Forum Index > Trip Reports > Square Lake, anyone go in 2019?
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ale_capone
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 9:57 am 
I hiked to Lorraine pointe via the backside of Stevens pass about 5 years ago. Easy. Getting from there to square lake would be very difficult. Looking at google earth, the summer trail looks treacherous. You can find it in areas just east of wolverine lake. Very brushy looking, and lots of downed trees and missing trail. Pretty steep as well. We could not find the bark cabin or the lookout. I've been to square lake twice via surprise/thunder, but it the winter. Nice long ski or snow shoe tour. Wondered why it isnt called hour glass lake? Here is a rare approach from mac peak. Square lake at the bottum.
Leavenworth.. is the excavator still at 8 mile? Last I heard it was too expensive to fly out. They where going to try and drive it out, or leave it?

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Downhill
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 1:38 pm 
Ale capone - cool pic and interesting stories about your trips there. I didn't get to Eightmile Lake in 2019 so I don't know about the status of the excavator. I was twice in 2018 and it was still there (post dam repair). Maybe they are expecting to get approval for the next phase of work and left it for that purpose, I don't know.

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Dick B
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PostMon Dec 16, 2019 2:51 pm 
When the thread of this report turned to the use of the high lakes to supplement irrigation needs. it reminded me of a high lake down here in Oregon. If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting our beautiful Waldo Lake here in Central Oregon, you may have noticed a large concrete structure on the west shore across the lake from Shadow Bay campground. It is a headworks that was built back in the early 1900s to tap lake water for power and irrigation purposes in the Willamette Valley. The water was diverted thru the headworks and into a 500 foot tunnel into the head waters of a small creek. The whole project was a scam and never got off the ground. Waldo lies at crest of the Cascades and really has no major source of runoff into it. It relies on rain and snow melt to replenish itself. Had the project been carried out, it would have drawn the lake down 25 feet and taken an estimated 10 years to regain it's original depth.

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Bedivere
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PostWed Dec 18, 2019 1:21 am 
First went to Square Lake back in '91 via the trail. The Section of the trail that climbs the valley wall to Lk. Wolverine was very overgrown and hard to follow but the rest was in fine shape. We went in once again via a route from Surprise Gap several years later. I think it was probably around '95 or '96, and camped on the West side of the lake. I'm shocked to see they cut the cabin all up. Why did they do that? It's my understanding that the trail beyond the Leland Creek crossing is basically abandoned. The fire up there several years ago didn't help things. I'd be really surprised if that trail wasn't anything but a total pain in the ass, if it's even possible to follow it any more. I hiked up to the Leland Creek crossing in June of 2015 and the trail to that point is in perfectly good shape. We camped right by the fork in the trail and day tripped up to lake Leland. That trail is disappearing. Not particularly brushy, but has some deadfall over it in places and is so lightly traveled that it is simply getting covered up with duff and plants. I think a lot of horse people used to go up there, but hardly ever see horses up the Icicle any more. Here is a quick & dirty pano of Lake Leland from June 2015. I'd have to dig out some old film prints to find pics of Square Lake the last time I was there. I'd like to get back up to Leland this summer with my raft...

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Tom
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PostWed Dec 18, 2019 1:27 am 
When I went to Leland it was a well beaten horse path. While I didn't encounter horses you had the sense it was well visited at the time from the camps. Wasn't that impressed with the lake, at least not for the length of the hike. No desire to return.

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Bedivere
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PostWed Dec 18, 2019 2:34 am 
Tom wrote:
When I went to Leland it was a well beaten horse path. While I didn't encounter horses you had the sense it was well visited at the time from the camps. Wasn't that impressed with the lake, at least not for the length of the hike. No desire to return.
How long ago? Yeah, not exactly a spectacular destination, but it seems to have solitude and one other thing going for it. The fire pit hadn't been used in at least two years as there were tree seedlings sprouting in it. I know not everyone builds fires but that combined with the condition of the trail was just another piece of evidence that it sees little visitation these days. The trail goes through some muddy/soft areas, if horses were going up there it'd get churned up pretty good. There's some deadfall just before the lake that would have to be cleared for horses to get around it.

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Tom
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PostWed Dec 18, 2019 12:45 pm 
20+ years ago maybe. The only reason I went is someone at work mentioned there was big fish. Turns out it was a different Leland Lake. doh.gif

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Backpacker Joe
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PostWed Dec 18, 2019 5:54 pm 
Im not sure why they cut up the cabin. I slept in it the first time I was in there. It had some nice bunk beds. I wish I had better pictures of the interior.
Square lk cabin interior 7-1991
Square lk cabin interior 7-1991

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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Bedivere
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PostFri Dec 20, 2019 8:49 pm 
Tom - it seems like the horse people don't use the Icicle much any more. Maybe just not as many horsepackers around that area these days? BPJ - you and I were there pretty close to each other. When we were there the door was chained shut but the chain was loose enough that you could open the door a little way and squeeze in. We felt camping out in front of the cabin was nicer, with views of the sky and all. The cabin felt kind of dark and dank inside.

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klar
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PostSun Dec 22, 2019 5:49 pm 
Went in 2014 solo from Deception lakes area. Having a raft was not mandatory but was very enjoyable.
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I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. Edgar Allan Poe
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Downhill
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PostSun Dec 22, 2019 11:40 pm 
Bedivere wrote:
BPJ - you and I were there pretty close to each other. When we were there the door was chained shut but the chain was loose enough that you could open the door a little way and squeeze in. We felt camping out in front of the cabin was nicer, with views of the sky and all. The cabin felt kind of dark and dank inside.
When I was there with my dad in the 70s we decided to camp outside. The evidence of rodents inside led us to believe it might be a sleepless night indoors. Same thing happened on the firtst night at the "Bark Cabin" shelter at the junction of the Icicle trail - full of packrats. I'm more than happy to try to recon the old trail and help to de-brush it. But it seems that the most popular approach these days is from the NW approach - this is probably only partly to do with the condition of the old trail and probably just as much to do with proximity/distance/scenic qualities of the alternate approach. If the consensus is in favor of the NW approach, should we just allow the old trail to return to nature?

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pianodirt
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PostMon Oct 18, 2021 12:41 pm 
First did the trip to Square Lake circa 1987 via the Icicle route. I remember we lost the trail a few times on the last section to Lk Wolverine from the Leland Lake junction. The cabin and wooden 'raft' were there. Did it again in 2014 and the trail was great, better than I remember (didn't have to get wet on stream crossings) up until the last 2 miles or so. Armed with a GPS smartphone, I could see the trail right on the screen and look down in the brush to find it. But I gave up on that after a few minutes and just bushwhacked my way up. Took a long time, perhaps 3x as long to get through this section as it would've with a proper trail. Lots of downed trees. Pretty miserable time, but the lakes were beautiful. As BPJ mentioned, the cabin had been cut up and thrown into the outlet. Personally, I would have rather had seen the cabin slowly deteriorate and taken over by nature, than to see it violently chopped into pieces and tossed as trash into a wilderness creek. I'm not in favor of new cabins being built on Wilderness land, but the remaining vestiges make for good history stories. In 2019, I had considered going to Lake Leland and explore the lakes near there, but after a call to the Leavenworth Ranger Station, I changed my mind. They said that the trail was more or less abandoned and was marshy in spots. Didn't sound appealing. Based upon the other reports on this thread, I'm glad I didn't. The fishing at Square Lake was good in '87 but in '14 I don't recall if I even got a bite. But I was there a bit late season, so perhaps the fish were heading into hibernation already. (or my 'fair weather' fishing skills!) A side note on the dams. In 2007, I was camped at lower Klonaqua Lake, September I think. While there, a helicopter landed and the guy adjusted the dam outlet valve. He was very friendly and rather apologetic for disturbing our peace. And the sight of the massive earth mover at Eightmile Lake in 2018 was really mind boggling. I really hope that machine isn't still sitting there. I hadn't been to that lake since about 1998 and the water level was about 20-30' lower than I remember...I assume they had drained the lake in order to work in the dam.

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HitTheTrail
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PostMon Oct 18, 2021 1:12 pm 
Based on our observation late this summer, the main Icicle trail beyond where you cross the river to go up Frosty pass is getting very little use and may go back to nature in the not too distant future. Steve hiked up it a ways and said it is starting to look brushy and primitive.

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Backpacker Joe
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PostMon Oct 18, 2021 2:58 pm 
Ive been in both ways. I prefer going in via Deception lakes and over the ridge to that LONG Icicle route.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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HitTheTrail
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PostMon Oct 18, 2021 5:13 pm 
zimmertr wrote:
It's extremely faint near Ida. Just bent grass in a lot of places. It traverses one or two wet areas on the way back towards Chatter Creek as well that are almost completely gone.
I was talking about the Icicle river valley trail that continues up toward Lake Josephine and Stevens Pass. It also passes the Leland/Square Lake turn-off.

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