Reach Leland Lake by first hiking to Slab Camp on Icicle Creek. I hiked to Slab Camp on July 16, 2005 with my son and a friend. The next day we tried to hike from Slab Camp up to Square Lake, covered in a separate report. For Lake Leland, from Slab Camp ford the Icicle, and then after a short distance ford Leland Creek. At the time we made the trip the Icicle crossing was about mid-thigh deep, Leland Creek was well below the knees. Both were very easy to cross.
About a mile and a half from Slab Camp there is a nice camp along Leland Creek, where the trail to Square Lake joins the Lake Leland trail. The trail junction was marked with temporary orange cardboard signs, and Leland Creek was marked ""closed to stock"". The trail was in poor condition. Walking this trail is like doing trail archaeology. We found many old causeways with the tops gone, and a couple destroyed bridges with the bridge stringers heaped alongside the creek bank. It looked like the causeways and bridges failed many years ago. Numerous mud bogs, and the brush is starting to take over the trail. The trail ends at an old horse camp near the exit creek. It looks like the only way to get water from the campsite is to crawl out on the log jam at the exit creek.
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