Church Lake

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There are 2 trip reports for this hike.

Church Lake — Oct 10, 2009 — john deer

Day hike

This was an incredibly nice hike but the getting there was terrible. The road to Damfino Lakes off of...

This was an incredibly nice hike but the getting there was terrible. The road to Damfino Lakes off of Hwy 542 was OK but the spur road off of that road was gnarly. If your vehicle does not have high clearance, good tires, and good brakes, then don't even think about this trip. There were at least 60 water bar dips in the road that low clearance vehicles will not tolerate. That said, there is an unofficial and fairly popular trail to Church Lake. The trail starts at the very end of the road and heads south up into a nice basin area. It was only 1 mile and 500' of gain to the lake but there were paths leading everywhere for further exploration. We continued south to the shoulder of Bear Paw Peak. Much of the travel was on snow but the trail poked through often enough that we could navigate easily.

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Church Lake, Bearpaw Mountain — Sep 01, 2003 — doUg, vaughan & miele

Day hike

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Our goal this day was to hike to Damfino Lake and Excelsior Pass. Instead, we ended up at Church...

Our goal this day was to hike to Damfino Lake and Excelsior Pass. Instead, we ended up at Church Lake. We took the wrong spur off FR31 and ended on a narrow, steep, rutted, water bar laden frightening road passble only by high clearance vehicles. The only reason why we continued on this road was because there was another vehicle in front of us. If you're headed for Damfino Lake, do take the left spur around 10 miles.

Nonetheless, once we reached the unmarked trailhead at the end of this road (4800 ft), our fears were temporarily abated with spectacular views and the sight of other vehicles. The trail to Church Lake (which is at the base of Bearpaw Mtn, not Church Mtn) was short but steep. It ends at a spectacular emerald lake nearly surrounded by beaches. We've seen many a mountain lake but very few with beaches. After lingering for a bit, we decided to continue on.

Past the lake, the trails pretty much fade out. However, you end up in rolling high alpine meadows in an ancient glacial cirque. It was truly stunning. Just before climbing the east arm of Bearpaw is a knoll with expansive 270-degree views from Baker eastward and then northward into Canada. The meadows are made for exploring! This was much more than we expected.

Our hike was very short - about 3 miles round trip and 800 ft of elevation although it felt much longer. However, it was the most spectacular scenery we've seen. And it wasn't until we returned to the car that we discovered, through conversing with an ""old timer"", that we were not at Damfino Lake or Excelsior Pass. The drive back was just as harrowing although the experience was more than worth it.

Except for a few annoying flies, bugs were nonexistent.

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Location: North Cascades -- Mount Baker Highway

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