Kind of a ""Coleman weekend"", if you understand that ""Coleman"" is our term for when something goes wrong camping.:) The begining trailhead is well marked and it is pretty easy to get to the log jam. After that? Well, it's not. That 20-25 foot crossing the small log to get to the log jam is over a very fast moving deep river. Our more nimble packers went up and strung a line to assit in crossing. Then on the other side after we found the correct trail we headed off into heavy overgrowth that sometimes made it guesswork to know if you were still on path. A couple of mudholes to cross while being buzzed by bugs. Then we headed up the trail which was pretty steep and narrow. It made us wonder how horses could get around up here. There are two creeks to cross that provide remarkably great tasting water. We never made it to the lake as after 5 hours we gave it up for the night. We slept on the trail without tents as we had about 24 inches of flat ground, near one of the creeks and enjoyed the three separate rain storms that fell on us. We headed back down in the morning and our nimble packer carried across everyone's pack across the log jam which at this point had ""Pysched"" me out. I instead with two others went up the trail to the horse ford spot. We lashed rope around our waists and headed up river in about 2 feet of rushing water. We advanced 4/5 across the river in 2 foot deep water and attempted the last fifth by being up a ways above the horse trail. So we swam the last bit and the current pulled me just past the trail. It was good we had a rope as it was a much stronger current than expected. I shudder to think what would happen to someone whom fell off the log jam. We then finished the hike a day early, changed clothes and headed into Levenworth for a hotel with a pool. :) All in all, a bit battered and bug bit, but sitting on a lounge chair next to a very inviting heated pool soaking in the sunshine made it another of my many ""Coleman Adventure"" weekends my wife has come to know me by. She came up for the hotel. :) This was my first hike in about 8 years. I learned to not trust the word ""Moderate"" to mean what I thought it meant and elevation change is important to a middle aged man.:) I am a good sized person (6'7"" 300lbs.)of average fitness and with a full pack I am a load. What some of you found easy, was pretty hard for me. I had three teen agers with me and we decided to ""egg"" the author of ""100 hikes"" house the first chance we got.

There are plenty of bugs at the trailhead, but fortunately they were not as dense once we started moving. The trail has several interesting challenges. The first is the crossing of the Chiwawa River. There is a logjam located very near the trail, with one darn skinny log that extends far enough to get to more substantial logs. Of our party of four, only one had the guts to walk the log. The rest of us went ""a chaval"" (think horse). This is a good way to prevent any more children, if ya know what I mean... pesky branch segments and fast flowing river added to the excitement. A bit further along the trail, when it's still in the flat region, are two muddy swamps to cross. Maybe they are dry later in the year? We had to walk around one. Still further is a pretty brushy section. There are quite a few logs down -- probably 20. One pesky section quite a ways up has a jackstraw section of ~8 logs. The rest aren't too hard to navigate. Snow starts near the first lake, but isn't any impediment to travel. While in the neighborhood, we climbed up peak 6764 just N of the lake. We had tried to tackle Bandit, but the weather didn't cooperate.

D LAKE PEAK / DYSPROSIUM PEAK (6764 feet) 5 June 2004 In a pattern that has become too familiar this spring, I found myself heading east of the Cascade crest to escape impending rains. Kevin, Steve and Matt joined me for an attempt on Bandit Peak, the highest and most impressive point on Chiwawa Ridge south of the Buck Mountain massif. The weather was overcast but warm when we arrived at the Schaefer Lake trailhead—and the mosquitoes were voracious! I don’t recall ever encountering the buggers this early in the season, but they no doubt loved the fact that we chose to wear light clothing for our approach hike. We didn’t linger at the trailhead. I looked forward to hitting the trail in summery conditions but was apprehensive about crossing the Chiwawa River. After only several minutes of hiking, we reached the full-flowing river and found that a substantial log jam covered all of the width except for the first 20 feet. This gap was spanned by a 12-inch-diameter log with many protrusions. Matt went first and managed to walk across the log, albeit very tenuously. The rest of us decided to cross “au cheval” rather than risk a cold dunking. Our straddling method proved to be less risky but far more uncomfortable, especially for those of us wearing shorts. Afterwards, my inner thighs looked and felt as though I had shinnied across the river on a cheese grater! We eventually put the humid, swampy valley bottom—and the mosquitoes—behind us and enjoyed the nicely graded trail to Schaefer Lake. Numerous blowdowns await some trail crew in the first few miles. Patchy snow appeared in the last half mile or so, but the lake itself (2.3 hours from TH) was completely melted out and looked quite nice. Here, we deviated from Beckey’s recommendation (per his older book, anyway) to continue due west to the ridge crest and then traverse northward. Instead, we agreed that it seemed more sensible to head northwest and cross directly over the 6100-foot saddle leading to D Lake. The climb from Schaefer Lake to the saddle took longer than expected, due to minor problems negotiating a cliff band. We had to scramble up some grungy wet rock, which prompted the use of a quick hand-line at one point. Above the cliffs, firm snow slopes lead easily into the saddle. D Lake, several hundred feet below the saddle, was still frozen and inhospitable. To the north, Bandit Peak’s devilish summit horns could be seen among swirling high clouds, and they looked downright intimidating! Worse, though, were the cliffs and steep snow patches ringing the lake bowl. There was no immediately obvious route to the moderate-angle snow slope on Bandit’s eastern flank. At this point, it seemed that Bandit Peak and the weather conspired to rob our collective enthusiasm. We huddled up in the cold breeze and discussed our options. Given the apparent difficulties getting across the D Lake bowl, as well as the threat of serious rainfall, we decided to abandon our primary goal in favor of a short romp up Point 6764 just to the east. This turned out to be an easy Class 1-2 scramble, and we were on top about an hour later. The summit of Point 6764 is an unimpressive bouldery hump with a few scraggly trees, but the views are rewarding. We could clearly see both lakes, along with parts or all of Clark Mountain, Buck Mountain, and the Entiat crest peaks. Bandit Peak is particularly outstanding from this vantage. For future reference, we noted a very straightforward route from the outlet of D Lake to the upper slopes of Bandit. Our summit had a small cairn, but we never found a summit register. This peak is probably visited by anglers and high-lakers as often as climbers. During our 45 minute stay, the weather took numerous swings, from still and sunny to cold and windy. The sky continually cycled between dark overcast and big blue patches. However, it never rained more than a few token drops. We descended in a fairly direct line from the summit to Schaefer Lake. This went well until that pesky cliff band showed up again. With a bit of poking around, we managed to find a steep but reasonable dirt gully that led through the cliffs and onto a boulderfield extending down to the lakeshore. From there, a brief, light rain added a refreshing mood to our hike out to the trailhead. Oh, yes, we still had to cross the raspy log once more, then we could relax. I wore long pants for the return shinny and found it to be significantly less painful. Stats: 13 miles RT, 4800 feet gained, 6.0 hours up, 3.5 hours down. Nomenclature Comments: I called Point 6764 “D Lake Peak” due to its position overlooking that feature; this name seemed as sterile and obvious as anything else. John Roper subsequently suggested the clever moniker “Dysprosium Peak” in reference to the rare-earth element of that name, the tie-in being that the chemical symbol for dysprosium is Dy, while D Lake and Y Creek are the two closest named features to the peak. He also pointed out that “dysprosium” comes from the Greek word meaning “hard to get at,” which we found to be somewhat true. To John’s double-wordplay, I would add that the first three letters (D-Y-S) could also be taken as the initials for the peak’s three closest features: D Lake, Y Creek, and Schaefer Lake. Coincidentally, I had previously pondered the initials D-Y-S and come up with the name “Dyslexia Peak” after noticing that my Green Trails map shows three different spellings for the same word: “Schafer” Lake, “Shaefer” Creek, and “Schaefer” Campground.

Just a short ways in from the start of the trail is a river crossing that must be negotiated.The log jam is not too hard to cross as long as it is dry. Be careful with small children,pets,etc.The first mile or so travels through a nice old growth forest with some big cedar trees. Following this is a long traverse with a steady climb through forest and several small creek crossings.We encountered three blow down areas. The first two can be stepped over easily while the third involves three trees at about chest height.This area would be a problem for horses.At about 3.5 miles there is a substantial bridge over the outlet stream.This is a good spot to take a break before the last fairly steep stretch to the lake.Lower Schaefer lake is a pretty little meadow pond while the main lake lies in a beautiful setting below several rocky peaks.We had the entire lake and trail to ourselves on this great day.Bugs not a problem as it was breezy all afternoon.Good fishing for small eastern brook trout.

I decided to hike up to Schaefer lake yesterday. Upon my arrival to the trailhead I was greated by mosquitos, so I promptly applied the 100 percent deet and began hiking. The log jam is still in place and the trail leads to and from it without having to do any searching. The bottom portion of the trail is a bit brushy, so if there has been a heavy dew or any rain you might get wet. The rest of the trail is in great shape and not to terribly steep. The last push up is steep, but manageable. There was a pleasant breeze blowing at the lake, which helped to keep the bugs down. For you fisherman there are brook trout in the lake and some other hikers had a nice stringer of fish.As i started to go back I noticed the flies were beginning to appear, which acted as a motivator to get back to my rig.All in all it was a hike that was well worth doing.