Eagle Lakes hike

Drove up 80 to the Eagle Lakes exit. This was the first time I've had Commando in the dog seatbelt. He wasn't too happy about it, but I felt more secure knowing he wouldn't fly out the windshield.

We stopped for a rest break at the Indian Creek staging area and then drove up the pretty bad road for a bit. Most forest service roads are marked "high clearance 4WD" but many aren't that bad. This one was pretty bad, and it got worse the further we travelled.

I parked about 1/4 mile past the staging area and hiked from there on. We soon came to a signed fork saying only 2 miles to Eagle Lakes. Various OHV clubs are maintaining the trail and they have done a good job. The road is relatively flat, going gradually uphill with some minor steep bits. From an OHV perspective, it's really strewn with big boulders and there are granite or sandstone ledges with varying degrees of steepness every tenth of a mile or so.

We never made it to the lakes because I got sidetracked at some muddy ponds. Commando was hot and thirsty and we kept going off trail to check out likely looking places. One was very, very boggy and Commando sank in up to his stomach in the mud. We kept on and reached a actual pond with water and spent some time gazing around. He drank and cleaned some of the mud off chasing sticks.

We headed back to the OHV road and continued on to a summit. There is a faint OHV road intersection to Fordyce creek and it said Eagle Lakes was 3/4 of a mile ahead. We were out of water and I had forgotten to bring food and was pretty hungry. We did spend some time at this summit sitting on a granite rock looking over the (spectacular) view. Although I'm not a fan of logging, a lightning strike on a particularly large, old growth tree would have improved my view of the Old Man Mountain (looks kinda like Half Dome).

Quite a few small birds flew around to enliven the view.

We finally headed back and I was so hungry that the mild climb back to the truck really took it out of me. Commando was also extremely thirsty! I guess I'll have to carry more water for him. When we got to the store at Cisco grove he was butting my hands trying to hurry me along in serving him the water.

This looks like a nice snowshoe hike this winter, and I'd like to explore the area more next summer and try to get to Old Man Mountain. It looks like Fordyce Lake might be car accessible and might be within hiking distance.