Lat: 45.133938 Lon: -116.010818
Tuesday July 20, 2021 dawned cool and damp at the Twenty Mile Creek trail head, the rain from the day before had cooled the air as well as the 5,819 foot altitude. Phil Ryan and Rob Adams had driven up the night before to work on a project on the Twenty Miles lake Trail. They were joined by Shelly Duff and Lisa Griffith who were on vacation and camped near the trailhead. Phil and Rob were on the trail be 08:45 and made good time on the Twenty Mile Creek trail which was in excellent shape. Once they turned on to the Lakes trail they started encountering heavy brush and down fall.
Before
After
Around 10:00 it started to mist, which felt pretty good as we had now soaked our shirts with sweat cutting out down trees and nipping brush. The brush was also wet so the rain made little difference in how wet we became. Lisa and Shelly who left the trail head after us, caught up and took over brushing allowing Phil and I to push on concentrating on down trees.
We reached the first lake by 13:30, it was raining and we were soaked and tired, behind us were 35 trees we had remove and large sections of brush cut back. After a quick break we started the ride back to the trail head, arriving at 14:30. The sun came out during the ride back for a short time.
The lakes trail climbs from 6050 feet to 7,719 in three miles, with most of the altitude gain in two sections of steep, rocky switch backs. But the lakes and beauty of the area make it worth the effort.
