[ragman and rodman]

An internet friend mentioned that he needed to scramble up Volcanic Neck in order to finish the "Mountaineers Teanaway Twenty Peaks" list... so I offered to show him a Class 3 route that had originally been shown to me in 2008 by rocman... call it "paying it forward". At 0.0 miles (~3630')... Beverly Turnpike Trailhead At 0.4 miles (~3920')... Trail junction for Beverly Turnpike Trail and Bean Creek Trail At 2.8 miles (~5200')... Trail junction for Beverly Turnpike Trail and Fourth Creek Trail At 3.2 miles (~5570')... Fourth Creek Pass At 4.5 miles (~6440')... Volcanic Neck/Bean Peak saddle At 4.8 miles (~6600')... Volcanic Neck summit At 5.1 miles (~6640')... return to Volcanic Neck/Bean Peak saddle At 5.5 miles (~6734')... Bean Peak summit At 6.2 miles (~5590')... Bean Creek Basin At 8.2 miles (~3920')... close the loop portion of our hike at the Beverly/Bean trail junction At 8.6 miles (~3630')... get in the car and drive home We made a loop trip out of our adventure by hiking up the Beverly Turnpike Trail for 2.8 miles... where we picked up the County Line Trail (signed as Fourth Creek Trail)... then followed it up to Fourth Creek Pass (~5570') where we crossed into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and continued on the County Line Trail as it traversed below the north side of Marys Peak and on over to the Volcanic Neck/Bean Peak saddle (6440')... where we found a faint path that took us around the south side of the neck and on over to its east side where our scramble began. IMO, the Class 3 scramble of Volcanic Neck includes 3 distinct gullies... with each gaining 50-60 feet of elevation. The first gully begins immediately from the east side of the neck... very loose terrain here and I consider it the most difficult of the three gullies. From the top of the first gully we traversed along the north side of the neck for a short distance and found the well-travelled second gully... then made a short traverse to get from the top of the second gully over to the beginning of the third gully... then up the third gully to where we could see that a 50 foot traverse would put us on the summit (6600+). We traced our steps back down the three gullies and then back over to the Volcanic Neck/Bean Peak saddle... where we followed an obvious path up the north ridge of Bean Peak to its summit (6734')... then scrambled (definitely Class 2, maybe some Class 3) down the south face of Bean and worked our way down to Bean Creek Basin... leaving a 2.5 mile hike back to our car. Our loop trip was 8.6 miles, gaining 3562 feet of elevation. Photos, trailhead directions and downloadable GPS track of our trip to Volcanic Neck and Bean Peak. ...

[Bryan K]

Thanks for the memories of ascending the Neck with your description of the gullies. You're doing good for an old guy ascending these peaks

[nordique]

I too am impressed with what this geezer manages to do so often, with such great trip reports and photos!

[puzzlr]

That's a fun combo. I'm sure you've done it, but heading out to Devil's Head is fun too. You've probably even gone further to Johnny and Glens horns!

[ragman and rodman]