Bernice Lake, Crater Lakes, Hoodoo Pass & Chelan Summit — Friday, Sep. 24, 2004

Central Cascades

This is a more detailed follow-up to an earlier trip report. Starting Saturday 9/25/04 I did a 5 day trip with my 3 packgoats carrying the load. I started from the Eagle lakes trailhead in the Sawtooth area north of Lake Chelan. Road access is via North Fork Gold Creek (Gold Creek Loop) road which is marked from Highway 153 (Methow valley highway) its’ a few miles north of Methow, turn left (west). Turn left again onto FS 4340 (in a mile). The road is paved to Foggy Dew campground (5 miles). Stay straight on 4340. 1.7 miles further turn left on 4340- 300, signed only: 300. It’s 4.6 miles further to the trailhead (campground, no water). The road was a little wash-boarded. There were about 15-20 cars in the parking lot Saturday when I left, only my truck when I got back on Wednesday. Weather was great…blue skies, warm afternoons (upper 70’s?), a bit of frost at night. The Larch were golden above about 6300’. Saturday I went to Crater lakes (trail #416), per 100 Hikes it’s 4 miles and 2100 ft elevation gain. There were a number of trees across the trail, none were a problem. There were 4 other parties camped in the Crater Lakes area that I was aware of. The basins were wooded with a mix of Fir, Pine and Larch. The trail ends near the north shore & outlet of (lower) Crater Lake. A boot path continues along the north shore. It appears to continue west toward the saddle in the ridge west of Crater Lake. I went across the meadow at the head of the lake. It’s easy going (bits of boot path) around to the outlet stream coming down from upper Crater Lake. There are boot paths on both sides of the outlet stream from upper Crater Lake. The path crossing the outlet of lower Crater Lake and going around the east & south-east shore seemed better defined and a shorter way to Upper Crater Lake. Both Crater lakes are somewhat shallow and a little ‘grassy’ this time of year. Still they are nice and the Larch were beautiful. Sunday I went back down the Crater Lakes trail and up the Eagle Lakes trail #431. This trail is open to motorcycles. The side trail branching off (before) to lower Eagle Lake was marked with a “not maintained” sign. I had time and decided to give it try. It traverses down to Lower Eagle Lake. There were a few trees down. There were two groups of down trees which took a little effort, still it was passable. I followed the trail around Lower Eagle Lake and up the maintained trail to it’s junction with the Eagle lakes trail #431 about a mile below Horsehead Pass. Lower Eagle Lakes does have at least a couple of camp spots. It’s more down it the woods and not as nice as Upper Eagle lake. As far as I was aware I was the only one camped near Upper Eagle Lake Sunday night. Monday I headed over Horsehead pass to Boiling Lake and then down to the Chelan Summit trail #1259 junction with the idea of seeing if there was a ‘trail’ up to Bernice Lake. West from the junction the Chelan Summit trail #1259 is ‘no motorcycles’. About a ¼ mile west from the Chelan Summit junction is the junction with the Hoodoo Pass trail #1259C. The Chelan Summit trail traverses up about 1 ½ miles to a crossing of the ridge at Chipmunk Pass, with a view down to Cub lake. The Chelan Summit trail switchbacks down once or twice, then traverses northeast to just below a large meadow basin and a stream crossing. It looked like it would also be possible to traverse up to the Dry Lake basin area from this spot (UTM 693988E, 5342994N). The Chelan Summit trail in this area has been re-routed from what shows on the Topo map to what shows on Green Trails. Below Dry Lake basin the trail is near a branch of Prince Creek for a ways. About 150’ (@ UTM 692088E, 5344715 N, 5670’) northwest from (past) where the Chelan Summit trail crosses Prince Creek (coming down from Bernice Lake) there was an un-marked, well used ‘trail’ ( boot path) heading up the hill toward Bernice Lake. It had obviously been used by horses recently. The creek itself is in a V shaped gully, the Bernice lake ‘trail’ heads up on the shoulder of the gully. From the looks of the ‘trail’ it appears to be an un-maintained ‘old fashion’ trail. At about 5880’ the ‘trail’ heads down through alder to the creek and crosses it. This is a little above where the map shows two streams coming together. The ‘trail’ then heads up the open rocky hillside (on the north side of the second stream). It continues up to a relatively flat meadow area (water & camp site) @ UTM 693091E, 5345302N, 6600’. From here it gradually swings more to the north and up to Bernice Lake. The ‘trail’ stays on the east side of a fairly deep V shaped stream gully coming down from Bernice Lake. Bernice Lake is in a rocky bowl with scree slopes on 3 sides…similar to Upper Eagle Lake. There is a grassy bench on the outlet side and Larch trees…nice spot. I camped here Monday night. Tuesday, I decide to try the ‘high route’ from Bernice lake to Hoodoo Pass basin (Thanks to a Sept. 2003 WTA report by D. Inscho) and headed down to the meadow @ UTM 693091E, 5345302N, 6600’. From the meadow I crossed the small stream on the southeast side of the meadow and follow sheep paths / a faint boot path down near the stream to about 6400’ and then traversed toward an open grassy bench area along the ridge to the south. I generally headed toward the small knob, point 6784’, at the end of the ridge. I found and lost the ‘trail’ several times. At UTM 692849E, 5344517N, 6550’ which was at the edge of the woods at the base of the last (southern) open area I found a very well defined ‘trail’ traversing up into the woods. It had been used by horses recently and looked like an ‘old fashioned’ trail. It switch-backed steeply up to the ridge line (within about 10’) @ UTM 692960E, 5344396N, 6800’. It reached the ridge line near a low point / pass about 200’ east of point 6784’. The ‘trail’ then followed up the ridgeline to 7470’. The first part was about 10’ below the ridgeline on the north side (easier going). At about 7470’ this east rising ridge line and one from the south joint and continue a little more steeply up to point 8030’. Here (where the two ridges join) the ‘trail’ is fairly faint, but traverses a couple of hundred feet southeast across a scree slope to the south ridge @ UTM 693478E, 5344397N, 7470’. From here there is a well defined ‘trail’ which contours down (about 100’) into the upper basin above Dry lake. I lost the ‘trail’ shortly after this as it seemed to split into multiple sheep paths. The whole upper Dry Lake basin is grassy with scattered Larch and Pines. From the Dry lake side the 7470’ place on the ridge looks like a saddle / pass just before the ridgeline heads more steeply up toward point 8030’. From where I lost the trail I contoured down through the basin to about 7200’. At the south edge of the upper Dry lake basin I followed a sheep / deer path up through a Larch band onto the higher grassy slope to the south. From there I headed up the grassy slope and found the ‘trail’ again at UTM 694332E, 5343909N, 7650’. From here it traversed slightly up toward the east-southeast. As it got south of point 8010’ the grass gave way to scree and the path became less well defined. It reached the ridgeline southeast of point 8010 at UTM 694890E, 5343616N, 7770’. There is little sign of a trail but it’s easy to follow the gentle saddle southeast to it’s low point (about 2/10 mile). From the low point there is a pretty well defined path switch-backing down on the Hoodoo Pass basin side to the Larch close by. The ‘trail’ is well defined for a switchback or two, then disappears in the sloping meadow. I found and lost faint bits of ‘trail’ as I headed down the open grassy slope toward Hoodoo Pass trail. This area is an open grassy slope with lots of Larch trees…beautiful spot. The ‘trail’ from Bernice Lake to Hoodoo Pass basin, though not on any of my maps and un-maintained, is relatively easy going (about 1500’ elevation loss & gain) with no brush-whacking or scrambling. The Hoodoo pass trail has been relocated from what is shown on my Topo map to what is shown on Green Trails. I found a small stream on the Hoodoo Pass trail @ UTM 695613E, 5343583N, 7200’. The upper Hoodoo Pass basin is much more open meadow than the green on the Topo map suggests. At about 7000’ I left the Hoodoo Pass trail to contour around through the meadows toward Boiling Lake. At UTM 696159E, 5342777N, 7000’ I came across a ‘trail’. Following it east, lead to Boiling Lake at the ‘Horse Camps’ sign north of the lake on trail #1259A (toward Horsehead Pass). I camped at the ‘horse camp’ by Boiling Lake Tuesday night…nice spot with a picnic table. The hike out over Horsehead Pass from Boiling Lake on Wednesday was uneventful. After seeing 4 other groups Saturday at Crater Lakes, I saw two people on motorcycles on the Eagle lakes trail on Sunday and two people near the Chelan Summit trail junction on Monday. Saw no one Tuesday or Wednesday. Nice trip, beautiful Larch.