[GeoHiker]

I did a quick in and out yesterday and today. Weather was almost too good! Sunny and in the low 80's. Bugs are starting to thrive, so go prepared if you head up that way for the long weekend. I had never been to Pugsley, so this would be a new one. Trail is in good shape. Curse the people that made all the stairs though. The upper 1/2 is almost all stairs and walkways. Dozen spots where someone is going to slip inbetween sections and break a leg. I'm not sure what the thought was in building it this way, but be careful if it's wet. Several large trees down across the trail. First one can be climbed through without too much problem, another one along Dorothy requires you to get on your knees to pass. Some mud in sections, but nothing a good pair of boots couldn't handle. I saw only 5-6 people in 2 days. I wanted to try out my new Curtis raft, so on Wed. I hiked to the south end of the lake and decided to camp on one of the islands. Pumped it up in no time and dropped it in the water. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way, but I found a nice flat rock and set my 40 lb pack down. Got in my raft and pulled up next to my pack and pulled it on top of me. Ok, I was floating, but it seemed top heavy and there was some wind on the lake. Off I go with my little raft!...... Wind was a bit of a problem and I was starting to get a bit of splash over the back. I used my Thermorest ProLite 4 on the bottom and that worked great. Halfway across I kept having this nitemare I would blow out the raft and I would sink to the bottom. All went well as I approached the first island. That one didn't look promising, so on to the next. This one had a good flat rock landing area and that's where I headed. There was a great camping spot here, so that's where I stayed the night. There were very few fish rising and I fished and took a paddle down the lake to the outlet stream from Pugsley to fill up on some decent water and scope out a possible trail up to this lake. When I made it back to camp I fished from my campsite and picked up 4 fish in about an hour. 3, EB and a nice 14 inch rainbow that pulled out some drag. I was very disappointed with the fishing from what it used to be years ago. This morning I slept in and puttered around way too long. It was a scorcher of a day. I paddled over to the stream from Pugsley and headed up the right side. I went about 200 ft. and hit a faint fishermans trail and was able to follow this all the way up. It's tough to follow in spots, but if you watch carefully you won't have a problem. The trail up follows along the right side of the outlet stream on a rib very close to the stream. Waterfalls and steep climb for about .4 mile and you come to some outlet ponds. You'll need to cross over the outlet stream near a small waterfall close to the lake. Once across it's a short distance to the lake. There is one large wet campsite when you first reach the lake and several more that look possible. It doesn't look like anyone has camped here for quite some time. There's a small pennisula about halfway down the left side of the lake that offers a nice view and a ok spot for camping. Fishing was lousy, so I'm not giving any "secret" spot away. I fished for about 3 hours and caught one skinny 8 inch EB. I hiked most of the way around the lake and when the breeze quit could see much of the water and saw very few fish cruising. There were bugs all over the water and I never saw a fish rise. There are some small fish in the outlet streams and ponds, so they do have a way to reproduce. Back to my island I fixed a late lunch and watched a pair of Osprey hunting. I heard a splash and one came flying back with a nice fish and landed in a snag on the next island over to eat it's catch. The other one landed nearby and squawked and screamed, but there was no sharing. About 6pm, I was dying for a slushy. No snow could be found anywhere near Dorothy, so I figured there had to be snow on the pass up by Bear Lake. There's a geocache at the pass, so off I went. At the pass I saw one tiny 12 inch patch of snow and another off in the bushes that was maybe 2 ft. and full of crud. What a big let down. Hoping there might be some snow near Bear Lake I dropped down. Nothing, so I took a few pictures and headed back. There is one large tree down across the trail you might have a problem getting under with a pack on. Bit of mud and very few tracks since the last rain. Lot's of flagging, so the evil stair masters are going to wreck this part of the trail too. Back to my camp spot about 8pm, I decided to pack up and head out. Fishing was a big suck, and the lake was nice and calm. Perfect time to cross. Packed up and ready to roll about 9:30pm. Hiked out with my headlamp and the stairs were worse going down. Curse the StairMaster lover that did this!...... Almost back to the parking lot and I see headlamps. Couple with a dog are heading up the trail at 10:30pm. My car and their truck are the only vehicles in the parking lot. Bet that will change by tomorrow.

Bear Lake

Dorothy Lake

Dorothy islands from trail to Bear.

Pugsley Lake

[Backpacker Joe]

Nice report. You dont often see pics of ole Pugs. You cant realistically berate the fishing at a lake that anybody can hike to in an hour!!! If you want good fishing you must get away from it ALL. Thanks again.

[GeoHiker]

That's true, but Dorothy used to be thick with fish. If we caught less than 100 in a trip that was poor fishing. Granted that was 20 years or more ago, so things have changed. I'd be curious to know if Dorothy has been stocked or if they just leave it to naturally reproduce? I see very little camping areas like there used to be. The big areas are blocked off or closed. Guess the Boy Scout troops camp in the WalMart parking lots nowdays!.....Shame that they don't have somewhere to go. No campfires is another sore subject. I don't see any practical reason why they are banned here. There's an abundant supply of dead timber down all over the place. I followed several side trails and the people that built the new walkways piled up the old timber in piles.

[Backpacker Joe]

One, the boy scout troops of old DECIMATED the land scape. I know I was there to witness it. Two, it didn't matter how much old wood there was lying around, people ALWAYS cut down live stuff. The actions of individuals is what prompted these rules. Period. I'd suspect that Dorothy is self sustaining of fish at this point. I doubt anyone is interested in stocking it.

[JimK]

[Brian Curtis]

The EB in Dorothy are naturally reproducing. It is also stocked with coastal cutthroat. Is it possible the RB you caught was a coastal cutt? The coastals are spotted all over and are often confused with RB. Did you happen to get a picture? If is is a 'bow that would be very, very interesting.