It was raining when I left home so I was a little skeptical about how well this hike was going to go. It's been raining so much lately and everything is flooded. The hike we had planned involved many miles along the South Fork of Eagle River, and crossing of several contributing streams. We placed some cars at the South Fork Trailhead parking lot and drove two cars to the Harp Mountain trailhead. We figured we would get wet feet but decided to take that chance. First we hiked to 5000 feet on the steep Harp Mountain Trail. Once up there we continued along the high ridge until we reached a narrow pass that has a thin grassy trail that leads down to the Hanging Valley Trail. The walk along the ridge was interesting and at times quite challenging as we negotiated huge rock prominences surrounded by boulder fields. At times I found it a little nerve-wracking, but never really dangerous. We had incredible views in every direction while up on the ridge. We could look down across the valley and see Hanging Valley lake on the other side. It was somewhat slippery and muddy at times on our descent. Meg slipped and fell at one point and apparently her brand new iPhone 14 slipped out of her pack never to be seen again. She didn't notice it until we had gone way too far to try to go look for it. With no cell service, we couldn't even try to call it.
We had to cross a couple of fast moving creeks. I wasn't sure I could make it across but found I could jump farther than I thought. None of us ended up with wet feet. It was pretty chilly and also windy so it had dried out the brush so we didn't end up soaking wet as we had initially feared. We made our way down to the Hanging Valley Trail then joined the South Fork Trail and finally reached the South Fork Trailhead where I had parked my car. It was a beautiful 10 mile hike and we were all so delighted that it was mostly sunny and we all stayed dry.
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