Joe Lake, Gold Creek Trail to Alaska Lake, Gravel Lake - Ridge Lake & Kendall Peak Lakes — Thursday, Jul. 20, 2023

I've wanted to access the PCT via Gold Creek/Joe Lake for a while but the lack of trip reports and/or concerning descriptions in the trip reports had scared me away. Or perhaps they just added to my desire to see what the upper part of the Gold Creek trail is really like. It's clear from other reports that you don't want to do an out-and-back to Joe Lake and I would strongly agree with that. So what I really wanted to do was make a trip to Joe Lake part of a loop using the PCT and a shortcut back via Kendall Peak Lakes, as suggested here. This turned out to be a fantastic idea. 

Given the need for off-trail traverses and the questionable state of the Gold Creek trail past the Alaska Lake turnoff, I budgeted 9 hours for this adventure as a trail run / power hike knowing I could make pretty good time coming back on the PCT if I needed to or just give up and turn around. I hit the trail at 6:30 AM and even with a stop to refill water I was at the Alaska Lake turnoff at 8 AM. Only one stretch of overgrown shrubs through an avalanche runoff was annoying, the rest was quick and flat. 

The last 2 miles and change to Joe Lake ended up taking me almost as long as it took to do the first 5.4 miles. At first the trail is just badly overgrown, mostly with thimbleberry and ferns, not many brambles or branches fortunately. The tread of the trail is mostly there and there was some helpful trampling from the maybe half-dozen people who have been through in the last few weeks. There are a couple steeper ups and downs that culminate with a rather sketchy washout crossing that thankfully had a well-secured rope (see the first picture). 

Then comes to the real fun part of climbing up to Joe Lake. I want to emphasize that, contrary to some previous reports, if you do this correctly there is a faint trail almost the entire way up and virtually no scrambling is involved. The CalTopo map clearly showed that the trail is on the far side of the creek that runs down from Joe Lake and I tried very hard to use GPS to stay on that track. What I didn't realize is there are actually 2-3 streams running down from the lake. The first one really looked like the main stream (it had a waterfall and everything) so I started heading up after crossing that one and soon found myself scrambling in what turned into a dead end. During that process I could see there was another stream to cross, so I got myself back down (not before slipping, scraping my leg, and contemplating my life choices) and hopped across the second stream. Lo and behold, there was an obvious trail going up the hill to the lake, right where the map said it should be. 

With that adventure behind me, I rested at Joe Lake for a bit and refilled water. Fortunately the bugs were not that bad. It's kind of cool being at this lake that almost nobody goes to and seeing hikers cruising along just above you on the PCT. The scramble up to the PCT was straightforward, I just picked a spot where there were more rocks and less shrubs just past all of the logs floating in the lake. At this point I was at least an hour ahead of my budgeted schedule, so instead of turning left on the PCT I decided to turn right and hiked up to saddle on the PCT between Huckleberry and Chikamin. What a treat to be in this section of the PCT on a perfect summer day. It was hard to turn around, I just wanted to keep going forever. 

My only other stop up there was at Ridge Lake for rest and delicious cold water. Several people were swimming in the lake. Feeling refreshed, I went through the Katwalk and continued past Kendall Peak. Just as the PCT bends right there is a spot where the ridge to the left is only about ~150 ft above the trail. Here I turned off the PCT traversed up to the ridge and then down to the middle Kendall Peak lake. This turned out to be a straightforward off-trail traverse through the woods but it did require GPS to make sure that I was headed in the right direction down the hill as you can't see the lakes through the trees until you are most of the way down. After enjoying a casual stroll through the lakes, the trail became smooth enough that I was able to run most of the 4 miles down to I-90 and then walked the last 1.5 miles back to the Gold Creek TH. I was out of water and roasting in the 85 degree heat at the end, but nothing beats the satisfaction of a successful day on the trails.