Beaver Lake — Sunday, Jul. 4, 1999

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

The trail is in great shape until you get to a bridge over a swamp, where the RD has put up signs warning you that it is ""structurally unsafe,"" and telling you not to use it until repairs are made. Half our group went over it anyway. There are a couple of planks that have fallen in, but the frame seemed OK. The others chickened-out. Those who went on reported a wash-out near the east end of the trail. Otherwise it is a fine early season outing. Keep your eyes open for evidence that you are following a century-old logging railroad grade, such as pylons on the river side just down from the parking lot, long very straight stretches, and sections where you are in an excavated notch between the hillside and a ridge separating you from the river, all cut no doubt by hand in order to keep a steady grade. Serveral genuine old-growth cedars still reside on the river side of the trail below the old rickety bridge -- the first loggers must have missed them! Otherwise it is all Alder, Maple, Cottonwood and a few second-growth evergreens.