This is the Eagle Creek near Eagle Rock, Townsend Mountain, and Eagle Lake, the region bordered on the west by Baring and Merchant peaks. I skied up the Forest Service Road, able to drive to 1 mile past switchbacks, at 2400 feet. Once in the Eagle Creek valley, the snow became deep. I made it 4.5 miles in to just below a ridgetop at 3800 feet, because I was tired as could be. I did see Baring Peak and Merchant Peak, with dark clouds behind them. Despite a forecast for storm today, I was in the sun for long periods. The views were pretty broad and open in this valley. With more time or better snow, it would be great to continue to Eagle Lake. Now that I'm home looking at a map, I see I would have gone through a ""Paradise Meadow"" to get there. That knowledge might have been enough inspiration to keep me going! The trip down had some gliding, but the angle just wasn't steep enough to feel like I was really skiing. Hurry and use the tracks before they are gone! 3 hours up, 1.5 hours down.

Our Mountaineer group took the unmaintained Scaffold Ridge trail to a camp at an unnamed lake about seven miles in from the trailhead. Surprisingly, the road to this trail is in excellent shape considering that this is the only trail around and has been unmaintained for years. The Scaffold Ridge trail is more scenic than the other trails leading into the area and has virtually no dust (more about this later!). The trail becomes faint in places, but has blazes on almost every tree so it's almost impossible to lose the trail. There are only a few downed logs that are easy to get over. This trail is mostly in open forest with some great views and after the first couple of miles is largely covered in larch. This would be a great fall trip! I highly recommend using this trail and keeping it open. We saw no one in the two days that we travelled it. After spending the night at the very attractive larch surrounded lake, we set off to scramble Oval Peak. The route is very straight forward. Just set off for the obvious saddle between Oval Peak and Buttermilk Ridge and scramble up the south ridge. It is an easy and fun scramble up and over about a zillion granite blocks with great views at the top. Very few names on the register and none were familiar to me, which is becoming a rarity for me! The trip down was not nearly as fun as the trip up and all of us compared scratches, bumps and bruises. We then returned to camp and packed up for the trip to Star Lake. Stayed one night, but decided to move camp to Tuckaway. Had intended to scramble Courtney, but reconsidered due to having enough boulder scrambling for one trip as well as our sore quads! After setting up camp at Tuckaway (absolutely gorgeous!)we took a walk to Oval Pass and on up Gray Peak. Even better views than Oval in my opinion. Next day took a walk over to Eagle Pass with the intention of scrambling Battle Mountain, but due to the time and overwhelming desire to go for a swim in Tuckaway while there was still sunlight on the lake we only went part way up. Views were great anyhow. Next day, packed up and out via Oval Lake trail with a side trip to West Oval Lake. This trail was the most dusty trail I can ever remember being on. It was intolerable to hike anywhere near someone else and the occasions that we were passed by horses were awful! In places the dust must have been 8 inches thick! Yuk! The best parts of the trip: Sunset from the ridge above Tuckaway, watching the fish swim in Tuckaway after a nice swim ourselves, the scramble of Oval, a great group of people, and the amazing fact that this is the first hike I've done in a couple of months with virtually no bugs! We did go through some burn areas, which was a bit depressing, but most of the high country of the Sawtooths appears to be intact. Overall, a great trip with good friends.

We went to the ""dry"" side of the Cascades for the four day weekend for a camping trip to Oval Lakes. The drive to the trailhead was 220 miles from Seattle via the HWY 20 route. The entire trail is in great condition. The crossing of Eagle Creek shortly after you get on trail 410A (Oval Creek) is a little tricky. After that it is a beautiful forest walk. Snow patches start at about 6,500' but do not present navigation problems. There are lots of great camp spots at West Oval Lake, with great views of the lake and cliffs behind it. Sunday we went to the other Oval Lakes, which required descending a bit to the trail junction, then switchbacking up to 7,500'. There are big, steep snowfields over the trial on the north side of Gray Peak but they were easy to cross and most had safe a runout. Frequent snow patches continued to Middle and East Oval Lake. We saw plenty of fish in every lake. The easy 500' hike up Gray Peak from the pass on the way to Middle and East Oval Lakes is worth the effort -- it offers spectacular views across Lake Chelan to the mountains of the North Cascades and Glacer Peak areas! On Monday morning we woke up to SNOW... 3"" of it and more falling quickly. It turned into rain at approx. 5,500'. We sang Christmas Carols on the way out. The Sawtooths are a very beautiful area. Very scenic. We saw two other parties at the lake. On the way back, the grub at the Winthrop Brewery was stupendous.

This trip report covers a 3-day backpack trip in the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness, entering on Oval Creek Trail (410A) to W. Oval Lake, then over Oval Pass to Tuckaway Lake, Gray Peak, Chelan Summit Trail, Star Lake, Fish Creek Pass, and then exiting back to the trailhead via Eagle Pass and Eagle Creek Trail (410). I headed east hoping to get away from the awful summer weather we're having in western Washington. I found I couldn't escape gray, rainy skies and cold temperatures anywhere. It's been a terrible summer for trying to get outin the mountains, particularly on weekends when it's seemed sure to be rotten weather. As I headed east, I noticed billowing clouds over every mountain area I passed (Alpine Lakes, Teanaways, Enchantments, Entiat) and, although it was sunny at the Eagle Creek Trailhead, I soon headed up and into the grayness in the mountains. Oval Creek trail climbs steadily for 7.5 miles to the turnoff to W. Oval Lake. I camped here the first night in a swarm of hungry mosquitos. In the morning, I climbed up to Oval Pass, partly in snow, only to reach the crest just as clouds blew in to cover the whole view to the east. It's easy roaming to the top of Gray Peak (8082') which offers great views if the clouds cooperate. I then dropped to Tuckaway Lake, setting up my tent for the second night before exploring elsewhere for the afternoon. I'd covered the Chelan Summit trail two years prior, and went back to one of my favorite areas, the vast meadows of Fish Creek basin, Star Lake, and Fish Creek Pass. There were no snow or log problems on any of these trails. As I got back to Tuckaway Lake at 4:00, my luck finally ran out. The always threatening skies finally opened up and for the next ten hours I layed in the tent while it sounded like someone had a hose spraying it non-stop and full blast. Isn't this the side of the state where it doesn't rain much and where it should be 90 degrees in mid-August' In fact, it was an even 40 degrees when I got up the next morning, managing to get packed up between rain storms and head through the fog to Eagle Pass. Taking Eagle Creek trail back was a continual downhill trek. There were several contract employees out doing trail work including heavy drainage ditching, log removal, and several reroutes. It rained about half the trip back and, of course, the sun came out just as I reached the trailhead. This route makes a nice three day trip, but my legs are still a bit stiff from all uphill trip in and the all downhill trip out. Or, maybe it's from the wet, cold weather''