Took advantage of the nice weather and headed out for a one night backpacking trip to Watson Lakes on 8/13 (Saturday). Gorgeous views, good weather, bugs were there but not toooo bad, and a great trail for folks with dogs too.
Getting to the trailhead
I've done the hike up to Anderson Lake back in 2020 - back then, it seemed like the road was rough but definitely passable if you go slow in a low clearance vehicle. I drive a Honda Civic Hatchback and while the road was rough and terrible at times, as long as I didn't exceed 10 mph, it was fine.
However, I can no longer comfortably recommend this road to any low clearance vehicle. It seemed the road got even rougher. After passing the parking lot for the Baker Lake Trailhead, it was a series of rocks shooting out randomly from the ground and large potholes. Note that I am normally comfortable driving on relatively rough forest roads.
Use your best judgment, I definitely bottomed out a few times getting to and back from the trailhead.
Trail, camp and bugs
The trail was easy to follow. The first 1.5 miles consisted of lots of boardwalks to help you get through muddy sections. As the trail opens up to a meadow, there were an abundance of wildflowers. Not sure if this is the peak season for them, but there was a large variety of them. If you look back on this section, you can also see Baker peeking out of the trees. But you will encounter this section again, so if you're on a time crunch, keep pushing forward. After the meadow, the trail got a little rougher and by that, I meant it wasn't as smooth as the previous section - there were a good amount of overgrown roots and at times rocky. But as long you take your time, you will be fine.
There is a nice viewpoint after you reach the sign for the Noisy-Diosbub Wilderness. This area is slightly exposed so if it's hot, you might want to quickly snap a few pics and carry on to the lakes. From here on, you will be descending into the first lake. I didn't see many campsites here but we also didn't spend a lot of time looking and according to the map, the campsites were mainly located between the lakes and further up along the upper lake.
There were a couple of big logs to maneuver over. Again, nothing technical - just take your time and watch your step. It might pose as a problem for little kids and dogs. My dog and my friend's dog both did just fine. This was also where the trail began to get a little muddy but nothing posing a huge challenge.
After hiking another 0.5 mile, we were greeted by the first campsites. There were large and didn't have a whole lot of privacy. Since we got to upper lake pretty early, we decided to try to find more sites. Another 0.1 or 0.2 miles or so, we settled down on one of the outcroppings along the lake. To us, it was the perfect spot to camp for the night. As we learned, there wasn't a whole lot of privacy but we didn't really care, if we wanted something more private, we would have picked a less popular trail.
There were maybe 5 or 6 groups in total staying at Watson Lakes on Saturday and to be honest, this was a score for us since we were anticipating more people. Compared to other weekend backpacking trips I've done in the past, we were able to find a bit of solitude.
The bugs were bad but not crazy bad - perhaps it was due to the weather. It definitely got chilly at times and I think the high was about 66. They would occasionally pay us a visit but didn't linger for too long. We were equipped with bug nuts and thermacell based on recent trip reports.
More exploring
My friend and I did the 0.5 mile boot path that required a little of bushwhacking up to a viewpoint. You should be able to see this if you're using Gaia GPS. The trail was relatively easy to follow but I can't say that the entire thing was a smooth ride. The viewpoint was alright. If you have time, I do recommend doing this but you might be better off just taking the path up to Anderson Butte on the way out. We saw views of Shuksan and the surrounding peaks and that was it.
On the hike out on Sunday, we stopped by Anderson Lake. We got a view of Baker. Anderson Lake was nice but the bugs were worse here but it was probably because it was a lot hotter. The views were again alright - I always felt this way after witnessing something more wow, in this case, it was because Watson Lakes seemed to be significantly prettier than Anderson Lake. But still, it was nice to take a nice break at Anderson Lake.
After sitting for a sec, we decided that it was time to hike out. On the way out, we were greeted by Baker once again. The weather was a lot nicer so we actually could see the entire mountain. Accompanied by the meadow with blooming wildflowers, the hike out couldn't be any better.
Stats from Gaia:
Distance: 6.76 miles
Ascent: 1583 feet
Moving time: 4 hours 28 mins (we're slow with my dogs)
I highly recommend stopping by Birdsview Brewing Company on the way out! It's located on the North Cascades Highway and they always serve up good drinks and food.
Comments