Paul_D_K said
He had said right about where Napping Penguin (name of a geocache) is would be a good spot. So You say there's a trail of sort there already?
Right now there is the potential for a route which, if a useable route can be found, could become a trail. The area is a mix of open and brushy areas so it will take a little looking around to see if this 4 or 5 tenths of a mile of terra incognito is a reasonable route. Reports in this forum state that some areas have devils club and others the dread rhododendron. I plan on going sometime in the next week or so to do some looking.
Those lakes are probably not stocked anymore. So it wouldn't take long to fish them out.
Lost Creek Meadows has a short trail to it. The trail in from the road is re-routed slightly higher than the old. The old runs under the road and down to the meadow. My impression was that the openings were grown in with an invasive grass of some kind.
D2
Bryon Boyce said
Right now there is the potential for a route which, if a useable route can be found, could become a trail. The area is a mix of open and brushy areas so it will take a little looking around to see if this 4 or 5 tenths of a mile of terra incognito is a reasonable route. Reports in this forum state that some areas have devils club and others the dread rhododendron. I plan on going sometime in the next week or so to do some looking.
I am now even more curious about this route and will try to fit in at least a day trip this month to have a look. Have my roll of marking tape if it works out.
From this document from ODFW:
It doesn't list Surprise Lake as one that they stocked. The Surprise Lake they do mention appears to be the one over by Fish Lake.
I headed up here yesterday to try and do some exploring.
Sadly, I didn't make it very far to Surprise lake until turning around in frustration. I tried to roughly follow the bushwhack route I posted earlier on here to no avail. The area was choked thick with a nearly impenetrable thicket of devils club, rhododendron, and saplings.
However I think failing just makes me want to try even harder for next time. With 224 likely closed for a while, I'll likely come in from the Lost Creek Meadows TH again and try to climb up and over Bracket Mountain, and then follow the ridge to spur road 025. There appears to be a trail to at least Bracket.
I was surprised to see a pickup upon arrival and another parked at the TH when leaving. I ran into the second pickup group that had to squeeze off the road to park on my way back. One had a nice rifle and was looking to hunt and the other guy was basically showing him around the area. He mentioned something about helping to open the area to dirtbikes a while back and not being back since 5 years ago. I think probably a lot has already changed since then as it seems like it would be virtually impossible to get a quad up to Skookum.