Cougar Lake #958.1,Bumping River,American Lake,Anderson Lake,Dewey Lake #968,Pacific Crest (South Cascades) #2000
Sep 01, 2006
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Cougar Lakes
- Region: South Cascades -- Chinook Pass - Enumclaw or Hwy 410 area
- Agency: Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests, Naches Ranger District
- Trails: Cougar Lake (#958.1)
- Avg Rating: 1.80
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Dewey Lake
- Region: South Cascades -- Chinook Pass - Enumclaw or Hwy 410 area
- Agency: Gifford Pinchot National Forest
- Trails: Dewey Lakes (#968)
- Avg Rating: 3.54
This route is not a particularly spectacular one, despite a couple of other reports extolling its virtues. The highlight of this trip for us was American Lake - a perfect swimming lake in a great basin. The main reasons we are lukewarm about the trip are 1) horse trails are VERY dusty this time of year - we felt like Pigpen all weekend, and often had to hike far apart to keep the dust and grit out of the 2nd person's eyes and nose. 2) It's really unnecessary to drive from Seattle all the way over Chinook Pass to get to the trailhead far up the Bumping River Road - much easier to go in via the Dewey Lake trail at Chinook Pass.
Started Friday evening, w/a short 2.5 mile hike to Swamp Lake - no one else there, just a few bugs, no good swimming access (yup, it's a bit swampy all around the edges). Saturday hiked 2.5-3.0 miles in to Cougar Lakes, which were looking pretty idyllic. I took a swim, we set up camp at the east edge of Little Cougar, and it seemed like we might have the place to ourselves. We spent the rest of the day hiking the unmarked, but very visible, bootpath up to the PCT, which starts at the western end of Big Cougar. Then hiked along the PCT north to the junction with American Ridge trail, and turned east towards American Lake. Which is the BEST thing about this entire trip. It is a fabulous swimming lake, situated in a lovely basin with what promises to be good light all day (and evening) long. Nice camping spots, and no horse campers seen here at all!
After an idyllic hour or so swimming and reading at American Lake, we finished the loop by returning to Cougar Lakes - where we discovered a large (6) party of horse packers were camped just behind us in the trees/meadow. Couldn't see them, but could hear their voices, and every hoof-fall and neigh the horses made. Also, due to high House Rock at the west end of the valley, there is no evening sunshine - so by 6pm we had no sunlight shining into our camp. After dinner, we were surprised by the horse folks bringing their 6 horses down to drink at the lake - and 2 of them ending up right in our campsite! I hollered and they eventually got them out of there.
Sunday morning started eventfully with a 7am horses-to-the-lake trip - when again 2 horses came cantering thru our campsite, one on either side of our tent! Yikes, felt like we were in the middle of a stampede and it was a very rude awakening! Packed up after breakfast and got the heck out of Dodge by 10am, and went coughing up the trail. Dropped our packs at the junction of American Ridge trail, and headed back to American Lake (another quick dip), and then on to Anderson Lake (about 1/2 way to Dewey Lake on the PCT). Anderson Lake is small and shallow - no real rocks to lounge on, or for diving into the water. Would have swum if the sun hadn't hidden. Turned around and hiked back to American Lake for our last swim - and both of us declared this was the only real gem of the trip.
Short hike out, dusty and dry. One highlight was the large elk with large rack of antlers that was standing in Bumping River when we got there! Note: requires ford of Bumping River, about 1/2 mile from trailhead.
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