Lake Stuart, Horseshoe Lake, Colchuck Lake

On our way up Icicle Creek road toward the turnoff for the Stuart Lake trailhead we encountered a young black bear crossing the road in front of us. That started our day off perfectly. The parking area for Lake Stuart was overflowing when we got there around 10:30am. It was a spectacular day for backpacking.

The trail was great, there were lots of people on this trail all weekend. We reached Lake Stuart at around 2pm and we took the last available campsite. After setting up camp & take a brief nap, we headed out to find the trail for Horseshoe Lake around 4:30pm. A kind man at the lake had just came from Horseshoe Lake so he gave us some tips on finding the trail which was a good thing because the trail is not maintained & very difficult to find. What made it more challenging was the amount of blowdown trees we came across. I stopped counting after we went over or under 62 trees. We lost the trail in one spot but finally found it again. We scrambled up the long and very difficult trail and finally reached the lake. It was absolutely worth it. Amazingly beautiful up there. It was like a mini-Enchantment area. I wish we had more time to spend there, but it was getting late & we didn't want to scramble down that trail in the dark. After taking some photos of a mama & baby goat and eating a snack, we headed back down the trail & was able to reach camp right as it got dark at 8:00pm. We are still amazed that there were no mosquitoes at all on this trip.
The next morning we packed up camp & hiked back to the Colchuck/Stuart Lake junction and we ditched our backpacks and headed up to Colchuck with just our day packs. The trail was in great shape and the weather was again perfect. After a dip in the lake and another snack, we headed back to find our packs and hike out. We got to the car @ 4:30pm It was a fabulous weekend of hiking. We ended our trip with a well deserved pitcher of beer at Gustav's.