We really wanted to squeeze in one more backpacking trip before the end of August and decided to head up to Lake Caroline and Windy Pass.

We started out early Sunday morning after stopping at the ranger station in Leavenworth to pick up our permit. Up the icicle, probably less than a half mile up Eightmile road, we saw a black bear cub. I was completely taken aback, out of the many many times I have driven up this road, I have never seen a bear on the road or on any of the trails up there. The moment it saw us coming though, it high tailed it for the hills. It was a super cute sighting and we were very happy to have packed materials for hanging a bear bag.

We got to the trailhead and started out. The trail is in good condition up to Little Eightmile and the trail up to Lake Caroline is a bit overgrown but nothing to complain about. Although I will say it was so exposed going through the burn area and extremely hot, probably in the 90s when we were heading up--so bring the sunscreen and make sure to watch out for falling trees in the burn area. We witnessed one fall as we took the fork up towards Caroline. The weather Sunday was mostly sunny and at one point in time I looked to the sky and its very few clouds and said in desperation, “Please rain!”, and amazingly it rained for a few minutes. Refreshing to say the least.

We ran into about 6 people on their way down and there were a few groups of day hikers ahead of us. When we finally reached the lake, we grabbed a campsite (of which there were plenty) and filtered some water from a running stream and made dinner. Bugs were present at the lake, but definitely manageable. Multiple people mentioned that it was buggier at Little Caroline, which we found out to be true the next day on our way to Windy Pass.

The next morning (Monday) the bugs were a bit worse at Caroline, but we got out quickly and headed up to Windy Pass. The trail was in very good condition on the way up and it was not hard at all and as an added bonus, past Little Caroline the bugs were non-existent. However, I would recommend filtering water at Caroline before heading up to Windy Pass because water on the way up was scarce. Windy Pass was windy (go figure) but so beautiful. You could immediately see Glacier Peak and Mt. Baker and after going up the ridge towards Mt. Cashmere, Mt. Rainier appears as well. It was a fantastic sight.

Upon returning to the Lake Caroline mid-afternoon, we decided to head down to Eightmile for our final night and take advantage of the cloud cover to descend through the burn area. We made it down just in time to set up camp at Eightmile and eat supper. There were absolutely no bugs at Eightmile and it was a quiet evening.

Upon waking up Tuesday morning, the lake was gorgeous, far prettier than I had remembered it being in the past. We started hiking out mid morning and it again was hot. We ran into a few larger groups headed up to the lake to swim and a few people planning on fishing.

Overall, this trip was amazing, despite the hot conditions and the steep terrain. Definitely get an early start and be sure to pay Windy Pass a visit! The views are unbelievable!