Ashland Lakes — Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018

I wanted a relatively easy hike today as I'm healing an injury in my leg. I chose to go up to Upper/Lower Ashland Lakes and also Beaver Plant Lake. It ended up being a 5.7mile trip with 860ft of elevation gain, which was just about perfect for my injury. I started late in the day, at 3pm, and there was one family at the trailhead just on their way out. There is a pit toilet at the trailhead that was open -- a lot of trash has piled up around it -- but it's there nonetheless. All-in-all this was a nice hike, despite the constant background noise of shooting not too far off in the distance. The entire hike.

The trail starts off gently winding through the woods. Patches of snow here and there, but nothing to worry about, and not entirely snow covered to begin with. You cross a grated bridge and after about 1.5miles, across Beaver Plant Lake. The trail is well signed. The lake is starting to freeze over and is somewhat snow covered, but with the recent warm up, is still unfrozen. Several campsites are scattered around the sides of the lake.

Heading back up to the large signage from Beaver Plant Lake, I carried on to Upper/Lower Ashland Lakes. The trail at this point is mostly a series of planks. Almost all of the planks are somewhat snow covered, and if they weren't snow covered, they could be a bit slick. Off to the sides of most of these planks was water, although, some areas were just a little squishy, and you could walk off to the sides. Again, most everything is fairly well marked and follows an obvious trail. I skipped Bold Mountain and Twin Falls today, but these trails, in unknown condition to me, do connect to the route I took.

Although mostly in the woods, and muddy, and plank covered, and with near constant gunshots, this was actually a really nice little hike to some less visited lakes (at least around sunset).

Strava GPS: https://www.strava.com/activities/1357955847 

Drive Video: https://youtu.be/Kl8SH1DyhHE 

Hike Video: https://youtu.be/87jUyxtaVi0 

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.strava.com/activities/1357955847