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.
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