Mildred Lakes — Friday, Jul. 28, 2017

Late trip report post. Hiked a 4 day, 3 night trip to Mildred Lakes end of July 2017. 5th time doing the trail. 

Road is in same condition as the previous 3 years, still has the washout right after the Lake of the Angels trailhead. It can be navigated in a sedan slowly just fine. Hamma Hamma Road (FS 25) is 14 miles long as soon as you turn off Highway 101. It's 6 miles to Mildred Lakes Trailhead once you hit the dirt portion of the road.

About 6 cars in the trailhead, which is the most I've ever seen. We hit the trail just before 7pm and took about 2 hours to reach Huckleberry creek. I won't go into trail specifics as I've mentioned specific trail details in my first trip report for Mildred Lakes. 

However, I did reflag each and every part of the trail where it is difficult to follow with ORANGE ribbon tape. There is still pink and green flagging in some places, and I left those ribbons if they appropriately marked the trail. But rest assured, at every point where someone could have lost the trail, I flagged it very well. 

Once we reached Huckleberry creek, we found a camp spot, refiltered water (highly recommend the Platypus 2.0L system if you don't have one already). There were 2 other groups camping at Huckleberry creek. This is highly recommended to break the hike up as this is almost exactly the midpoint of the hike in terms of duration. If you are hiking with anything more than a 45lb. pack, you'll be glad you split the hike up. 

We broke camp at 6:30am and beat everyone to the lakes in hopes of getting a good campsite. We had two in mind at the 3rd and largest lake. Upon arrival (which took another 2.5 hours from Huckleberry creek), we found our primary #1 spot occupied, but settled next door for the backup spot.

We set up camp and hit the water, pumping up our kayak as fast as possible and getting the rods set up.

I lost exact count of the number of rainbow trout I landed, but it was between 20-25 Rainbow Trout. Only a few dinks of 6in. range, but most in the 8-12in range, with a few pushing the 12-16in range. All of my fish were caught on a variety of Yakima Rooster Tails in all colors. I used 1/16oz and 1/32 oz Rooster Tail Spinners. The best combination that landed me about 15 wish was an all black rooster tail in 1/32 oz. The action was hot all over the lake. I crimped down all of my barbs for easy catch and release of all fish, and kept a total of 2 fish for breakfast one morning, with all other catches safely handled and released with minimal exposure out of water.

The same cannot be said for my friends who used powerbait and nightcrawlers as they only caught a few each and had very slow action. Even more reason to leave the bait at home. 

A large group of fly anglers (about 5) showed up and fished the large lake off the island to the left but didn't seem to have much success. They did seem bewildered and impressed when they saw us paddling around our 2 man kayak though. We also brought 1 Caddis float tube but never ended up using it. 

We also fished the middle lake that has large boulders for Westslope Cutthroat Trout. I fished for about 3-4 hours with no action at all until my very last cast where I landed of all things....another Rainbow! Was really hoping to land a large Cutty that roams the depths in this middle lake.

Took 4 hours to hike back to the car. 

For reference, all of these hike times reported were done while I was wearing a 75lb pack. It was an extreme physical challenge, which is exactly why I keep coming back to Mildred Lakes any opportunity I get because I've yet to find a hike that provides the challenge and reward this one does. Also because the fishing is lights out every time.