The road up to the trail head wasn't too bad. Potholes? Yes. High clearance? That's subjective to your driving skills and what your tolerance level is. Would I recommend 4x4/high clearance? Leaning more towards yes than no. But not mandatory.  

The trail starts to the right of the outhouse- "locked until further notice". The first part of the trail is crushed rock, very clear and good tread. Once I reached the "board walk/planking" sections, that's where things got a little interesting. As other trip reports have reported, there are an abundance of planks that are loose, broken and or sag while walking on them. There are large nails exposed and once I reached Upper Ashland Lake, the planks continuing on were scattered about drifting away from each other in the high waters of Ashland. I didn't think to bush whack around the damaged trail because I'm one of those who stays on the trail and I didn't want to encourage others to follow my social trail further damaging the area. I'm sure it will be some time before the Forest Service and or volunteers are able to get up to this trail for the much needed repairs that it needs. 

On my way back down, I passed four parties heading up, two with dogs and one with fishing poles. I briefed everyone I passed on the conditions of the trail up ahead. Once back at the trailhead, I cleaned up all the garbage around the outhouse to include four dog poop bags and several plastic water bottles and some wrappers. It took me about 50 minutes to reach Upper Ashland and about an hour to get back to the trailhead. 

Not much to add from the last report, there is a ton of water and mud on the trail. I wore knee length xtra-tuf deck boots and so was able to make it all the way to lower Ashland lake but the standing water almost came up over the top of them. Note that when hiking in such boots, what you gain in traction and water protection, you lose in ankle support, so it's important to watch your step.

The portion of boardwalk photographed in the last report is completely impassable straight through, but can be bushwhacked around. From there though, the rest of the boardwalk is submerged. Hiking on it was dangerous, I was accompanied by a partner of similar experience//risk tolerance and neither of us would have felt safe alone. Many of the planks are broken and it's not obvious until they are weighted; several of them have also come loose and are just floating in the water/are not stable to step on. Trekking poles help for balance. There is a trail that goes through the campsites that parallels the boardwalk, I tried that way on the return and while it does avoid a lot, it still takes you back to where some of the sketchy spots remain.

At the end of upper Ashland lake, there is again a large amount of standing water that makes it look like the trail to lower Ashland is flooded, but once you get past this short section, the trail is completely dry the remaining half mile. Lower Ashland is worth the extra effort, but if you only have hiking boots, stick to Beaver Plant and Upper Ashland lakes. A little under three hours roundtrip and one other pair of hikers on a stormy Monday. 

Road up to trailhead is narrow and full of large potholes which were doable in a truck. Lots of little waterfalls alongside the road. Toilet at the trailhead closed. Trail was a bit muddy with a few downed trees but the real problem was multiple sections of the boardwalk being submerged. A few sections we were able to walk through 4 inches of water or so in waterproof boots but at least one section on the north side of upper Ashland lake was completely gone. We did not see the trail that loops around the south side of upper Ashland lake so we came back on the north side. Would be beautiful to come back during the summer!

I took an unplanned visit to the Ashland Lakes trail and the first mile of the Bald Mountain trail early this morning.  Forest road 4020 from the mountain loop highway is in relatively good shape.   There are a number of potholes but drivable at lower speeds.   The problem is that once you turn onto Forest road 4021 to Ashland Lakes trailhead, the road is in very poor shape.  A truck or “real” SUV recommended.   There are numerous large potholes, deep ruts, and very rough rocky stretches.   It was raining for the last 24 hours so all the holes were awash with mud.   Turn onto 4021 is not labeled so plan ahead for directions.

The first 1/2 mile of trail is in good shape.  The trail follows an old logging road.  The trail then switches to a narrower forest service hiker trail.   It was VERY muddy and wet today.   In fact this trail is always fairly wet.   It is also one of the most slippery trails in the area.   There are a large number of wooden puncheons to keep you out of the water but these are very slippery when wet.   Worse, there was some snow on the tread boards on the Bare Mountain trail.  Be careful on the older puncheons with red cedar decking.   Many of these deck boards are partially broken and poorly secured to the stringer logs.  

Our hiking party met another group coming down the trail about 0.5 miles up the Bare Mountain trail so we came back down together.   

There were 6-8 trees down across the trail   Most were easy to get around.  I have coordinates and sizes if you want details   Just reply through the comment feature.  

Warning:  There was heavy snow up on the Bare Mountain Ridge trail and heavy rain.   A couple hikers were not prepared for the weather and had a Very Bad Day.   It is still early season for the high country so plan accordingly and bring all of the 10 essentials.   

We arrived at the trailhead just before 11am on a sunny Wednesday. The gravel/dirt road from the mountain loop highway to the trailhead is long and has many big potholes. We were able to navigate it fine with our Subaru Forester and saw two other SUV-like cars at the trailhead (one when we got there and another when we left), but definitely take a car you don't mind getting a bit roughed up and plan to go slow. Would also recommend having a physical or offline map and knowing the route beforehand, there are a couple of turns which aren't labeled for Ashland lakes. The toilet at the trailhead is closed.

A good chunk of the start of the trail is mostly flat, clearly an old logging road, and all along the trail we heard and then saw downy woodpeckers! As the trail goes on there are some minor switchbacks and a couple logs to climb over here and there. We went to Upper Ashland first, which was pretty but also very very buggy and the plank walkway is a couple of inches under water in a few parts. Our dog loved jumping in and out of the water though!

We turned around not long after the campsite and headed to Beaver Plant Lake which was a very easy and beautiful walk, still buggy but slightly better.

All in all a very pleasant hike, we took just about 2.5 hours out and back.