Oval Lakes, Gray Peak, Chelan Summit, Eagle Creek & Eagle Pass — Friday, Jul. 24, 2020

Summary: Epic overnight trip! The bugs were awful on several parts, especially along Eagle Creek and I found a head net useful. Substantial overgrowth on sections of Oval Lakes trail and Eagle Creek trail where long pants were useful. You are very exposed after leaving Oval Lakes before getting to Eagle Creek so sun protection was a must for me.

Did an overnight as described in Backpacking Washington by Craig Romano published by Mountaineers Books. This was an epic trip and very do-able in two days. We did the loop counter-clockwise, taking 4 hours to West Oval Lake, and 10 hours back to the car via Eagle Creek including the summit of Gray Peak. The first four miles of the Oval Creek Trail #410A traverse a burned zone and have substantial overgrowth where long pants are nice. As the forest transitions to green the bugs come to visit and they rarely relent the entire way. There are blooming flowers before West Oval, but just wait until you get to the Summit Trail! West Oval had three other parties staying the night, and we were the last to arrive around 6pm. There were a few other sites open and there is a toilet available. At night, the bugs were not terrible at West Oval but it was a bit colder than I was expecting.

I woke around sunrise and watched the nearby peaks light up for an hour before the sun finally came into view. Shortly after the sun came up, so did the mosquitos. They were pretty bad at West Oval starting around 7:30am and I found my headset useful here. We set out to summit Gray Peak before continuing on the loop. The trail to the summit, Oval Lakes 410B, was not entirely obvious in a few places but don't give up, it continues marching upwards to Oval Pass on your right. We missed the fork to the pass and continued along the Oval Lakes trail towards Middle Oval on the left before realizing the mistake. Deciding not to turn backwards towards Oval Pass, we followed a steep climbers trail to the summit of Gray Peak where we found someone had left a tupperware container with a note. It looked more like trash than a climbers log. We enjoyed the views of the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness peaks, Glacier Peak, and Oval Peak for a bit before walking the ridge back to oval pass. From the summit, the Chelan Summit Trail is visible for a few miles.

We descended Oval Pass into the gorgeous meadows surrounding Tuckaway Lake. The bugs were not too bad here as long as you kept moving although I got a few occasional bites. Reaching the basin below Tuckaway, the way to the Summit Trail was not obvious to us, we used GPS here to find the trail.

Continuing along the Summit Trail views and wildflowers abound. There is terrific color diversity on both sides of the trail. Cresting a ridge, Glacier Peak comes back into view as well as Lake Chelan in the distance. Eagle pass and the trail we are taking up to Eagle Pass was visible across the valley. From this point it was another 50 minutes before we got to Eagle Pass. This section required some effort as you descend 850ft to get to Fish Creek Basin only to regain 750ft of that to reach Eagle Pass. The flowers continue to impress throughout the journey to Eagle Pass and even beyond down Eagle Creek.

At Eagle Pass, Oval Peak comes into view before you descend down the Eagle Creek Trail. From here it was a gentle downhill ride, but the bugs were relentless. Stopping for lunch or a break would have been unbearable so we pushed on. The trail leads to a crossing of Eagle Creek which was deep and flowing but not difficult to avoid getting wet walking across a small log. At this point, there is a connector trail that goes around Duckbill Mountain back to the Oval Lakes trail. This is not the junction point shown in many maps, including description of this trip in Backpacking Washington by Craig Romano. It adds a few extra miles to the total loop distance. We were not able to find the official path down Eagle Creek to the junction shown. this section is through burned forest and continues as such to back to the parking lot.