I camped at Cottonwood Campground the first night, and started hiking the following morning around 10:30. At the unmarked junction with trail 1404 to Myrtle Lake, I took a quick stop to run down and look at the bridge. There is now a brand spankin' new bridge across the Entiat River. I kept on going to the unmarked junction with trail 1430 to Larch Lakes, which I actually missed the first time around, and had to backtrack to find. There is a horseshoe nailed to a tree at that junction, and I made a small cairn for future hikers. You have to ford the Entiat River, which looked about shin deep, or you can go upstream a little bit to use a fallen log to cross. The trail on the other side is hard to find, but there is some old flagging tape. The trail from the river to where it starts climbing is difficult to follow, but becomes more obvious as you go up in elevation. There was a dusting of snow on the ground starting maybe around 5000 ft. I made it to Upper Larch Lake mid afternoon and decided to camp there for the night. The larches were gorgeous, if a little green still; a few more days and they will be perfectly gold! The snow and the clear sky really brought out their colors. The night was chilly, it was definitely in the teens.
The following morning, I got a late start, and hit the trail maybe around 10am. I continued up trail 1430 to Pomas Pass. More snow, but never more than a handful of inches, nothing waterproof boots can't handle. Beautiful views of Glacier Peak Wilderness. I continued onto trail 1453 to Ice Lakes. The trail petered out once I entered the burn area around 5400 ft. I decided to just follow Pomas Creek to where the trail is supposed to cross Ice Creek. I picked up sections of the trail occasionally, but for the most part was just bushwacking. After the confluence between the two creeks and crossing Ice Creek, I wandered around and still couldn't find the trail. I spent some time debating whether to just follow Ice Creek up toward Ice Lakes, or just find somewhere where to camp for the night since it was about mid afternoon already. Just about when I had decided on the latter, I found the trail (1405). It wasn't hard to follow once on it, and there is the occasional flagging tape as well. I saw some fresh bear tracks, which was neat. I set up camp at the site right before where the trail starts climbing up to Ice Lakes.
Another late start the following morning, there seems to be a pattern there! I had to hike out that day, so decided to run up just to Lower Ice Lake before turning around. Well, that was a pretty tough climb, even with a mostly empty pack. I found it comparable in difficulty to Asgard Pass in the Enchantments. Lower Ice Lake was incredibly beautiful! I really wish I had more time to spend there, and to go up to Upper Ice Lake. Alas, that'll have to wait until next time. By the time I started heading back down it was about 1:30. I picked up all my gear at the camp site, and headed out. The trail was much easier to follow going in this direction. The trail disappeared right where there's supposed to be a junction with trail 1453 by the Ice Creek/Pomas Creek confluence. I continued cross country, found a spot where to cross the Entiat River, and still couldn't find the trail on the other side. So, I just bushwacked and followed the river back out. Maybe about 7 miles from the trailhead, I ran into a horsepacking outfitter's camp, and the two guys there (bless them!) put me back on the trail. I probably would have eventually stumbled across the trail, but they definitely made that happen much sooner rather than later! I followed the trail back out to the trailhead, and made it out just about sunset.
Amazing hike that I will definitely do again in the future with more time planned to simply enjoy the scenery.
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