a short distance to the divide where you can look north to great views of Colchuck Pk, Dragontail, and Little Annapurna. There are some nice flower fields in the first mile or so. There are also good views of snowfields on the north side of the ridges running down from Iron PK. I had to work this morning, so I did not get started until almost 3 pm. It was very hot for the first mile and a half or so, and then I picked up a little breeze, which helped a lot. The ascent took me 1.5 hours and I saw no other hikers the whole way.

This was my first overnight backpack trip after several years of back issues. Spent big $$ on light weight down sleeping bag, a 2 lb one person tent, 3 ounce water filter, and light weight air mattress to get my gear to less than 30 lbs. It worked. I left Bellevue at 7am and I started hiking around 9:30am. Only met one person on the trail. After the split to Bean Creek the trail was in the shady woods for a couple of miles. Then the trail crosses a large open rocky slide area with lots of serpentine from the cliffs above. Flowers included scarlet gilia, yarrow, harebell, paintbrush, buckwheat and a couple of yellow sulphur looking blooms. Lupine and penstemin were past their prime. After another mile the trail wanders through some lovely open forest that includes a few ent like douglas firs that must be ancient. I took the trail to Fourth Creek basin and ate lunch at the saddle with views from Little Anna Purna to Argonaut Peak. I stayed on the County Line Trail heading east. Fourth Creek basin was secluded with plenty of water, nice campsites and loads more flowers. Shooting stars, yellow and red paintbrush, alpine lupine and more. I reached the saddle overlooking Hardscrabble Creek around 1:30pm. The last 700 feet of the climb is pretty steep, but it opens up to subalpine meadows turning to Alpine Larch and White Bark Pine in a open/nearly barren landscape. The views opened up to Mount Rainier, Iron Peak, Ingalls Peak, Headlight Basin, Mt Stuart, Earl Peak, Navaho Peak and the aforementioned Enchantments. I could see the trail in the Hardscrabble Basin below, but the first 200 vertical feet looked like a butt skid on steep rocky soil. I was tempted to go down and find a campsite then scramble over to Bean Creek the next day to return to the trailhead. Instead I decided that this trip was to test backpacking after 6 years of none. Besides I was obviously the only person in miles AND I left the peanut butter and Pilot bread in the refridgerator at home. I returned to upper Beverly Creek Basin loving all the beauty of the trees, flowers, frogs, creeks and rocks. Camping was great along the creek. My gear worked as well as my best hopes. The stars were huge and brilliant. Returned Monday. Only three people on the trail and their one car at the trailhead. I saw only a little wildlife, including chipmunks, humming birds buzzing around scarlet gilia, yellow goldfinch, chuckars, and a few other birds. There was no smoke from the fires in the Chiwakum Mountains. Next time I will take 3 days and fulfill my decades long dream to hike the County Line Trail to Navaho Pass and back to the trailhead via Stafford, Standup and Bean Creeks. I'm sure to find DL along the way.

We set out intending to do the Iron Peak Loop as described elsewhere on the WTA site. However, the snow got more consistent after the "Volcanic Neck" pass on the Hardscrabble Creek Trail (which was a challenging scramble in itself). Concerned that we'd easily be disoriented, we consulted our map and decided we could still do a long loop by descending Hardscrabble Creek Trail to Ingalls Creek, and return to Beverly Turnpike via Fourth Creek Trail. In theory, we could - but Hardscrabble Creek Trail is more of an overland route, marked at first by occasional cairns, and then not discernable at all. We managed to connect pieces of either the trail or an animal path for about a half mile, before abandoning any idea of following the actual trail, and just bushwacking the final 1.5 miles to Ingalls Creek. This was no small feat, as the hillside begins to drop steeply, and the undergrowth became impossibly tangled and log-strewn. Luckily, our experience seems to have been similar but not quite as problematic as these folks [http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2013-07-07.3832182436] - but we may have followed the exact route they did, as we stumbled across a fire pit, and even emerged at possibly the exact same log of salvation they did. We did connect back to Ingalls Creek Trail at about 8 miles from the Ingalls Creek Trailhead, but never saw any sign of the real Hardscrabble Trail nexus. The going did not exactly become easy at this point. Though the trail was easy to follow, there were many large, difficult blowdowns and avalanche paths, and multiple swollen stream crossings that awaited us as we continued back up the Fourth Creek Trail. But we connected back with the Beverly Turnpike without losing the trail, completing about a 14-mile loop in a time that befits our difficulties: just over 8.5 hours. The Alpine Lakes are wilderness indeed- bring extra socks, plan to travel slower due to obstacles, and don't count on signs and trail markers - be prepared for anything.

Hiked up the Beverly Creek trail and the Fourth Creek connector to the pass. Camped just after the Hardscrabble turnoff. Next day looped north on Turnpike Creek, east on Ingalls Creek, and south on Fourth Creek. Green Trails claim 10 miles. My legs claim 11. The headlines: Stopped at the ranger station for trail conditions and was advised that trail crews reported snow remaining at Esmerelda Basin. Beyond that, the ranger pulled up trip reports on WTA, so I figured I better do my civic duty by posting my report. Beverly Creek(1391) – beautiful wildflower meadows, trail very well maintained, exposed and steepish in parts Turnpike Creek(1391) – snowpatches, blowdowns, steep, exposed, rocky, not as much to look at as the rest of the loop Ingalls Creek(1215) – it's a cow parsnip forest, but how can you complain about the brush when it’s all wildflowers? excellent views up meadow and mountain, easy terrain Fourth Creek(1218 per my Green Trails map) – steep, mostly forested, dinner-time drew nigh and one stupid blowdown spanned three consecutive switchbacks Road – potholed but passable Other hikers – half a dozen cars at the trailhead Friday afternoon and twice as many by Sunday, but saw very few people, presumably the rest went up the Bean Creek trail Bugs – not unduly troublesome Birds – rufus hummingbirds among the scarlet gilia, a flushed grouse, a bird with an unlovely voice that was black in silhouette, a bird that hopped up trees with bugs in its beak and was never seen to deliver them; improbably, no juncos at all Critters – butterflies! Flowers – abundant, beautiful and largely beyond the ken of our field guide, although our first new ID made in the gravel of the parking lot (ruby sand spurry) The details: Beverly Creek – the first half mile is shared with the Bean Creek trail and is wide enough for two. After Beverly Creek branches off to the left, the hike alternates between forest and more open terrain, and can be somewhat airless. The trail then opens into occasional shade. At the first return to the creek, the scarlet gilia start, the shade stops, and the terrain gets rockier and steeper. Dominant notes were blue lupine, scarlet gilia and creamy buckwheat. The rock-garden areas were often hazed with airy mounds of red-stemmed columbia lewisia. Even saw a patch of maidenhair fern at a boulder that must have had a hidden seepage. Lots of new and interesting flowers, but few firm IDs. Turned right at the junction with 1226 (signed for Fourth Creek) and switchbacked to the saddle. (As usual, the trail was steeper, rockier and more exposed on the way back out.) Turnpike Creek – return down the connector trail to Beverly Creek trail and turn right for Turnpike Creek. Not much more to say than in the headlines. Starts in relative shade. Emerges into relative non-shade for a great long serpent of down-hill switchbacks, that finally unkinks into the shade. Hop Turnpike creek on rocks or a log. Log crossing of Ingalls Creek. The trail doesn’t have much payoff, until you cross the creeks. Although you don’t technically hit the Ingalls Creek junction for a bit, you’re definitely in a new country as soon as you cross the creeks. Ingalls Creek – turn right at clearly marked junction. Trail is completely overgrown and overwhelming - the loop was worth it just for the sensory overload and the towering flowers and views, though the brush does make for slow going. This section of the trail does not have creek access. Eventually reach more forest and easy going. A couple of very wet, muddy bits. Junction with Fourth Creek trail is clear, obvious and well-signed. Fourth Creek – again, walk a ways south before get to Ingalls Creek crossing. This was a knee-deep ford that, since it didn’t immediately ice-numb our toes, was rather refreshing. Can’t speak to the trail other than to say it was steep, and we took it very purposefully so as to make it back to camp in time for dinner.

Summary: Ingalls Creek and fourth creek trail were in good shape and mostly clear. Hardscrabble creek was in terrible shape and nonexistent in most cases, we would strongly warn against hiking it until it is cleared. We started our hike around noon on July 4th at the Hwy 97 side of Ingalls Creek. Not too many cars in the parking lot and we only saw a few groups all day, surprising for the long weekend. Ingalls Creek has a few overgrown portions but the trail was easy to follow. Long pants might be a good idea to not scratch up your legs. There were reports of rattle snakes on the trail and we did encounter one a few miles in right next to the trail. We gave it some space and made our way past carefully. We camped along the creek about 7 miles in. The campsites were great and no mosquitoes. The next morning we hiked to the fourth creek turnoff. Crossing Ingalls creek involved a very cold ford that was about calf deep. Not too hard with sandals on and using trekking poles. The rest of the hike was pleasant with some great views of the Stuart Range and mt Stuart. We got confused about a mile after the top of fourth creek trail when the trail died off and then picked up at switchbacks up a steep gravel hillside. After some map research we decided it was the way to go and were correct. The trail crests the ridge line and has views of the hardscrabble creek drainage which you would take back down to Ingalls creek. This is where the trail got messy. The trail was marked with cairns and not too hard to follow starting down. The turnoff down hardscrabble creek was poorly signed and we hiked past it for a good distance following cairns before deciding we were wrong and turned around to search for the turnoff. When we found it and headed back down to Ingalls creek the real challenges began. The cairns disappeared and the trail did as well. We bushwhacked down the drainage for miles seeing only brief glimpses of the trail and cairns. We were lucky to find a clear flat spot by hardscrabble creek to camp and try for more the next day. The next morning was worse, we only saw a trail a few times for the final mile or two until Ingalls creek. This section was terrible and hiking through dense brush and downed trees, our direction was only clear as downhill and towards the stuart mountain range. Finally getting to Ingalls creek we were lucky to have a fallen log to cross, the creek was much deeper here than at the fourth creek crossing. After crossing the creek we bushwhacked for a few hundred more feet and stumbled on the Ingalls creek trail. Finally! We hiked 5-10 minutes on the trail and found the 'official' hardscrabble creek turnoff where no trail was visible at all, which is a good warning to anyone wanting to start out. Hardscrabble Creek was marked as a 'regular hiking' trail on our National Geographic maps which is not accurate at this time.