Klonaqua Lakes, Paddy-Go-Easy Pass & French Creek — Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004

I checked out the Paddy-Go-Easy Pass trail as a back-door access to French Creek and Klonaqua Lakes. This worked, but on a very hot day, you will probably not want the same near-death experience I had going all the way to Klonaqua. That's a total elevation gain of about 4100 feet and elevation loss of 2100 feet. Consider an early start to avoid overheating during the heaviest part of the climb, staying the night in the French Creek valley, feeding black flies to the trout, or just feeding the black flies. Trail conditions were mostly good the entire way, with no large downed wood across the trail anywhere. Some narrow and eroded sections along French Creek are enough to keep the heavy footed beasts out, but not a problem for hikers. The lake setting is great, even though the lower lake is ""damaged goods."" Be sure to search out the faint foot trail to the upper lake, along the rib on the east side of the lower lake. Watch closely where you are going so you can find the way back again. The down side is that the French Creek and Klonaqua trails need some minor TLC to improve on brushy conditions.