T.J. and I started out at first light (5:33am) and chose to go up the Bear Creek trail first since Bear Creek Pass is the higher of the two passes and more lightly to still be holding snow. There’s a big stream crossing a few miles in and the trail was pretty overgrown, but other than that things were straightforward up to Bryan Lake. From Bryan Lake up to the pass the trail was wet with snow melt coming off the pass. There was still a fair amount of snow on the west side of the pass. We didn’t bring microspikes, but were able to navigate slowly down and around the soft snow. Once in Idaho the trail was much harder to follow, but was mostly clear down to Colt Killed Creek. This next section up to Packbox Pass was the trickiest as far as navigation goes. It’s been years since this section has seen any real trail maintenance and it was very difficult to find and stay on the trail. From Packbox Pass we got our first view of beautiful Big Creek Lake. Unfortunately there was a lot of downfall between the pass and the lake, which made for slow going. Once we hit the intersection with the South Fork trail we were finally able to open things up and move more quickly. We finished in 15:10:30, not long before dark. We carried all our own nutrition and were able to find plenty of water en route. I know this route can be done quicker, but the wild, remote nature of the trail makes it difficult to maintain a steady pace with all the downfall and overgrowth.