[Moose]

This Saturday, we headed out for an overnight trip into Bean Creek Basin. It was already getting warm out when we hit the trail around 9 AM. The creek crossing wasn't an issue. I chose to take my boots off and wade across barefoot, but I saw lots of people using water shoes and one guy just rock-skipped across with his boots on, so pick your poison.

The basin was boggy and devoid of flowers - those are probably still a few weeks out. We headed up the SE slope of Bean and contoured west, where we found a cute little site for our tent on the ridge between Bean and Mary's at ~6,400'. Dropped our stuff and headed up Bean, making the summit about 20 min after leaving camp. The scramble is straightforward - just pick the best route and head up. Class 2/3.

This weekend turned out to be the Seattle Mountaineers Scrambling Extravaganza, which equated to sixty Mountaineers split up into numerous groups roaming the basin all weekend, so we ended up sharing the summit with about 15 people (though they left shortly after we arrived). Not quite the solitude we'd been looking for, but it's always nice to see people getting out and enjoying the mountains...and to be fair, who expects solitude in the Teanaway in springtime?

After summiting Bean, we played around on the gendarmes along the Bean / Mary ridge but were too lazy to commit and headed back to camp. We spent a few leisurely hours at camp, ate dinner, then inexplicably decided that we didn't really feel like camping, packed up, and hiked back out. Not sure what happened there, but it did allow me to check off "one day backpacking trip" from my bucket list. Made it back to the TH by 9 PM without the use of headlamps and had hot chocolate at the car (we carried all those mini marshmallows the entire day, we weren't about to let that extra weight go to waste).

[rwkhikes]

I hiked Gene's, Iron, Bean, and Earl last June and after setting up camp in the basin, decided I'd rather just hike out and drive home to sleep in my bed. Had a good laugh reading that you guys had the same thoughts. Saturday was a great day in the Teanaways. I was able to get an early start and hiked up Bill's, Mary's and Judi's before 11am. The views of the Stuart range never seem to get old. Ran into a few people on the ridge between Mary's and Judi's but think I missed most of the extravaganza.

[Moose]

[Get Out and Go]

[Moose]