[ragman and rodman]

The original plan was to drive as far as we could on the road leading to the Bean/Beverly trailhead… hike a half mile, cross Bean Creek, and continue up valley to Iron Peak… Jim K and his posse did the hike on May 13. Well folks… the rivers and creeks in the Teanaway are raging right now… not roaring, but raging… we were able to drive all the way to the Bean/Beverly trailhead… 3 days ago a 2 feet high patch of snow blocked cars a half-mile from the trailhead… that 2 feet high patch of snow is now no more than 6 inches deep… we did hike the half mile from the trailhead to the Bean creek crossing, had a good laugh when we saw the rushing water, and then returned to the car. Plan “B” time was in order… find a hike in the general area that didn’t require a stream crossing… rodman suggested that we drive up the North Fork Teanaway road as far as we could and then walk the road to the Iron Peak trailhead which is 8.5 miles from 29 Pines campground… at the 5 mile mark we were blocked by a patch of snow on the road… so we started the 3.7 mile road walk to the trailhead… when this blocking patch of snow becomes manageable (possibly another day or two), you will be able to drive to the 7 mile mark, leaving only 1.5 miles of road walking to the trailhead… the 1.5 miles is in steady snow and no vehicle had attempted it yet. From the Iron Peak trailhead we took a fairly direct route towards the Teanaway/Iron saddle using the snow cover to cut a lot of the summer trail switchbacks… we were surprised to see how consolidated the snow was… sinking only an inch or two all the way to the Teanaway/Iron saddle… then sinking 3 or 4 inches on the last half-mile ridge walk to the summit… Awesome views highlighted by the Stuart Range… we took ice ax and snowshoes, but never took them off of our backs. The trip to Iron Peak was 12.25 miles roundtrip (7.4 of these miles were on the road) gaining 3315 feet of elevation (700 feet of this elevation gain was on the road)… our side trip adventure to the crossing of Bean Creek was 1 mile roundtrip gaining 325 feet of elevation. rodman's GPS route and pictures. ..

[JimK]

Nice photos as usual. Your "Iron Peak" photo gives a very good look at our glissade route off the summit. Sorry that you missed the big glissade. The views this time of year on a clear day are outstanding. Since I had camera troubles I'm glad that someone was able to post some nice shots. A raging Bean Creek kept us from crossing on what became an Earl Peak backpack. On our Iron trip it was easy to ford. Looks like 4 days can make quite a difference when it's 80 degrees. Good job taking the long way. Next time you can experiment with the ridge all the way from Beverly CG or from the Beverly Bean parking lot.