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Getting to Luna without water taxi


rob

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Isn't there a trail that will take you from the dam to the start of the big beaver th, avoiding the water taxi?

 

How long is it? Is the trail smooth (i.e. could you ride to big beaver TH by bike)?

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Did a pickets traverse a few years back starting from Hannegan Pass. We went from Luna Col to the cars in one day, dropping down Access Creek to BB, hiking to the lake and then hiking around the lake over the dam to the cars. Most of the credit goes to our motivational coaches - the mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies. A boat ride would have been really nice! Even better if they could show up with cold beer

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More like 6 miles I think . . .good wide tread the whole way. Not sure if it is legal to bike.

 

Nope. It's in the Ross Lake NRA which is part of the Park Complex. It is also the most heavily used "part" of the park, so highly patrolled.

 

Hope this is still relevant to your trip planning....if not it is definitely relevant to any trip to North Cascades National Park Service Complex (includes Ross Lake NRA). I'm glad to see that other folks on this thread have steered you away from the bike idea, but I hope that I can convince you that whether you would "get caught" by a ranger with your bicycle on the trail or not is not really the point.

 

Yes, it is true that it is not legal to take a bicycle on the trail from Ross Dam Trailhead into Big Beaver. Bicycles are prohibited on all of our hiking trails and this trail actually goes in and out of designated Wilderness. The Wilderness Act expressly prohibits "mechanical transport", which even means carrying a bicycle on your shoulder or back.

 

The spirit behind this law is to preserve the wilderness character of the place. In a National Park that is 93 percent Wilderness, any ranger you meet on the trail in North Cascades will have a knowledge of the Wilderness Act of 1964, how the NPS chooses to manage its wilderness, and a passion for keeping the North Cascades as pristine, untrampled, and untrammeled as possible. We are here for many of the same reasons as our visitors.

 

Wilderness "character" embodies many values, but our (as in the American People) Wilderness Act spells out that such lands are "protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3)has at least 5,000 acres of land...; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value."

 

Another potentially compelling reason not to take a bike on trails where it is prohibited is to protect the experience of other people along the trail who are also in search of a wilderness experience, whom along with hikers could include stock animals (which could easily spook with a bicycle coming down the trail).

 

Anyway, I hope that clarifies "why" some. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

 

Rob Burrows

Wilderness Climbing Ranger

North Cascades National Park Service Complex

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