Baker River & East Baker Lake

My B3 mentor group had plans for an overnight backpack April 24-25 from the north trailhead on the east bank of Baker Lake. There has been severe winter storm/blow down damage to the trail and camps, this is what I learned last week.

South trailhead: Trail has been cleared by volunteers (except for one large tree that has foot and hand holds cut into it) to Maple Grove campground, but the trail gets worse from here heading north.  My husband hiked this route April 17 and reports the trail and Maple Grove camp are in good shape.

North trailhead:  Trail is cleared for 2 miles. Then lots of blow down the next 2.6 miles to Noisy Creek.  April 19 I hiked this section and counted 15 zones of blocked trail, a zone being anything between one or a tangle of a dozen large trees across the trail.  We wormed our way through.  Noisy Creek camp is severely damaged, only 1 site that doesn`t have a large tree or root ball in the way. We didn`t have the bush whacking heart to continue on to Silver Creek camp.  I was going to take my mentor group from the north trailhead to Noisy Creek this past weekend, but after experiencing this mess changed plans to start at the south trailhead and camp at Maple Grove.

Ranger Rich at the Sedro-Woolley ranger station didn`t know when the trail and camps would be cleared but thought forest service trail crews would start in June.  He directed me to Barb, the wilderness volunteer trail crew coordinator, barb.richey@usda.gov, and she couldn`t give a time line either.  Recommendation: If you can`t confirm any improvement, I dont recommend taking a group of beginning backpackers to Noisy or Silver Creek camps.  Start at the south trailhead and go to Maple Grove camp.