Mildred Lakes Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Kevin and I headed up for our long planned trip to the Olympic mountains to hike and fish Mildred lakes. We left home an arrived at trailhead at around 9:00 pm. We began our night hike at around 9:25 with a goal o reaching huckleberry creek. The trail started out pretty steep and gradually climbing. It then began to enter the steep and less traveled face. This trail went through several blowdowns where we had to look ernestly for ribbon trail markers. Luckily, there were many orange, pink, white, and yellow ribbons. We had to climb over large logs, under blown down trees, and there were several sections where we were climbing steep inclines held by woven roots from trees. We went from 1800 feet to 3400 feet.

At this point we began to decsend to 3100 feet where we found Huckleberry Creek. We camped here next to the small creek and built a small fire. It was a warm night so I had sweat profusely and had been using abssorbant sweat pads, which only nominally helped. I used the fire to dry out my shirt since I would be wearing the same shirt for the entire trip.

The next morning at around 9:30, we began our climb up the steep face to the top of the ridge at 4100 feet. This trail encountered a small but very steep ravine where we had to descend a near vertical lattice of roots to the bottom of the ravine. The other side was also very steep and was best suited for climbing with both hands and both feet. We had heard that "near the top" of the other side of the ravine, there was a hornets nest where several people had been stung, some of them several times.

Our plan was to descend quickly and then move rapidly up the other side, while traveling closely together to avoid being stung. As we begun to ascend the far side, we began to wonder what "near the top" meant. Was it the top of the ravine or the top of that entire ridge? After a short period of time we began to see bees. Not wanting to be stung, we climbed the ridge at a lung burning pace. There were many sections of very steep root ladders with many holes in the soil amongst the roots. We surmised that this was most likely where a bee colony might live. We climbed up these ladders as quicky as we could, hoping to take a reprieve at the top of the ladder...only to be pushed further by the relentless attack from hornets and horse flies. This was not an easy task considering we both had on 60 lb packs.

Adrenaline kept pushing us up this peak from the constant fear of being stung by hornets. We did stop a couple of times just to marvel at the sight of the near vertical lattice work of roots we were climbing. After a full hour of constant fleeing up this face, we reached the top, temporarily resting to catch our breath. This was short lived as the horse flies greeted us with a vengeance.
As we continued down the other side, we found ouselves surrounded by beautiful green folliage. This was obviously the wet side of the mountain and immediately the bees and flies left. We were surrounded by large ferns and many wild mountain flowers.

We descended about 300 feet and after a brief moment of reorienting ourselves, we came upon the first and smallest of the lakes. We continued on our way until around noon, when we came upon the third and largest of Mildred lakes. The lake was gorgeous and surrounded by several jagged peaks.

This lake was so beautiful and majestic. You could see 50 feet down into it's crystal clear waters. On my first cast I caught a fiesty little rainbow trout. The fish here were not big, but they were hungry and plentiful.

I could live my entire life with a view like this and never grow tired of it.

We spent the rest of the day fishing and relaxing in our hammocks. This was some of the most beautiful scenery we had ever seen. As the soon as the sun went down and the air cooled, we could hear the constant high pitched whine of our next nemesis... Mosquitos!! These things were relentless and virtually undeterred by our 99% Deet repellant.

The next day we fished the big lake in the morning, ate lunch, relaxed, and then packed our float tubes over to the middle of the three lakes.

This would prove to be the best decision of the entire trip. This lake was much smaller and contained moonlike rock spires coming out of the water. We quickly found that this lake contained a very healthy population of larger cuttthroat trout. These fish were hungry and put up a fantastic fight. In the evening at around 6:00 pm, the bite was ON!

In a 30 minute stretch I caught over 20 fish with the largest measuring in at 17 inches. When we could fish no longer (Kevin's hand was cramping and I was getting cold) we headed back to camp and enjoyed a feast of cutthroat trout.

Compare this picture of me to the first one at the top of the post. This is what 4 days of camping will do to you. I look like the Wild Man of the Wynoochee.

That night we packed up camp and were on the trail by 11:00 pm. We quickly became disoriented in the maze of trails but eventually found our way way from the big lake. Some time after passing by the smaller lake, we again became lost and were able to get to the top of the ridge to get our position on the gps. We finally reached the top of the ridge at about 1:00 am. and were in bed by 2:00.

The next morning we awoke to the loud hum of a billion mosquitoes, flies, and bees. We had breakfast on top of a ridge with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. We were able to find some relief from the Mosquitos in the sun and thanks to a gentle breeze. It was a perfect way to have breakfast on one of the best hiking and camping trips I have ever been on. The trail was a bear, but the scenery was unbeatable.