Boardman Lake — Saturday, Sep. 6, 2025

Fresh off our hike to Ashland Lakes we decided to tackle Boardman Lake as well, since it's off the same forest road and is such a short hike (two miles roundtrip). As mentioned in my Ashland report the road is being re-graded so it's suitable for all vehicles. We reached the trailhead around 1:20pm and there were seven other cars parked there. By then the sun was popping out of the clouds and haze and it was getting pretty warm.

Lake Evans is reached just a few hundred yards into the trail and is worthy of a short stop to take it in, but the real prize lies not far beyond. The roughly one-mile trail to Boardman Lake is lined with many impressive old-growth snags and a few surviving giants that somehow escaped the logger's saw. Unfortunately for my arachnophobic friend though it was also lined with spider webs, and she had me take point to act as a web catcher. It turned out to be a good idea as I eventually came face-to-face with a decent-sized spider dangling down from an overhead tree branch, just managing to avoid wearing it after which I moved it over to a nearby bush.

Upon reaching the lake we found several people fishing, mostly families who were likely camped there. Fortunately there are several decent spots along the shore where you can rest and have a snack break, which we did. You do have to walk across the logs bunched up at the lake outlet and then climb a very steep and badly degraded set of stairs in order to find the best spots, but it's doable by most.

We were back at our vehicle by 3:50pm and counted roughly the same number of parked cars as before. It's a very nice and pretty hike, but if you're a day-hiker I'd recommend combining it with Ashland or Pinnacle Lakes, or maybe even Big Four Ice Caves since it's such a short trail.