We decided to get up to Ashland today. Road gets worse every year - recommend high clearance vehicles only at this point. Arrived at 9:30am as the 5th car. The other 4 must have belonged to the WTA work crew that we came across on the way up. So grateful to those folks for their continued efforts in cleaning up the trails. Bugs were pretty bad the entire hike, but no other issues on the trail. Had lunch at the upper lake and then ventured on to the lower lake. Passed roughly 7 groups on our way back, which seemed like a lot for this trail. Made it back to the trailhead by 1pm and enjoyed the slow (35 minute) 4 mile drive back to the main roads. GPS logged 5.9 miles and 837’ of gain. 

Went for a quick overnight, stayed at Beaver Plant lake. Bugs were certainly out in force, but the lake is quite pretty. Also got to listen to what sounded like several hundred frogs croaking at night. 

Beware however, the road is terrible. We made it up in a forester, and bottomed out at least once. I'm generally comfortable on bad roads and this was probably as far as I would like to push or Subie. Do not attempt in anything lower and only attempt in a forester or similar if your confident in your abilities. 

Just back from a 5-day BCRT working on the Ashland Lakes trail between the TH and Beaver Plant Lake.

A crew of 5 of us worked on two big projects and even got a couple supplemental projects done to complement the two main priorities.

The projects were pretty close to each other -- about a mile or so in from the trailhead. The first that hikers will encounter is a realigned boardwalk crossing a boggy section of trail, keeping hikers out of the muck and the plants under the boardwalk happy.

The second project, maybe 0.3 miles further up the trail, is a long rock wall that helps manage mud from a seeping hillside.

In addition to these two sections, we realigned a small section of boardwalk above the larger project so that no longer sliding off the hillside (eep!), brushed out the trail corridor, cleared some drainages on the last push up to Beaver Plant Lake, and built some drainages between our first project site and the lake.

This is such a nice trail. It's pretty rugged -- plenty of roots and rocks to negotiate but if you're comfortable with that, it's great for first time backpacking since most of the elevation gain is at the beginning when you're fresh. Plus, the facilities are surprisingly nice! There are port-a-potties and designated campsites with firepits at each lake. The toilet at the trailhead is locked though.

We saw a surprisingly large number of hikers for how bad the road is. Each day we saw at least two parties, and on Saturday (which was sunny) we saw probably 25 people!

It would be great to have that road fixed. It accesses not only Ashland Lakes, but also Bear/Pinnacle Lakes and Boardman Lakes, a bunch of really nice hikes on the south side of the Mountain Loop Highway that could relieve pressure off places like Lake 22 or Heather Lake. And now that we've done some work on it, it's ready to have a few more visitors!

Took advantage of the nice weekend and headed to Ashland Lakes. We chose this specifically to avoid the crowds on the Mountain Loop Highway.  But nothing is free, limited crowds because the road is terrible. As noted in other reports you need high clearance to navigate the car sized potholes over 5 miles. Slow drive but bonus entertainment for the 6 year old as we bounced around.

Overall a good solid hike. First half on the way to the first lake is easy on what looks like an old logging road. Second half is slightly up hill and a little rocky and full of roots.  So was a little slow going with short legs. Getting up to the lakes you will find lots of boardwalks to navigate the wet sections. Careful they can be slick as the little guy found out and took a tumble.

Didn’t stay too long at the lakes as the bugs (flys) were out in full force but not many mosquitoes yet.

Phone won’t let me post pictures. We made it ok, the road is doable in a suv or higher clearance vehicle,
my truck made it just fine. Got to the parking lot by 745, to one rig. The out house is still closed.

The trail is easy to find. A few blow downs on the trail, but easy to get over. Be careful, the boardwalk and roots were slippery, fell off the trail. All good !!

We made it to the lower lake. 1 camper i. the camp sites, a few vacant spots. We didn’t attempt to get to the lower camp sites, due to the water level being high.

Only saw 4 others hikers. The lakes is super cool looking in the Fog. The dog did just fine. We got pretty wet, but worth it. Can’t wait to go back on a nice day.