Beaver Lake — Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

The sky was blue and the air was crisp so headed out to hit the trail. Beaver Lake trail is approximately 30 miles east of Darrington. We didn't see anyone even on our drive out. Parking lot had snow and ice, only vehicle there. The bathroom was unlocked but not monitored. We used microspikes to navigate the parking lot and for the first part of the trail. We started around 10:45 am so it was still pretty chilly. The trail had lots of debris, a number of blow downs although we could climb over most of them. There was one slide with a tree as well that we climbed over. Due to melting snow the trail had lots of water but most "streams" are navigable by stepping carefully on logs or rocks. The clincher was the bridge about 1.25 miles in that was taken out on the far end by a tree that was still on the bridge. The barricade has been nailed in place to keep someone of walking into the smashed part of the bridge. My husband attempting a work around to no avail. You'd need a flotation device to get across. We could see Beaver Lake but couldn't get close to it. We turned around at the point. Upon returning to our vehicle, we found a location not far from the parking lot to test out a hammock I received as a product tester for REI. It's a camping hammock as opposed to a lightweight backpacking hammock. So it was a good day despite a short hike. We tracked 2.5 miles RT with 80' EG. It's a beautiful area and doesn't look like it would be busy even on the best of days.