Colchuck Lake #1599.1,Stuart Lake #1599

Icicle Canyon is such a treat in September. After a chilly night camped at the Chatter Creek campground (campgrounds are still crowded up here--mostly full this past weekend) we started up the Stuart Lake Trail at 9:30 am.

This trail is just lovely. The climb (only 2000 feet) is easy and gradual, and there are many nice sights along the way of the creek tumbling over granite boulders and views of various peaks in the Stuart Range through clearings in the lodgepole and ponderosa pine.

The trail proceeds gently upward for the first mile, through semi-closed forest with an understory of huckleberry bushes that we were simply too late for. Not one bit of fruit remained. We then came to a nice sturdy logbridge across Mountaineer Creek, where the forest becomes more open. We stopped for a snack on a large boulder just on the other side where we soaked up the first bit of sun of the day. For the next 1.5 miles or so, the trail proceeds up, still gently at first with casual switchbacks around big granite boulders, then steep in one or two places, until eventually at 2.5 miles you come to the Y in the trail. To the right is another 2.5 miles to Stuart Lake, to the left is the trail to Colchuck.

The Colchuck trail crosses east fork Mountaineer Creek, then goes off to the right across a boulder field (the actual trail hugs the creek if you don't like scrambling over granite boulders) and picks up elevation gain a bit from here to the lake, another 1.5 miles. We stopped a few times on the way up to chat with hikers coming down, mostly folks who had spent a night or two at Colchuck and remarked that their water froze a bit on Saturday night as the temperature plunged to 32 degrees. (None mentioned the helicopter search-and-rescue operation that took place here late Saturday afternoon for two climbers at the base of Dragontail Peak, which I heard about only when I returned home later. Our condolences are with the family of those two people.)

Fall is in the air, and color is just starting, including huckleberry bushes turning, vine maple starting to turn, and even a few larches were in fall color at the lake. Two Blue Grouse were spotted just off the trail, plus a Hairy Woodpecker and a few Hermit Thrush.

The Spring/Manning guidebook says this is 8 miles RT and 2000 feet elevation gain to the lake. Seems about right, but they also suggest an 8-hour hiking time. I puzzled over that and was sure we'd be there and back in a little over 6 hours. It took us 7, including a leisurely lunch at the lake.