I planned to climb Townsend Mountain from the Barclay Lake trailhead, via Stone Lake (which is most of the way to Eagle Lake). I didn't make it, but had fun nonetheless. Look near the end of this report for details on how to find the Eagle Lake trail.

The Barclay Lake trail is well maintained and easy to travel, with no problems. There were a half-dozen cars at the trailhead when I got there at 9:30am (when I got back at 5:30pm, there were only a few cars there, but some were parked very far down, attesting to how full it had been in my absence). I didn't meet anyone on the 30-minute hike to the lake, but there were a dozen or so people at the lake. Nice views of the dramatic N face of Baring (which can be climbed by a much easier - though still challenging - route, also from near the Barclay Lake trailhead).

I planned to go to the far end of Barclay and then go on an 80-degree bearing to 3000', then follow Stone's outlet stream (something on the map is wrong, because I crossed what turned out to be Stone's outlet stream almost immediately). This is NOT a trail, but was a fun exercise in compass navigation through forest (I might have a slightly weird sense of fun). There was brush, but it wasn't too bad. Around 2800' I saw skyline at a ~40-degree bearing, and changed course to it. This lead to slopes of moss-covered talus (dry, so easy to walk on), and a break in the trees that lead to awful brush - blackberry and Devil's club, foremost. At one point it took me at least five minutes to go 20 feet - do not go this route. Going west I eventually came across a flagged bootpath.

I got to Stone Lake, which was a very pleasant spot (after putting on some insect repellent), and there was no one else there. I struck out across Paradise Meadow, which is actually a bug-filled bog. The going was slow, and I only reached the lower slopes of Townsend by my turnaround time. Nice views of Merchant from here, though.

On the way back, I followed the flagged trail all the way back to Barclay. It is either distinct or well-flagged (pink) the entire length, and is in reasonably good shape. It's not a maintained trail, however. (There are a few older orange flags that appear to follow the same trail.)

If you want to follow the trail up (a good idea), go to the end of Barclay Lake, but not the very end. You will see orange flagging for a toilet (the second toilet at the lake), and the toilet trail continues on to merge with the Stone Lake bootpath. This is just before a short wooden boardwalk. Just on the far side of the bordwalk is an unflagged beginning to the same bootpath that doesn't go past the toilet. If you start walking through campsites, you've gone too far. The bootpath stays to the west of Stone's outlet stream.

I would not recommend Paradise Meadow or climbing Townsend this late in the year. It would be a nice trip with a good snowpack. (There are some areas of snow now, which were a little sloppy but pretty good to walk on. Not nearly extensive enough, and melting fast, though.)