Spent the weekend camping near Leavenworth, so on Saturday we decided to try to hike in to Eightmile Lake off the Icicle Creek road. The Icicle Creek road is snow free and in good shape at least all the way to Chatter Creek trail head. Temps were at night 28-33 and day temps were around 75-80.

The Forest road off of Icicle Creek was gated and locked so we had to park on Icicle and walk the road 3.1 miles to the trail head. There is no snow on the road and it is in great shape…they just haven’t gotten around to unlocking the gate for some reason. So it added 6.2 miles to the hike.

Arrived at the real trail head after 1 hour and 1200’ of elevation gain. Pit toilet available here. No sign in box or permits available yet. You need a forest pass to park and no dogs allowed on the trail.

The actual trail starts climbing quickly, but not too aggressive. Views of Dragontail and Colchuck Peaks from the early part of the trail. Streams are running high and waterproof boots are a good idea as you will get your feet wet otherwise. Trail is snow free to about 4000’ elevation or about 2 miles in. Then patches of snow deep snow cover the trail off and on. At 2.8 miles we arrived at Little Eightmile Lake. It is mostly thawed and looked grand (on a small scale) in the sun and surrounding snow.

The trail follows around the right side of the lake to a junction to Trout Lake trail headed up over Icicle ridge, or continue straight for Eightmile Lake, only ½ mile further. We went for Eightmile thinking that the last 200 feet of elevation shouldn’t give us any problems to reach it in just ½ mile more.

As we left Little Eightmile, the snow became much deeper and it covered over all the trail, rocks, and any navigational points. We lost the trail and trudged through the boulder field under deep snow. It was now 11 am and we started to posthole deeply. We finally decided to head higher and climb up the exposed rocks to escape the soft snow. Didn’t work well.

Finally we edged our way closer to the outlet creek for Eightmile that connects Little Eight and the Big Eight lakes. Here the snow was slightly firmer from the cool air of the creek and was a bit more shaded. At last we picked up a few places that looked like the summer trail. We got to 4660’ elevation and had to call it a day just about 140’ elevation below the lake as the final climb up to the lake was just too deep and soft with snow. Snow was 4-6’ here and soft by now. Couldn’t hold any steps and we didn’t want to risk punching through to the unknown so near the creek and steep drop offs.

So we ate lunch by the creek in a sunny spot that had melted out a 20 foot circle of fallen trees and brush and headed back. We were able to follow the summer trail going back by staying closer to the creek and avoided the boulder field.

Still a nice hike without attaining the lake. Little Eightmile was a nice enough place of lunch and we could have called it a day there. It shouldn’t take too much longer for someone to punch in the final ridge to reach the big lake, but there is still a lot of snow in that final ¼ mile.

When we got back to our car we had gone 12.75 miles and a total of 2650’ in elevation gain.

Ticks are plentiful in this area. Each of us found one on us and another on my pack. They were not deer ticks (Lyme Disease carriers) but they were Dog Ticks (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever carriers). So be sure to do a thorough tick check when you get back and put on Deet on exposed skin to deter the ticks. We had only a couple mosquitoes the whole trip, but there will get more plentiful for sure. Flowers were very moderate. A few trillium (white), a few glacier lilies (yellow), and that’s about it for now.

Call the Leavenworth Ranger station to check on the gate opening off Icicle road as it will save you 6+ miles of road walk and leave you with more time and energy to enjoy the lakes.

Photos of the hike here: http://www.flickr.com/[…]/

Went up to the th, to the start of the eightmile lake hike, 6 mile rt, following the rd. stopped at the th, as time was running out to cont. Lots of snow, we didnt use our snow shoes because the snow is comact and snow shoes are not needed as far as to the th. Great views on this snow shoe, weather good and lots of people either snow shoeing or sled ing.

Great morning hike! Trail is well-marked, if dusty. First 3/4 mile is hot and exposed, but it gets better. Good mixed terrain up the valley, lots of spots to dip in Eightmile Creek, Little Eightmile Lake and Eightmile Lake. Few bugs and excellent views. Fairly crowded, however.

We spend 2 nights at Eightmile Lake and dayhiked to Windy Pass. It is fascinating to look in Eightmile Lake at night with flashlights--so many big crawdads!

I would not recommend camping at Lake Caroline right now until it cools down--too many mosquitos and biting flies. Eightmile Lake is not too bad for bugs now. The trail from Little Eightmile to Lake Caroline goes up 2000' feet in relentless sun, and has plenty of biting flies. The trail from Lake Caroline to Windy Pass is delightful and spectacular, highly recommended.