Following up on Hannah's prior report, another WTA BCRT finished up work on the Prince Cr trail earlier this week. The trail was cleared of downed logs from Lake Chelan to the junction with the North Fork Prince Cr trail (#1254). We also re-established the tread and cut back brush to the bridge at 2700' with additional tread work and brushing done to the N Fork junction. The N Fork trail is clear of logs until at least 4500' where we turned around, though there's plenty of brush. The bridges at 2700' across Prince and at 4150' across the Middle Fork Prince Cr were both in good condition. One of our crew made it to Cub Lake without significant trail difficulties or snow.
During our five days, we saw at least one small rattlesnake, several ticks, and, on our way out, four piles of bear poop. I also noticed deer and coyote tracks. Morels could be found in selective areas.
There was plentiful water -- at roughly 2110', 2850', 3450', 3680', 3750', and 3850'.
There were camps at the Prince Cr bridge crossing (1-2 tents) and roughly 4000' (2 tents) plus our big one at 3100'. (We fit 10 tents) The views were nice from our camp, but none of us enjoyed all the soot and dust. I'm not sure I've ever been so dirty. If you do want to camp there and are ok with the creek noise, you might check out the sites near the creek which at least had some live trees.
For an area that was burned last year, the trail was still quite pleasant in most places. Some areas looked like war zones, completely denuded. But in most areas, grasses and flowers have returned. There were some green trees. Views of the lake and surrounding mountains were wonderful -- far better than those you get going up the Fish Cr trail. If you want to avoid the crowds on the Lakeshore trail, I'd recommend heading up Prince for a half-day trip or quick overnight.
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