Backpacking the Chelan Lakeshore Trail
May 21 - 22, 2005 Read all about our adventure along Lake Chelan.
Too early in the season for the high country, we opted for an overnight backpacking trip along the shores of Lake Chelan. The trail contours the lakeshore with more than a few ups-and-downs for 17.2 miles (plus side-trips) from Prince Creek to Stehekin. Apart from a few in-holdings, the way is entirely contained with the Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness and the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. The trail is accessible only by boat, or by long and arduous overland routes that are still snow-covered in May.
It's a wonder this trip isn't more popular. Our party of four constituted half of the route's hikers that weekend. Perhaps some of the trail's solitude is a result of the logistical difficulty of just getting there. The ferry landing at Field's Point is a 3.5 hour drive from Seattle; the boat ride is at least an hour and a quarter; and the hike ends with a 2.5 hour boat ride back to the road. This makes a two-day weekend trip somewhat breathless as hikers have barely more than 24 hours to hoof it into Stehekin to catch the return boat. Three days would be much preferable.
But it's all worth it. There's hardly a step that isn't accompanied by terrific views of the fjord-like lake, distant glaciated peaks, or the local wildlife, which for us included one rattlesnake and multitudes of eye-popping western tanagers.
At Prince Creek, 17.2 miles from Stehekin, a handful of hikers walk the plank.
Jill and Hannah steel themselves for the rigors of the wilderness. Brian peeks out timidly from behind.
Jill pauses at a typical view in the early miles of the trail.
Re-growth in a burned area -- a common scene during the first 13 miles.
Fire-scarring on an old Ponderosa pine.
Eric pauses briefly to chisel a modernist-cubist rendition of existential anguish in a granite boulder.
Moore Point, our campground for the first night and undoubtedly the most popular site along the trail. We were the only tourists here, but we were not alone. The tents here belong to workers for the Washington Conservation Corps (an arm of AmeriCorps) who were doing ecological restoration in the area. They are, quite literally, The Nicest People On Earth. (We took this picture from the boat on the return trip.)
Brian crosses Fish Creek on a footlog, just past the Moore Point campground.
A typical view from the trail.
Wildflowers along the trail.
The vertiginous view from Hunts Bluff, probably the most scenic location along the route. We almost curled up and napped away the day here -- curse schedules!
As you approach Stehekin, moving northwest into the North Cascades, the forest becomes thicker and greener, the peaks more rugged, and the lure of the trail even more irresistible.
At Stehekin, Jill enjoys a post-hike lollipop while she studies her bird book-- she's learning her owls and trying to convince herself that she saw a calliope hummingbird, not a rufous. Eric enjoys a beer.
The Lady of the Lake II waits at Stehekin for its afternoon departure.
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