Caroline Peak, Kaleetan Lake, Lower Tuscohatchie Lake & Melakwa Lake — Thursday, Sep. 11, 2025

Out-and-back to Caroline Peak via Denny Creek trailhead, technically a "trail run" but mostly a power hike in practice. I've circumnavigated Granite a number of times and the bonus 7-mile round trip over to Kaleetan Lake has always tempted me, but an out-and-back to a lake isn't enough excitement to burn a full day of PTO. So when I saw Uli's report from last year I decided to go for Caroline. 

The Kaleetan Lake trail is fantastic -- there are a few blowdowns to navigate, mostly prior to the Pratt crossing. I didn't realize that the loggers never made it this far up the Pratt. It's entirely old growth along this trail, the best that I have seen in the I-90 corridor. The Pratt crossing was easy with the low water levels of September and the switchbacks were in good shape as well. 

Getting from Kaleetan Lake to the boulder field on Caroline was the challenge of the day. Due to thick cloud cover I could not see where to go and was entirely reliant on GPS. There is a little pond just above Kaleetan Lake that you are generally aiming for. On the way up I went to the right side of the pond which was a bad idea because I had to cross the drainage twice both below and above the pond, and above the pond there are dense alders with salmonberry that was nearly impossible to get through. It was so bad that I almost gave up, but somehow I caught a glimpse of the boulder field through the clouds and saw that it wasn't far away, so I persevered. 

Once you hit the boulder field it's a straightforward scramble all the way to the top. The rocks are pretty big and don’t move much. On this particular day the marine layer had a sharp upper boundary at 5200 ft and it was all clear above that. The register at the summit shows a handful of entries per year. One party was planning to traverse to Preacher, which sounded pretty wild. At the current pace the logbook will be full by the end of 2026. 

In retrospect, what I should have done at the summit was go down the opposite side toward Upper Wildcat Lake and eventually out through Snow Lake and down the road back to Denny Creek. From both a timing and effort perspective that would have been easier than just turning around. But I was afraid of doing a class 3 downhill scramble while solo in the middle of nowhere, so I went back the way I came and then regretted it for many hours. 

At least on the way down Caroline I knew what to avoid. I went farther to the right (looking down) of my uphill track and I aimed for some vine maples on the right (west) side of the little pond above Kaleetan. This was marginally better than the way up but still pretty rough. Right when I thought I had escaped, I broke through a hole in the swampy bit and was nearly up to my knee in muddy water. 

The way out was slow on tired legs. I don't care to reflect on it. My curiosity to climb Caroline from the Kaleetan side has been satisfied.

Stats:

- 23.9 mi
- 8,500 ft ascent
- 9 hr 40 min

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.strava.com/activities/15781267829