My boyfriend and I did the Copper Ridge Loop 7/23 - 7/26, with camping permits at Copper Lake-Indian Creek-Boundary. Overall, it was a great trip and was only mildly cursed. A few things of note:
-This trail is difficult. The pandemic has cut down on our typical hiking routine this spring/summer and that was extremely evident in the fact that it took 8-9 hours for us to hike from Hannegan trail head to Copper Lake. Besides the enormous elevation gain, the snowfields and fog along the second half of that route really slowed us down; this will hopefully be less of an issue the rest of the summer for others, but the snowfields that started from a little before Egg Lake and stretched to Copper Lake were extremely difficult to navigate in the fog, when we could only see 30 feet or so ahead of us on the ridge. Glory be I had the Topo Maps app with downloaded maps on my phone.
-At the time I was pretty disappointed with the lack of clear views along the ridge, due to fog and clouds, but looking back at my pictures the clouds were actually quite pretty, I think. But we did miss out on the 360-mountain-view that (I think) we were walking through.
-When we were there, Copper Lake Camp was melted out enough to access the bear box and we didn't have to camp ON snow, just around it; there was still ice floating in the lake and it was pretty cold at night. Goes without saying we were alone at the lake. There were also pretty wild wind storms. Our first real view of the lake was the next morning when the fog lifted. If I were to do this hike again, I would go mid August-September just for warmer/clear weather and no snow.
-We ran into a ranger duo up at the Copper Mountain lookout; they had just gotten there the day before and had not been down to the lake yet, so had very little info to share but checked our permit, which we had on our phone since the Glacier station was closed.
-Copper Lake to Indian Creek was another long day, and mostly STEEP downhill. Shortly after Copper Lake we had to do a floor-is-lava style creek crossing that was pretty fun; snow fields extended until we started losing elevation. The river crossing in the valley went up to about our waist at a certain point and was pretty chilly. Indian Creek wasn't the most scenic camp (it's just in the woods) and there is no bear box (we did bear hang). Another group came around 7pm. We think there were only two camps there (or couldn't find the third) and they are fairly close together.
-Day 3 from Indian Creek to Boundary was certainly my favorite section; it had more variety of ups/downs/flats, the sky had completely cleared, and we had a lot of fun crossing on the newly renovated cable car. This section had a lot of brush covering the trails and downed logs to cross. Definitely saw more people on this section than the entire two first days. Boundary is a beautiful camp; we saw a ton of marmots as well as a mama bear and two cubs up on the ridge (bring binoculars!). We also saw tons of wildflowers, and a pretty sunset over the valley. Boundary could be a fun overnight if you lived in the area.
-Day 4 we hiked out and saw a lot of day hikers on the Hannegan Pass trail as well as incoming backpackers. Finally got some clear mountain views. We returned to our car to find a flat tire (not because of potholes - a NAIL). A nice group from Bellingham helped us get on the spare tire and we trundled down the road on our donut until we had cell service. Since it was a Sunday, we ended up getting stranded in Bellingham until Les Schwab opened on Monday morning and had to call out to work. It wasn't all bad - we took showers at the hotel and watched a few truly great episodes of Law and Order SVU.
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