There were 10-15 downed logs and waist high brush for the first 5 miles, then patchy snow from 5400' all the way up to West Oval Lake.  Trail is easy to follow despite these obstacles.  Solid snow in the basin below Gray Peak, difficult to access the ridge without crampons/ice axe.  The ridge crests were snow free.

The Eagle/Oval Loop was an incredible 3-day Larch Madness hike, just past peak but still stunning. The road was in fine shape for a sedan going slow-ish when it turned to dirt for the last few miles. I hiked the loop counter-clockwise. I camped at Silver Lake the first night, which made for a shorter first day after the long drive to the trailhead. Silver Lake, despite being mundane as alpine lakes go, did have several nice campsites. The trail there is very well graded, but was made infinitely more difficult by dodging hundreds of land mines left by a team of twelve horses who dropped off a pair of hunters earlier in the day over Eagle Pass (I met them as they were headed back to the trailhead). The first day to Silver Lake was rather boring, to be honest, with no views and just trudging uphill; the same was true going downhill on day three descending from camp at West Oval Lake. However, the middle day was absolutely stunning. The larches start coming into view about a mile shy of Eagle Pass, and from there all the way around to West Oval Lake the views and the larches were indescribably beautiful. Tuckaway Lake in particular was mesmerizing. There were some patches of snow on the trail, in particular when climbing on the Chelan Summit Trail just before the unnamed pass looking down into Fish Creek Basin, and again climbing Oval Pass from the south, but the worst was on the Oval Lakes Trail just below Oval Pass until the saddle heading into Middle and East Oval Lakes (there was fresh snow the day I did it, and that night it got more along with an overnight low of about 25*). I didn't need any traction, but the stretch leading to the saddle between Oval Pass and Middle and East Oval Lakes will likely need traction after mid-week, if not now. Middle and East Oval Lakes were beautiful, as were the high meadows in the descent to the lakes. Middle Oval definitely has better campsites. West Oval (where I stayed) had many great camps, too, but as previously noted, the birds are quite friendly and have become accustomed to food. The hike out down Oval Creek was long and monotonous, made worse by overgrown brush spreading into the trail and getting my pants and shoes absolutely drenched with rain from the night before (snow at higher elevations; it was 30* at sunrise at West Oval). After navigating around the horse poop again in the final two miles it was back to the car and a stellar drive home over the North Cascades Highway.

Overnight larch march Oval Lake Loop from Eagle/Oval Creek TH to West Oval lake and back out. Day 1 was 13.61mi and 5,492ft gain via Eagle Creek/Eagle Pass, around Summit Wilderness Trail to Oval Pass and down to West Oval Lake. Day 2 was hike out from West Oval Lake to the TH which was only 8mi and 105ft gain.

TL;DR:
Trail in is good condition. The first/last 6 miles of Eagle and Oval Creek trails are in an old burn area slightly brushy and overgrown, but nothing bad and trail is easy to follow. The real highlight is from Eagle Pass to Oval pass via the Chelan Summit Trail. Larches were out, and the views are stunning on this back end of the loop. I went on Thursday and saw no one all day until camp which I shared with only 2 other parties. 

Road Conditions: Paved quite a long ways until you hit the gravel which is in great condition. Once you hit the sno-park though the tread gets a little more interesting and complicated. There's some more sandy and deep grooved track with bumps, and then when you turn back onto the gravel there are downed trees that force you to hug one side into the bushes, so expect some shrub branches to brush the side of your car to get around them. Aside from this, if you're confident enough driving, I think the clearance would be fine I could see the sno-park area getting mushy if there was fresh rain, and possibly needing AWD or 4WD, but if dry it was no problem. There is also a pit toilet at this TH. Arrived around 10am on Thursday with only 2 other cars there, but full when I returned Friday around 1pm. 

Trail Conditions: 
Eagle Creek
First 8 miles are up. You'll be averaging about 500 per mile with the last 0.5mi up to the pass getting steeper. The first 6 miles are in the woods with the beginning 2-3 miles in an old burn area and a little more exposed and brushy. All of this area had great fall colors though. You'll hit the larches around mile 6 and they get are INCREDIBLE at the pass. Just a dense golden yellow. The trail itself is great and super easy to follow and tread is good. It's a little loose(ish) as you approach the pass, but had no issues. The view from the pass is stunning with the fall colors and larches with mountain views. 

Wilderness Summit Trail:
This trail was the highlight of the trip for me. From Eagle Pass to Oval Pass was amazing views. You can see all the surrounding mountains and the cascade range in the distance with fall colors and larches everywhere. The trail itself is in great shape and very easy to follow. There were some really lovely camp spots along this trail that would be ideal for anyone looking to extend their backpacking trip to more days. 

Oval Creek:
Very similar to Eagle Creek trail in that the tread is a little loose near the pass, but nothing too bad, and the grade is steepest on each side of the pass, but the grade is more gentle as you go down. It's more rocky and rooty and technical trail on the east side of the pass. The basin from the trail junction up to the pass is gorgeous and really nice grade. Like eagle creek, it's mostly forest trail and is more fall colors in the exposed old burn area the last (first) few miles of trail.

Animals/Bugs: No bugs, a few yellow jackets still buzzing around but nothing problematic. No animal sightings aside from chipmunks and squirrels. Also the birds at West Oval Lake camp area are not "aggressive" per se, but they will get VERY close to you. They clearly are used to humans and understand that we have food, so just be cautious and aware of that. 

Water sources: Plenty of water sources all along the trail. No issues with collecting or dry spells. 

Other: I was lucky to have this trail to myself more or less, but passed about 10 people hiking out Friday afternoon, so if you can go on an off day or time you'll be rewarded with solitude, but given the perfect fall weather window and the larches it's a popular trail. Only other note, there is a pit toilet at the trail junction camp as well as west oval. 

Happy Trails!

Were a few blowdowns on the road in but easy to navigate around. Did the loop counterclockwise starting Friday, which seems to be opposite to most people, because we wanted to camp at Oval Lakes on Saturday (ended up doing West not middle Oval as described below). As I believe another blogger mentioned, the split between Eagle Creek trail and Oval Lakes isn’t correct on the Hiking Project app trail, and is about 2 miles in, a bit after the creek crossing. There is no sign but it was easy to spot. Had a few more water crossings on Eagle Creek trail that we were able to navigate rock hopping. We were able to find a flat spot in the forest on the right at 3.66 miles in from the trailhead to camp for the night, no water but given we got a later start than we wanted we didn’t want to have to hike in the dark to Silver Lake, our original destination plan.  We decided to get a few miles into the trail even though only got there a few hours before dark, with new batteries in the headlamps and extra batteries each, although did consider car camping at War Creek Campground nearby, and we were glad we lucked out with a flat spot not far off the trail.  The first 3ish miles on Eagle Creek are past burned area and trail was overgrown along the sides. Would be hot in summer but felt good with the temps in the 50s.  Saw a few good campsites at Silver Lake, which was about 40 minutes past our impromptu campsite. Larches started around 6500 feet and were beautiful coming up to Eagle Pass, along Summit trail to the connector and back to Oval pass and down past West Oval Lakes.  I imagine they will keep turning at lower elevations for this upcoming weekend. Eagle pass had a little dusting of snow on it, but wasn’t bad. Tuckaway lake was 1/3 frozen and looked like you would have to punch through the thin layer of ice to get water to filter. There was a cool looking campsite on the point, and walked through a campsite that was completely snowed in although could have probably been cleared pretty easily.  Oval pass had a lot more snow than Eagle Pass and we were wishing we had microspikes as were a few slippery spots. Despite reading about lows in the 20s I didn’t even consider there would be snow in September.  Luckily did fine as a fall there wouldn’t have been great, but will be better prepared next time. Found a black water bottle with stickers including the Texas flag, a tiger and a Got Fish sticker, going up Oval Pass that I left at the trailhead hoping the owner would complete the loop after we did and find it.  We had been hoping to check out Middle and East Oval lake but the traverse over the snowy slope to get there did not look safe without an ice ax, which we did not have, so continued on to West Oval lake.  Saw 4 other groups there and it was beautiful with the larches reflecting off the lake. Was snow scattered on the ground but found a campsite without any snow. With lows in the 20s, our tent and part of our bags poking out from under the rain fly had frost crusting them, and I was glad we packed lots of layers and for the Nalgene bottles with warm water we had brought to bed with us. Saw some (deer?) prints in the snow in the morning that were not there the night before.  Was glad we had brought plenty of fuel as water takes longer to boil when it is cold (I know, duh, but I haven’t done much cold weather camping before so I hadn’t considered this when planning what to bring on our trip and will often use half filled cans for a weekend trip like this to save weight).  Hiked out Oval Creek trail back to the trailhead on Sunday which had frozen ground and intermittent frost on the trail, leading to a few slippery steps, to about 5000 feet. Of note, the Backpacking Washington by Craig Romano had mentioned a camp spot at 6 miles in on the way to Oval Lakes; I didn’t notice that area, and wonder if it’s gone since the fire causing the burned area.  Was glad we did the loop counterclockwise (with original plan being Silver Lake was closer than West Oval Lake to the trailhead) as West Oval Lakes looks like your first option to camp going clockwise. (We did hear from some campers at West Oval Lake that on Friday they heard campers come in at 1am, you would miss so much beauty of this hike to do that, not to mention the campers telling us we’re not happy at being woken up by the sound of other people setting up camp).  The last 6 miles out on Oval Creek/Eagle Creek trail were overgrown in a burned area, again felt good with the cool temps in the 50s but would have been very hot with no shade in warmer weather. Saw less than a dozen people all weekend which was great, especially when contrasted to Blue Lake that we went and did as a day hike afterwards. Loved all the larches, fall colors in the growth in the burn area, and the solitude when doing it. Definitely a favorite hike of the year!

Did the loop from Oval Creek, up Oval Pass, down (and then up!) Eagle Pass, and then rejoining the Oval Creek trailhead. The road to the TH is in fine condition, with a few blowdown trees easily navigated around.

Larches are solid gold for the higher altitude reaches of the hike, but some of the trees in the lower meadows of the hike (e.g below 7k ft) are still in the process of turning.

Temperature was a bit below freezing at night - as witnessed by the slushy nature of the water bottle I left outside my tent overnight- and with the wind/blowing snow, the conditions at Oval Pass were winter-like. Descending from Oval Pass was a bit slow, as a fall would have been both easy and unpleasant.... all that fresh snow compounded with the steep talus of the trail made for unstable footing, but once I hit the treeline it was relatively smooth sailing.

I camped out at the junction with the Summit Trail: the outdoor toilet boasts excellent views, but most of the campsites were a bit soggy.

One thing to note: the first few miles of the trail are a bit overgrown, and considering it was sleeting/raining at that altitude, the amount of water from the brush that made it onto my pants/boots was enormous. I wore my waterproof pants on the way back, to avoid having to wring out my socks every 30 minutes.

Obviously, there was no one else masochistic to camp out on a Wednesday in these conditions: I didn't see anyone else until I was just about at the trailhead on my way back.