We hiked this trail starting at rainy pass, and heading south to Stehekin along the PCT, and the continuing south along the lakeshore trail to Prince Creek. The whole trip took seven days. You can read about the PCT portion in my other trip report.
On our first day (4th day of the entire trip), we didn't get started until after lunch, and this planned delay produced a short day; we only hiked 3.5 miles to camp at Flick Creek. The campground at flick creek contained three bear boxes and a large shelter structure (which came in handy during the windy Lake Chelan afternoon). However, there were only a few spots available for our relatively large group. In the end, two of our tents fit nicely inside the shelter, and the other tent and the bivy sack were placed in two higher tent spots that could be found by hiking about 30 feet on the trail past the turn-off for flick creek.
The next day, we hiked about 3 miles to Moore's Point, where we stopped to have lunch. The trail in this section traverses over Hunt's Bluff, which has some of the best views of the entire trail. Moore's Point would have made a great campsite due to its large grassy areas, multiple docks, and the lovely feature of an actual bathroom building instead of a box toilet. However, we hiked another 4 miles to the Meadow Creek 'campground.' The trail from Moore Point to Meadow Creek rises higher up into the hills for a long, hot, burn area before descended back down to the lake. Except it did not quite reach the lake, did it? Do not be fooled by Meadow Creek! On our map, it appeared that Meadow Creek had a dock, a bathroom, and a shelter. However, the dock was actually a private dock. The pit toilet was located ridiculously near the trail, and the shelter did not appear to be safe to stay in. The few tent spots were small and slanted, and the entire area was up on a bluff, not down by the lake like we assumed. Eventually, we reached the conclusion that we would need to hike another 1.5 miles to Cascade Creek, with hopes that it would be a better location.
The trail that connects the Cascade Creek campground to the lakeshore trail is extremely steep, curvy, and sandy; I believe it descends around 300 feet in .2 miles. However, the campground itself was large, had great lake access, and we had it all to ourselves, due to the lack of a full-sized dock. The moral of the story is, don't camp at Meadow Creek.
The next day, we hiked the 6.5 miles to Prince Creek before lunch, and camped in the huge campground that night. The Lady of the Lake picked us up the next day, returning us to civilization.
Overall, it was an incredible trip; I would, however, advise any hopeful hikers to plan their trip earlier in the summer. By August, the afternoon heat made some of the more open stretches of trail very strenuous.
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