Beaver Creek Wilderness Study Area

Distance: 11.4 miles
Ascent:  3,904 feet   
Route: Highway 115 to Penrose, west on 3rd past Brush Hollow, take a right on CR132 and follow to the end.  Headed north along Trail Gulch and then back returning via the Power Line trail.
Description:  Very excited to get a look at this area as it is the confluence of West and East Beaver Creek.  West Beaver Creek being the route down from Skagway Reservoir along which the abandoned power plant sits, but that's for another day.

The first impression of the area was along county road 132.  We were stopped along the way and asked directions by couple women who had turned around due to the road condition.  Apparently there was a bit of mud, so they asked to follow us in.  Sure enough a few slippery spots and puddles, but easy enough with a high clearance vehicle.  Actually somewhat surprised by the amount of vehicles already in the parking lot, I did not previously know about the trail head, but obviously it's not a secret.

We headed up Trail Gulch trail in search of a geocache, a  mile or so past the turn off for the Power Line trail.  The slight incline made for a nice walk and there was only one point where the creek hid the trail from view.  After finding the cache we stopped for lunch and then made our way back to the intersection.  Did hear from a couple horseman about the saddle and waterfall further up, but decided to leave that for another day.  From here the Power Line trail starts a steady ascent.  We kept a pretty good pace upward, thinking that it would be similar to the terrain we had already done; however, multiple false summits quickly became laughable during the climb.  Good work on the stomach muscles for sure, but did not succeed on Brett's "push til you puke" goal - doubt it will be the last attempt.

Traces of the power poles can be seen almost immediately on the descent into the canyon, also stumbled onto a collection of pieces from the insulators.  A taste of what I think will be this summers big adventure, just need the water level to calm down a bit more before making the attempt. 

We actually joked about the warnings made about the water crossings in this area while jumping across creeks, until of course we found one technical spot.  A small climb is always fun, but always manage to find them at the end of a long hike, much to the disappointment of my regular hiking partner. There looked to be a path along the floor, but our trail only dipped to water level a few times.  Overall a combination of very easy to fairly strenuous, so t will be a few years before we bring the 5 year old on this one.

Special thanks to Tam Stull for doing the homework on this one, it was a great hike and an area well worth exploring.   We look forward to returning.