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    • #81416
      bavnuts88
      Participant

        Anybody ever been up to the lakes up there? Any info like hike distance and such?

        Pear, Boulder, Crater, Toketie?

        Its above Buck Creek camp outside of Darrington.

        Daniel

      • #85599
        Brian Curtis
        Keymaster

          Sure, I’ve been to all of those. Boulder has a trail. It is about 3 miles or so. From there it is pretty easy cross country to Pear. More x-country up an extremely steep hill and down to Toketie. And a major expedition over to Crater.

        • #85600
          caveman
          Participant

            I went to Crater last year. Been there Five times and it is what I call a hike to hell and back. One of the most beautiful trips I have ever made but a grunt. Fishing a Crater sucked lasted year. Fishing is not Like it used to be. It used to be every cast. I sugggest takeing three to four days if you go in there. If you go, go up to Boulder and hike around the lake near pear and go up the first shoot to the sattle to get over. It looks like you can’t make it but you can. It is all open from there, hope you are experienced. Only one of the lakes behing Boulder has fish. The other one doesn’t. For years it used to be frozen ver year round expect for last year. I was pretty suprised. Good campsite though.

            Caveman

          • #85601
            Brian Curtis
            Keymaster

              Good advice from Caveman. The often frozen lake is Kawkawak. The one with fish is Toketie.

            • #85602
              Larry Anderson
              Participant

                My older brother and my uncle used to take me into Boulder every year, starting about 1983. It was so full of really nice Montana Black Spot, just amazing. Once in a while you would see one swim by that would go several pounds, in a school with about 20 others. They would knock each other out of the way to get to your lure. The last time I went in there was about 2002. The only time I could catch fish was before the sun came over the ridge, and they were even pretty tough to catch, what few there were. About ten years ago we saw a wolverine when we hiked into Pear. Beautiful area, now the road is washed out. Who knows if they will ever repair it.

              • #85603
                SWH
                Participant

                  The last time I did the hike to Crater Lake, the fishing had declined from my previous 3 trips. There were a lot of people making the hike to Crater. I think that was in 2002 or 2003. There were 17 people camped at Crater Lake. Its probably seeing a lot less pressure now with the road being washed out. From what I hear, the road is going to be closed at the wash out at Tennis Creek permanently.

                • #85604
                  Brian Curtis
                  Keymaster

                    Seventeen people camped at Crater? That’s absurd. How many parties was that? We went into Crater in the early eighties and some logging outfit choppered their crew in for a season ending bash. They were drinking lots of whisky, whooping it up, and shooting guns across the lake. That was fun 👿

                  • #85605
                    SWH
                    Participant

                      4 parties. Sounds like you had a bad experience.

                    • #85606
                      Brian Curtis
                      Keymaster

                        Yeah, and we had to haul out their whisky bottles.

                        Four parties in there is an amazing crowd for that lake. Hopefully the washout will relieve some of the pressure.

                      • #85607
                        Joshua Cowart
                        Participant

                          I went last summer to all of them. The road walk is terrible. It ads 6 – 7 miles round trip. However those lakes were all getting too many visitors. Boulder gets the worst visitors. Garbage, rotten food and feces around the lake. (leave no trace people!) Otherwise its a pretty place and worth visiting, just not really for the fishing. Making it all the way to crater now is a full days walk and includes technical cross country travel. There is some scary exposure, not bad for the experienced but you could easily die if you slipped in a few spots. You would not want to be on that ridge in anything but nice weather. I needed Ice axe and crampons for two steepish snow crossings in Late Late season. The crater fishing is definitely a fable, it was poor, (little dinkers). I saw no sign of fish in pear or the twins on the other side.

                        • #85608
                          Brian Curtis
                          Keymaster

                            You mean weather like this? 🙂
                            [flickr:2pxswqgy]Ridge above Crater[/flickr:2pxswqgy]

                          • #85609
                            Joshua Cowart
                            Participant

                              :rain: :rain: :rain: :rain: 😯 :rain: :rain: :rain:

                              yes exactly like that. That ridge gave me the willies in sun. I cant believe you went up there when it looked like that!

                              Horseshoe last Sunday

                            • #85610
                              Brian Curtis
                              Keymaster

                                It was beautiful when we went up. That was the trip out so we didn’t have much choice. 😕

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