We tackled Mildred Lakes as a day hike on Sunday. It was a long, hard, and rewarding hike, capped off by a lovely swim at the largest of the three lakes. While mosquitoes and route-finding may deter some folks, if you’re prepared for both eventualities, you’ll have a great (all-day) outing!
Our group (four adults and a dog) arrived at the Mildred Lakes trailhead around 10am. There were two other vehicles in the lot. Those two groups had overnighted at the lakes, and we saw them heading back to the trailhead while we were hiking out.
This hike has somewhat of an M-shaped elevation profile: we climbed uphill after leaving the trailhead, descended to Huckleberry Creek, then did the arduous root-ladder climb to where the lakes sit beneath Mount Lincoln and the Sawtooth ridge.
Despite having done this hike twice before and carrying an inReach, I had trouble navigating us to the largest Mildred Lake. We followed a social trail too far east, then slowly forged our way back west, around the first lake, and eventually onto the primary trail. It was maybe an hour-long detour, and we arrived at the lake around 1:45pm.
The hikers we’d seen earlier told us the lakes were very buggy. Likewise, a WTA trip report from Friday had made note of bugs. Honestly, all this feedback about bugs tempered our expectations, so by the time we actually made it to the lakes, the bugs didn’t seem all that bad. Also, I might’ve felt more daunted by bugs if we were spending an entire night at the lakes. Instead, we swam, doused ourselves in bug spray during lunch, then turned back around 3pm. The mosquitoes were manageable for an hour. For a day or more, maybe not.
Tired legs made the descent back to Huckleberry Creek a tough challenge, dog included. In hindsight, I think the navigational detour, plus lots of cold-water swimming, plus an arduous hike, was too much exertion for our Lab. But he was a good sport, as were all us humans! Our group arrived back at the trailhead by 6pm. In total, our eight-hour hike was 10.7 miles and 3,500 feet of total elevation gain.
This is a very special place, and it feels as rugged of a day hike as you can find in the Olympics. With the right set of expectations and appropriate planning, Mildred Lakes can be a 10/10 outing.
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