[80skeys]

Big Creek/Beaver Creek (near McCall). The positives: - no insects - no rain - no wind - not "too" hot, not too cold The negatives: - very little tree cover, lot of burnt-out mountainsides, therefore hiking under blazing sun - almost no place to camp as this is steep, rugged country. the few flat places are overgrown with bushes. - lots of landslides, rockslides, loose terrain - Big Creek is overfished Loon Lake approaching from the south The positives: - follows a river - a bit more cover (and therefore prettier) than Big Creek - complete solitude. nobody was on this trail. they probably take the much shorter north approach. The negatives - lots of places without cover - tons of rock slides. literally there are places where the entire mountainside has slide down, ripping out all the trees and filling the river valley with debris - i don't like hiking under blazing sun, and unfamiliar with whether to expect decent places to pitch tent so we turned around after four miles. Car camped near Yellow Pine - beautiful area, excellent fishing in the river. Lots of wildlife (moose, coyote, bear, eagles, hawks, grouse, elk). We did have a close encounter with a mom black bear and her cubs. Overall it was ok but I don't plan to return to that area because of lack of tree cover. Next trip will be someplace more shady (hopefully.)

[RichP]

[80skeys]

A few pics from the trip