Larch Lake — Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023

Wanted to try to do Larch Lake as a day hike from the Chiwaukum Creek trailhead. Was surprised that the road to the trailhead is locked about 1 mile from the trailhead blocking access to the road that passes private land. I'm not certain that the WTA description of a 24 mile roundtrip hike accounts for this extra walk. The first 6 miles to the North Fork Chiwaukum Creek trail junction are in good shape and and a nice walk through a forest fire burn with lots of golds and browns from the recovering forest. The next ~1mile after the junction have some gnarly blow downs that require some serious work to navigate and make route finding challenging. The trail gets better for a couple of miles before reaching a crossing at Glacier creek. There are a number of log options for getting across with dry feet. I accidentally got onto the Glacier Creek trail after the creek crossing for about 3/4 mile before realizing my mistake but got to see a nice little falls on the creek (pictured). Backtracked to connect with the trail up to Chiwaukum Lake and endured a ~1500 foot slog of a climb along a VERY brushy trail. This is seriously unpleasant and I probably wouldn't try this route again and opt to go for a backpack from the Lake Ethel side. Finally arrived at Chiwaukum Lake and realized I was running out of time and had to turn back. This trail is in serious need of maintenance after the North fork junction so I couldn't recommend it. This maintenance would be heavy work because there is a section with a mess of complicated forest fire blowdown that wouldn't be easy to clear. Still managed to enjoy the day with lots of mushrooms of many varieties with nice fall color. Gaia clocked 19.9 miles/9hrs 21min 3842'