Lake Caroline #1554

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2002 – EIGHTMILE LAKE / LAKE CAROLINE GT MAP Chiwakum Mountains

I’ve long wanted to hike up into this area of the Icicle Creek region as I’ve hiked so very little over in these parts. The upcoming bridge closure over Icicle Creek which will block access off to this region after the 15th was reason enough to finally get myself there for a very perfect hike. To beat the heat (and to get me back home by a 3:00pm curfew) I was on the way to the trailhead at 3:15am and was hiking up from the trailhead in the cold 5:40am air. To say the least the trailhead was pretty quiet with only one rig there from overnighters I saw later on. As I started hiking, I pondered why Eightmile Road, Eightmile Creek, and so on are not called “Eightmile-and-four-tenths” Creek since the turn-off is 8.4 miles up the Icicle Creek Road. I came to the conclusion the creek must enter Icicle Creek eight miles up, or the surveyors 100 years ago didn’t have satellite based GPS units to help them : )

The steep trail the first ½ mile is in constant ear-shot of roaring Eightmile Creek. The flower display began almost immediately and was constant for the entire day! I think the first thing to pop me in the eyes were some stunning masses of tiger lilies, some over five feet tall! This initial open area also was active with three woodpecker species: Hairy, Downy, and Norther Flickers. A later sighting of a more uncommon Black-backed Woodpecker near Little Eightmile Lake gave me a four woodpecker day. The trail to Little Eightmile Lake went quickly and is in fine shape—sure, some masses of thimbleberry clog up the trail when laden with early morning dew, but who cares. Just after the view of the lake is the junction with trail #1552 that heads up to Lake Caroline, and if it were not for the sign on the tree marking it I would have NEVER found it. This trail was so overgrown right in the first 300 yards I actually had to LOOK for it even after seeing the sign. This first climb from 4400 feet to 5000 feet was the worst part where the eight years since the 1994 fires burned the tree canopy has allowed thick undergrowth of native shrubs to thrive! Pretty for the flowers and smells, hard on keeping the trail. I hope this first mile of the Lake Caroline Trail can be listed to get work soon or I fear that another five years will really make it difficult. The views across Eightmile Lake with increasing elevation through the silver snags of dead trees was magical. Each stand of living trees was an island of bird life within it too! Half a dozen of them supported very active flocks of Western Tanagers—I must have seen 20 during the day! Hummingbirds were almost on me all day as well since my red shirt got them all hyper. Twice I had one almost land on my shoulder! The trail was very clear and open from 5000 feet to the 6300 foot pass above Lake Caroline with only one log to step over. There was still a couple small snow patches heading down to the 6104 foot lake but not on the trail, and past the lake only patches of snow existed. Windy Pass would have a few large snow areas but nothing difficult. The reflection of the mountains in Lake Caroline was magical while a mating pair of Common Mergansers slowly eased across the waters. Photography was exceptional!! I ate a slight “lunch” here at 9:45am while listening to the Clark’s Nutcrackers move through the tree stands looking for food—they have long been one of my most loved birds of our high mountain zones! Hiking back out I spent more time photographing more flowers that were too breezy in the earlier winds, and I startled a Ruffed Grouse who went up into a tree only 30’ from me. I photographed the rascal for 15 minutes while it waited for me to part ways! I slowly backed away then, and within 30 seconds of leaving it was casually on the ground again. A good encounter for both of us!

I hiked quickly out the 2.8 miles on trail #1554 to get back to the trailhead by 12:15pm. Just then in the last mile did people start really showing up. Surprising for a weekday, but all were doing as I in getting in to this area while the getting was good! Flower species for the spectacular day included tiger lily, Jeffery shooting stars, small-flowered penstemon, red columbine, queens cup (carpets of it along the Eightmile Creek area!), asters, stonecrop, glacier lilies, balsamroot, pink monkey flower, nine-leaf desert parsley, paintbrush, two species of lupines, fireweed, thimbleberry, wood rose, bluebells, cow parsnip, Columbia lewisia, twinflower, creeping Oregon grape, and “a bunch of yellows I can’t remember”. Flowering shrubs included vast areas of red-flowering current, deerbrush, mountain ash, and oceanspray. Oh, and the butterflies were thick as the skeeters in wet muddy areas of the trail! Alan L. Bauer 07/09/2002