Beaver Lake — Tuesday, Jun. 3, 2025

It's a crying shame what's happening to this once family friendly trail! First the bridge went, and now the trail is getting overgrown. The last half mile to the bridge is a nettle jungle, not poison ivy as earlier reported. Wear long pants and long sleeves, the nettles are over 5' tall. The rest of the trail is passable, overgrown mostly with buttercup and ferns and the tread is easy to see. The whole thing could use a good weed whipping. This trail needs annual maintenance and sadly will probably not get it. WTA did work parties here last year and it was brushed out all the way to the bridge. Anyway...we hiked to the bridge enjoying the solitude and sound of the mighty Sauk, mtn views, plus lots of birdsong. We pulled out the Merlin app and picked up at least 10 birds while we ate lunch. Salmonberries are ripe and we saw evidence of bear activity, trampled brush, bushes picked clean, and some day old scat. I was in recovery after a bout with covid (turns up like a bad penny, and yes I had the shots) so the hike seemed harder than a 2-3 miler should have. At least I had a nice day out with the hub after social distancing in the same house for 10 days!