We, two middle-aged parents and our eleven-year-old son, spent five days backpacking from the Scaffold Ridge trailhead on forest road 43/560, over Fish Creek Pass, to Tuckaway Lake and back, Aug 30 through Sep 3, 2005. The weather was perfect, mild and sunny during the days, chilly and clear at night. No bugs bothered us. The scenery was grand. This was by far the most ambitious hike our son had done, and he enjoyed it with minimal grumbling. Amazingly, we saw no people. Our only complaint was inaccuracies in the Green Trails map (Buttermilk Butte #83), which caused some anxieties about whether we were on the right trail. Despite the apparent maze of logging roads on the map, we found the trailhead easily. The gate from road 500 to road 550 was open; it is closed only for hunting season according to the ranger in Winthrop. The most-traveled route goes from the gate to the trailhead, which has room for several cars and is clearly the end of the well-traveled route. The trail climbs steeply from the trailhead to a ridgetop, then more gently switchbacks up the nose of the ridge through dense lodgepole pine. It enters the Wilderness and then contours across the beginning of Buttermilk Meadow, which is steep and mostly sagebrush with wildflowers and a few aspen. Great views of Oval Peak and up the West Fork Buttermilk Creek valley to the Sawtooth ridge peaks (first photo below). About three miles from the trailhead the trail bends uphill to follow the meadow (below the ""k"" in ""Buttermilk Mdw"" on the map), and we stopped for the night at a very good hardened site at the edge of the woods below the meadow. There was a little mucky pool in the meadow near camp, but we had brought water for the first day and a half and so didn't have to try it. The creek marked as beginning there was dry, or perhaps we didn't find it. The next day we crossed the rest of Buttermilk Meadow and headed into more lodgepole forest. There is an unmarked path that branches right (uphill) near the end of the meadow, and there is another, heavily used unmarked trail that branches right shortly after entering the woods. That second trail is most likely the route to Duffy Lake, just over the saddle between Oval Peak and peak 7625. Up to this point, our route appeared heavily used and was very easy to follow. After the apparent Duffy Lake branch it became fainter, but there are frequent tree blazes all the way to trail #411, and some parts of the trail have cairns. Not long after the apparent Duffy Lake branch the trail turns abruptly downhill and descends to a creek crossing, passes a swampy meadow, crosses another creek, and then steeply climbs the nose of a ridge. The map shows only the second creek crossing. At about the ""8.0"" just southwest of ""Buttermilk Mdw"", it shows the trail contouring around the head of a creek and then descending to a second creek, which it crosses before climbing many switchbacks. I suspect that in reality, the trail turns southeast at the ""8.0"" and descends parallel to the north side of the first creek, then crosses it at about the same level as its crossing of the second creek. The following switchbacks are very steep and rocky and hardly ""switchback"" at all. The last leg heads straight up the bottom of a steep, shallow gully before finally topping out, then beginning a long, gradual descent. Somewhere near the top of the gully, larches appear and become common. At the bottom of the gradual descent, the trail crosses an unmarked creek, probably in the dip northeast of the unnamed lake 6936. The lake itself is lovely, surrounded by larches with a view of Oval Peak. It is perhaps half-covered with floating marsh grass but still invites wading and foot soaking (though it was still cold even this late in summer). True to the map, the trail follows its southeast shore, and there are several hardened campsites. After the lake, however, the map let us down. It shows the trail contouring easily to its junction with trail #411. That would have been nice. Instead, it loses several hundred feet fairly steeply, does a rolling traverse below numerous boulder fields, and then steeply regains its lost elevation before the junction. Plus, though this isn't the map's fault, there are many downed trees, mostly noteably three during the steep descent that we had to squeeze under with packs off. Once on trail #411 (West Fork Buttermilk River), the going was much smoother. The climb to Fish Creek Pass is dusty, however, and we separated to avoid each others' dust clouds. Star Peak is lovely and impressive from the ascent, and the view from the pass down to Star Lake was grand and welcoming. Star Lake is surrounded by larches and meadows with craggy Star Peak looming just behind (second photo below, lake hidden ahead at base of peak). We camped at the fine hardened site just north of the lake outlet. The next day we moved on to Tuckaway Lake. The trail from Fish Creek Pass joins trail #1259 slightly southeast of where the map indicates. It must have been rerouted, because there's still a signpost at the old junction. Trail #1259 climbs slowly across open slopes with many recently burned trees. There is no sign of the horse camp marked just north of the old junction; perhaps it was burned. Despite the mild temperatures and moderate grade, strong sun and yesterday's exertions made the climb long and slow, and we were glad to reach the excellent switchbacks that descend quickly to the horse camp marked just south of Tuckaway Lake. This camp is intact and in fine shape, with room for many. It even has a box toilet (very welcome). We reached Tuckaway Lake in time for a late (slightly too late) lunch and set up camp at a hardened site above the northeast shore. Horseshoe Basin is pretty, but not as dramatic as the Star Lake/Fish Creek basin. We'd planned to hike up Gray Peak in the afternoon, but all but me voted to rest by the lake and skip the steep switchbacks up Oval Pass visible across the valley. Spurred by glowing descriptions of the views from Gray Peak I'd read here, after lazing about a bit I headed for the peak. The climb to Oval Pass is steep and rocky but not too long, and Grey Peak is an easy walk up a broad, open ridge. It took me half an hour from Tuckaway Lake. The views are everything advertized. Truly a top-of-the-world, sea-of-peaks experience. It reminded me of why I like to climb mountains. After I returned, my son and I sat and watched the pikas in the boulder field across the lake. After a bit we moved closer and sat again. My wife said she could see them dashing away when we moved, but they got used to us and came back. We eventually were sitting on a flat rock right on the edge of the field. One of them was gathering grass and flowers for a stash behind a boulder perhaps ten feet away. We saw it running over and behind boulders with its mouth full of plants, then disappearing behind the near boulder, then dashing away with its mouth empty. Now and then it or its neighbors would climb a rock and look at us, and from all over the rock pile pikas seen and unseen were calling ""Eeep!"" The next day we hiked back out to the unnamed lake 6936, and the last day we rolled easily back to the trailhead, where we met the first people we'd seen all trip, though we had seen boot tracks apparently going to and from Duffy Lake in our absence. The people at the trailhead were heading in with a donkey in search of a pair of horses they'd lost at Star Lake the weekend before.

We decided to do a 5 night trip in this multi-use area that is renowned for it's beauty. We started out Monday Aug 15 in good weather around 8:40am from the trailhead which goes to several different destinations. It starts on the Crater creek trail and in .5 miles the right fork goes to Crater lake.(This is the last good water, there are a few very small seepages, almost gone on the way to upper Eagle lake.) At two miles the right fork goes to upper and lower Eagle lakes and beyond to horsehead Pass and boiling lake. The left fork to Martin and Cooney lakes. We were headed to Upper Eagle lake for 2 nights. We decided to do the Golden Lakes loop in two separate trips, so we could really enjoy some quality time at each place. The trail is an easy to moderate grade and quite dusty. At about 3 and a half to four miles the trail opens up to some good views of lower ridges and valley below. The few switchbacks are long. We saw a few other hikers that day but no horses and only one dirtbike, which was the forest ranger. The mileage differs between the signs and the Green trail map. To my best estimate we reached upper Eagle side trail at 7 miles. The side trail is 1/2 to 1 mile. The lake is at 7110 ft.and very pristine with pleasant camps. The lake sets in a steep cirque. The giant ridge of rock is awesome. The lake is surrounded by lots of Larch trees. We heard several avalanches in the two nights we were there. We aren't fisherman but it was repoted to be excellent fishing. On Wednesday we started out for Boiling Lake after some overnight rain. It appeared to be clearing some. We headed up to Horsehead pass with great views. The grade steepens and is rocky before reaching the 7590 foot saddle. We encountered two horseman with a mule train on the way up. It began to rain just before the saddle and continued as we descended 1 mile to Boiling lake. There were large trees periodically on the trail where we found shelter and were able to put on rain gear. We found a nice camp with a picnic table that was surrounded by huge Spruce trees which provided shelter from the rain. Thursday morning we awoke to beautiful weather. We decided to head down to the Chelan Summit trail and over to Chipmunk Pass. In the first 1/2 mile we came to a junction. There are a couple of nice camps at the junction. Left goes down the Summit trail over to Angels staircase and to the loop to Cooney and Martin lakes. Straight goes to Cub lake and right went up the summit trail and over Chipmunk Pass. They call this junction, four corners. The trail to Chipmunk Pass is an easy to moderate grade with only one or two steep places. It proceeds along a side hill with splendid views of the Sawtooths and down to Cub Lake. We returned to boiling lake for the night and climbed back up Horsehead Pass on Friday. Awesome views going up the Pass. We decided to spend our last night at lower Eagle lake. There is a side trail on the right down a ways from Horsehead Pass that proceeds 1 mile to the lake. It is a pleasant lake with a nice camp toward the far end past horse camps and along a short accessible shore. From this camp there is a non maintained hiker trail out to the main trail # 431. One big blow down and the trail gets a little confusing before connecting with the main trail. It was a God send to hear a dirt bike on the main trail above to get perspective. We encountered several dirtbikes on Saturday on the way out but all of them were very courteous. Great trip! Only a few bugs, both biting flies and mosquitoes, but nothing to dampen the spirit. Very worth the trip.

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.

The Larch have turned golden in the Chelan - Sawtooth ridge area above about 6300 ft. The trail up to Crater lakes, #416, has a few trees down, but they are easily passable. Eagle Lakes trail #431 was in good shape since it’s maintained for motorcycles. There were about 15-20 cars in the trailhead parking lot when I left Saturday, only my truck when I returned Wednesday. Saturday night there were 4 other groups camped in the Crater lakes area. Sunday through Wednesday I saw a total of 4 other people, surprising considering how beautiful this area is this time of year, with blue skies and golden larch.

I started up the Eagle lakes trail on Labor day, Sept. 6th, from FS rd # 4340(300)at noon (4,700ft). I saw many people leaving, some on foot, most on motorcycles. The motorbikers were very polite and much quieter and less dusty than I had anticipated. The hike to Upper Eagle lake was a grueling deathmarch due to the heat, humidity, distance and elevation gain, plus my late start and natural slowness. By the time I reached the turn-off for Upper Eagle at 6 pm, all other people had already departed, leaving the whole area to me alone. Upper Eagle (7,100ft) is very scenic, with cliffs surrounding the lake and lots of exposed granite and larch trees and ponderosa pine. On Tuesday I headed back to the main trail which loses several hundred feet of elevation, and then over Horsehead pass (7,600ft) to Boiling lake, another gem of the high country. The views from Horsehead are wide and varied. I saw three people all day, two nice motorcyclists and one lady with two llamas camped at Boiling. Wednesday I went down to the Chelan Summit trail junction, then south to the Angel's Staircase. The meadows get more open and inviting as the trail ascends to the staircase. The pass right before the staircase is a great place to hang out, with views up to Point 7820 on the side of Old Maid Mtn, and Point 8321 in the other direction. Angel's Staircase has ever-expanding views of East Fork Prince Creek and the trail up to the pass to Horsethief Basin. From the top (8,100ft), near the summit of Switchback peak, there are views of Merchant's basin, Sunrise lake, Cooney lake, entire valleys and mountain ranges to the south and west, plus views east to the Kettle River range. An incoming front of rain, cold and howling winds made me descend to Cooney lake at about 5 pm. All night the winds blew furiously, but the rain turned out to be just the few precursor sprinkles I encountered on Switchback. Thursday I packed up in the freezing wind, ready to bail, but on the walk down to the Martin lakes trail the weather turned again, this time to sunny, cold, less wind and no rain, so I headed up to Martin lakes and continued the trip. Martin lake is nice, but Upper Martin lake is awesome. The cliffs surrounding this cirque are jagged and partially covered in larches just showing the first signs of turning color. Since the hike from Cooney to Martin is short and easy, I used the rest of the day to explore up valley, finding two more tiny lakes nestled in the ledges above the main lakes. Friday morning I just hung out at Upper Martin, listening to the music provided by birds and other critters. Some I have never heard before, like the ""sonar ping"" bird. I named them that because their call sounds just like a sonar ""ping"" from any submarine movie I've ever seen. I also enjoyed the small squirrels whose calls reminded me of Flipper. But then the rascals started dropping huge and heavy pinecones on me, so I left them to their fun. The hike out took five hours, one resting, four actually hiking, at a normal hiker's pace. If you have considered this hike but not done it due to motorcycles being allowed on most of the loop, I say go and do it. I saw and heard exactly two bikes after Labor day, in four days. There were only three other people seen, all llama packers. The trails are in fabulous shape for hikers, but rough by motorcycle standards, keeping bike speeds down to maybe 10 mph tops on the good sections. A mountain biker could do Cooney or Upper Eagle as a day ride, since the trip out would be super fast and easy. I encountered no bugs of any kind. The only problem was that water is scarce, mainly just at the lakes, except along the Summit trail, where several streams are crossed.