I've been eyeing the Hannegan Pass trail for a few years but somehow never got to it. I decided to finally check this off my list this past weekend.
Road, Trailhead & Parking
The road to the trailhead was good but I've never been on it before so I have nothing to compare it to. But it's one of the best forest service roads I've been on. The parking lot was very full on an overcast Saturday but there were more spots along the road. Everyone was parked properly! I didn't use the outhouse on Saturday but when I used it on Sunday, it was out of toilet paper.
The Hike
The trail was very well-maintained. The first mile was very well graded and soon the trail opens up to the valley. It got dusty and slightly rocky at times but not too bad. It got really warm hiking in this section - I think it was the plants. This section was one of my favorite type of trail because you essentially get a view the entire time. There were a mix of smaller and larger streams and that was good for my dog to hydrate. I carried 1.5 liters of water but didn't feel the need to refill until Hannegan Camp.
The trail amps up a little bit before Hannegan Camp and consistently gains elevation until you reach the junction to Boundary Camp and Hannegan Peak. It continues to climb and the trail becomes more rugged. Poles were helpful on the way up and down with a heavy pack. We got intermittent views of the surrounding area but Ruth Mountain was always almost visible, although not fully. The top of Ruth was mostly cloud-covered.
Wildflowers were abundant in the last mile between the junction to Boundary Camp and Hannegan Peak and all the way up to the peak!
Camp
I wasn't feeling overly ambitious so my initial goal was to camp at Hannegan Camp and day hike up to Hannegan Peak. The weather was also looking a little iffy. But Hannegan Camp was rather full - filled with overnight folks that might be setting up basecamp for climbing Ruth or maybe they wanted to be close to a water source. We were planning to camp further so I filled up my water and took 5 liters with me. The pack was heavy but it was hard to know whether there would be any reliable snowfields up top (there were some but they were dirty).
We pushed forward and thought about setting up camp near Boundary Camp but after chatting with two gals that just came from the peak, we were convinced that we should push on. We made it up to the peak, a lot of the areas were still snow covered but they were not on the main trail. We finally got to the top but a lot of the prime spots were already taken. We headed further past the peak and to the left and found a nice area with a tiny bit of tree coverage which was great because we felt almost no wind while we were hanging out.
The sunset was actually amazing up top and I witnessed my first ever real cloud inversion! The cloudy conditions actually made sunset quite epic and the nearby mountains played peekaboo all day/night with us. I thought it was absolutely worth it to camp up here.
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