We were told that we wouldn't be able to reach the lower lake and that sounded like a challenge so we set out on the trail and after a bit of trekking around found the trail... 573 A... the sign was missing but there was an obvious fork and the trail number was carefully carved into the heavy bark of a tree... the trail was hard to follow... and has not been maintained... there were some stream crossings on logs and some bushwacking but we did make it to the lake...maybe about 20 minutes worth of work...and there it was...
Bull of the Woods Wilderness --Twin Lakes
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pdxhikerguy263
- Posts: 26
- Joined: January 22nd, 2013, 2:52 pm
- Location: Vancouver, WA
Bull of the Woods Wilderness --Twin Lakes
I had been to Whetstone mountain a few weeks ago and decided that I wanted to explore a bit further...so 4 friends and I set off Saturday AM...having decided to start again at the Whetstone Mt Trail head on Rd 7020. The road all the way to the trail head is good and wont require a high clearance vehicle.
The Beargrass was out in force...highlighting the path for much of the trip...
We were on the trail by 9:30 AM and the mosquito's were out in force. We followed Trail 546 to the cuttoff for Whetstone and dropped out packs and slack packed up to the summit...The views there are amazing and even with the morning haze we counted 10 snow caped visible peaks... We didn't spend a lot of time here as our goal was Twin Lakes for the night and the mosquitoes were still attacking with a vengeance.
We returned to the junction and picked up our packs and followed the trail east and south east as it dipped thru a couple saddles before gaining a beautiful ridge that gave us an amazing view of the Battle Axe Creek drainage and Battle Axe Mountain to the south.
We passed the junction for Sliver Lake and joined trail #544 and headed south for another mile or so until hitting the Twin Lakes Junction Trail 573... this is a better graded trail ...and dropped us at the Upper Twin Lake in about a mile where we secured a nice camp sight for the night.
We were told that we wouldn't be able to reach the lower lake and that sounded like a challenge so we set out on the trail and after a bit of trekking around found the trail... 573 A... the sign was missing but there was an obvious fork and the trail number was carefully carved into the heavy bark of a tree... the trail was hard to follow... and has not been maintained... there were some stream crossings on logs and some bushwacking but we did make it to the lake...maybe about 20 minutes worth of work...and there it was... We took a few pictures and retreated back to our camp and spent a beautiful evening by the Upper Twin Lake...amazingly mosquito free... After a good nights rest we retraced our steps... the total route GPS'd at 19.6 miles and just over 6000 ft of elevation gain...a great prize for the effort!
We were told that we wouldn't be able to reach the lower lake and that sounded like a challenge so we set out on the trail and after a bit of trekking around found the trail... 573 A... the sign was missing but there was an obvious fork and the trail number was carefully carved into the heavy bark of a tree... the trail was hard to follow... and has not been maintained... there were some stream crossings on logs and some bushwacking but we did make it to the lake...maybe about 20 minutes worth of work...and there it was... We took a few pictures and retreated back to our camp and spent a beautiful evening by the Upper Twin Lake...amazingly mosquito free... After a good nights rest we retraced our steps... the total route GPS'd at 19.6 miles and just over 6000 ft of elevation gain...a great prize for the effort!
"The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” – John Muir
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Splintercat
- Posts: 8334
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Re: Bull of the Woods Wilderness --Twin Lakes
Weird - the mosquitoes were on the ridges and peaks but not by the lake..! Must be a new mutant-form of mosquito..! 
Posted this over on the Big Slide Lake thread, but here are some pics from Twin Lakes circa sometime in the last century...
Nice report - thanks for posting!
Tom
Posted this over on the Big Slide Lake thread, but here are some pics from Twin Lakes circa sometime in the last century...
Nice report - thanks for posting!
Tom
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pdxhikerguy263
- Posts: 26
- Joined: January 22nd, 2013, 2:52 pm
- Location: Vancouver, WA
Re: Bull of the Woods Wilderness --Twin Lakes
Yes it was weird about the bugs... we thought we would get eaten alive but nothing at Upper Twin!...pretty nice..but we talked to some folks that had overnighted at Silver Lake and they got eaten up pretty badly..
"The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” – John Muir