Boulder Loop: Doe Lake, Eagle Peak, and Telephone Lake

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

Klamath National Forest

(yellow line, map link)

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6

My plan for the day was to continue along the trail to Doe Lake and on to what signs would tell me was Bloody Run. Just short of the run running into the PCT, I would turn to take a trail halfway between it and Eagle Creek which curves around to Big Marshy Lake. That's the nice end point by miles, but I'm very hesitant to camp by things called "Marshy" as they seem to imply "mosquito-y", so push on past that and the marked marsh and up and over to East Boulder Lake. I didn't get quite so early a start as the day before, but it was still before 8AM as I took off.

082: lake in shadow reflecting bright sky — Morning and Granite Lake is still in shadow.

Unfortunately, I really needed to get more than just the one bag of water the night before and I didn't have any hiking water for the three dry miles of trail coming up. I stopped to get some and ate up the rest of my earlish start.

083: dark water in the green — A few of the many spring fed streams filling Granite Lake.

084: green below burned trees — After many miles of trail, I'll be right over there at the saddle right of that green spot.

Trail isn't all that clear across the inflows or up the side to the ridge above, but from a tall cairn marking the way down into the next valley it is actually quite good. There's a couple very short spots where trail is hard to see in little meadows and a pair of trees requiring a big walk around, but the route is always obvious.

086: valley of trees, but not too dense — Down through the next little valley (with no lake) and up to the ridge.

087: little white flowers on thin red stems — Diffuse groundsmoke, what the caterpillars were eating along Granite Creek.

089: some green trees in the upper valley — One last look over the upper valley of Granite Creek. The PCT travels along the far side.

I followed a lot of deer prints over the edge of the ridge to a grand view at the top.

090: tall peaks with snow on top — The high peaks of the Trinity Alps are still with snow.

The trail was even nicer up along the ridge. There was a tempting game trail trying to lead me astray, but otherwise it was just clear trail with a few logs to step over. In fact, there seemed to be a lot fewer logs everywhere than might be expected. There were plenty of charred stumps but little still standing and little on the ground. I finally realized this area was twice burned.

093: big valley before climbing to tall peaks — Panorama of Coffee Creek from trail coming to trail going. Click it and it'll get bigger.

094: stumps narrowing as they rise — There's something otherworldly, or at least disused-quarry-near-Cardiff-ly, about these twice burned tree remains.

096: leaves ripple along stem before splitting off — Details of the rippling stem and leaves of the great mullein, which once again are plentiful.

097: ridges and fallen trees — Ridges coming up which don't quite have lakes below them on this side.

100: yellow bracts — Cobwebby paintbrush

102: snowy mountains past granite — One last view of the high peaks.

I stopped by the rocks of the last view of the tall, snowy mountains for some snacking.

103: green and mountains — Not all of the forest has burned down.

From there, the trail climbs up and over the ridge to drop down to Doe Lake. There were footprints on the trail at the top and on down. It wouldn't mean I would meet anyone, but the trail is better used by stages.

104: collection of color — Delightful arrangements of cream stonecrop, ballhead sandwort, and mountain pride on the way up.

105: lake below — Over the top to the first view of Doe Lake.

In fact, it is popular enough that it has been rerouted from when it was last mapped. The new trail is much nicer than the erosion gully of the old one.

107: mountain in the distance — Mount Shasta peeks out.

108: water in the rocks — Nice views of Doe Lake from the rerouted trail.

109: ridges — Mount Lassen is visible enough to see it is snowy.

Cairns mark the trail as it continues down, but they aren't needed.

115: mostly black butterfly with a tattered tail — A very tattered Indra swallowtail.

119: caterpillars eating a leaf — Baby butterflies.

I needed water again, so stopped by a stream stuffed with so many different flowers. I meant to snack, but got carried away with trying to record them all while a bit more water than I intended ran through my filter.

121: bushy white/purple flower — Swamp onions growing all down the sides and in shallow spots in the middle were getting a good start on blooming.

123: purple bells — Pacific bleeding hearts were a surprise so late.

129: bumble bee butt — Pay enough attention to the flowers and start to notice the insects, like bumble bees.

131: little suckers — Even find a world of aphids and ants on a cow parsnip (or similar).

Then on to the junction. There's been more rerouting around Doe Flat.

132: marigold with orange petals — Orange agoseris

134: sign post and sign — Nice, new sign post at the junction, but I had to pick up part of the sign.

Good thing there was a sign because I would have walked right past. As it was, the closest thing to a trail was a little erosion gully, narrow and just deep enough to be uncomfortable to walk, all through tall growth. I walked along it until a faint bench turned and headed away to the left. Well, two faint benches, but they were going the same way and I really wanted them to be the trail. This gradually became clearer, besides the fact that it kept going is always a good sign it's real trail. I checked to see if I was going the right way from time to time and it all looked good. All of this was in burn with evidence that this was once a much brushier trail than it is now. It might have been harder to see this trail a couple years ago.

136: ridges around valleys — Back toward East Fork Coffee Creek and its tributaries from around Doe Lake.

I could hear water flowing to my left and eventually even saw some. There's so often more than on the map. It can lead one to bad habits of not making sure one will have enough water for however long the next stretch is.

140: gentle slope hill — Climbing the burned ridge.

141: lake among far hills — Stoddard Lake, which sits high above the far side of East Fork Coffee Creek.

It wraps around a ridge to Bloody Run Creek. There's still burn here, but there's a lot more that isn't.

142: snowy peak in the distance — Mount Shasta is visible again looking down Bloody Run Creek.

The trail drops down to pass a couple water sources before climbing again. I was already carrying plenty so would have appreciated just staying high.

142: more ridge — More burn up ahead, but not here.

146: Shasta and other peaks — Interesting colors in the peaks between here and Mount Shasta.

When the canyon above Bloody Run Creek runs out, the trail wraps over to the top of Granite Creek. The same fat white-lined sphinx moth caterpillars were eating the same thin diffuse groundsmoke flowers way up here as were lower.

149: ridge line — Up on the ridge again, looking back and thinking those benches could support a nice trail that travels higher.

151: more benches — Didn't get far from Granite Lake which is just over the first ridge on the right.

My trail suddenly had footprints, then quite a few footprints. There were so many footprints, I started wondering if through hikers were getting confused. At least shortly. The trail gets to a saddle where it meets two other trails before finishing off at the PCT. The saddle was a mass of grey and sticks and fallen trees and ash. Oh, with a campsite including grill set up on it for some reason. In the mess, I couldn't find the trail I'd been planning to head out on, but I'd already decided it was too far to go all the way to Big Marsh Lake, much less past the marsh and over to East Boulder Lake hoping for fewer mosquitoes. I'd flip this part of the loop around and the new destination was Telephone Lake. The PCT was easy to find. It has been rendered flat and smooth and lighter than the surrounding by all the feet that travel it and if people are wondering off it onto Bloody Run Trail, they probably shouldn't be hiking on their own.

154: benches at the top of a canyon — In some of the last of the burn above Eagle Creek.

Trail crosses over the top of a piped spring with a second trail accessing the water. There's more water crossings after that. I sat by one stream and only gradually noticed the carnivorous plants beside me. Eek!

157: wheelbarrow by a flat spot — A well used camp that includes a wheelbarrow might obviously be Wheelbarrow Camp, but it already has a name: Eagle Mine.

158: leaves in periscope shape — The California pitcher plants are successfully stalking me!

So I got to follow along nice, easy trail at an easy grade with little to step over, not even rocks, and not the slightest mystery as to route. And I got to see flowers I'd not seen yet along the way. That felt like a minor insult since you ought to have to work for the unique flowers!

161: purple flowers with heart petals — Siskiyou mountains willowherb? Or maybe just rockfringe willowherb.

162: young and old cones — Cones in all the ages on a foxtail pine.

164: rocky peaks over the trees — Peaks around the edge above the PCT.

After about a mile, there was a sign to point away from the easy trail, one of a pair. This time, I'd likely have been better off without the sign. Wherever that trail starts climbing, it's not between those two signs. The trail to Telephone Lake comes up from Tangle Blue Trail below before going up and over the ridge. From the map, it arrives from below before the first sign and takes off for the ridge after the second. (It's offset.) I tried one faint trail looking bench going entirely the wrong way before looping around and trying another spot. Up the hill, but too early to catch the trail before catching a chute of rocks. I dropped back to the side of a meadow and followed a cairn across the bottom of those rocks, then blazes, some of them massive bare spots of hacked into the bark on the most magnificent foxtail pines that must be at least five feet across, up to the top. Alternatively, I could follow the erosion gully.

167: grassy ridge — At the top of the ridge looking toward Eagle Peak. The trail continues to the right past the pine with a medium sized blaze hacked into the bark. There's a nice foxtail on the left, not quite as big as some.

At the top, I decided to bag Eagle Peak. I had shortened my day, now I was lengthening it. Besides, it was right there up a grassy ramp. (It's not, but it looked that way.) There was even faint trail going up the ridge and the trail down the other side was a lot clearer than what I came up.

169: puffy seed pods — Balloon milkvetch was displaying a yellow flower and puffing up into these splotchy seed pods.

171: valley — Looking down on Telephone Lake, which is about where the trees turn burned again.

172: gentle ridge — Nice view while climbing toward Eagle Peak.

I overshot the peak, partly because I'd suddenly found a trail through a bit of rocks below it. It's probably some old mining relic. I turned around and headed up the high spot along a path many others have used.

174: rockier ridge — Ridge to the west while climbing the actual peak.

It's a frequently visited peak with an ammo can register with a few books and a lot of loose paper. I found a signature from the day before from someone who rode his horse up to Telephone Lake and continued on foot to here. It's only a little taller than the peaks around it, but it's got some views.

176: sharp rock peak — Eagle Peak is actually a sharp rocky thing with a tree occupying the highest point. The closest higher peak is Craggy Peak off in the grey on the far right.

177: more ridges — The Shasta side of Eagle Peak.

I finally spotted Telephone Lake on the way back down to the trail. I tried to find more of the old mining trail, but there wasn't much of it across the sages and I lost it.

The trail down wasn't quite as easy to find as I'd hoped. It crosses a meadow with the difficulty that entails. It's been rerouted, so at the top one can spot a steeper trail doing about the same thing. At the bottom of the meadow, people are taking the old trail/erosion gully. I spotted the nice switchbacks to the side and took them, kicking sticks off as I went. Unfortunately although they're easy to see, it drops into flats at the bottom and vanishes with disuse. I made my way back to what is still an erosion gully even where it's fairly flat.

182: showy flower — Western blue flag irises decorated the meadow, mostly going to seed.

I had some boot prints on the trail. I followed horse prints to the lake and a single flat spot developed into a camp. Evaluating the nearby trees, I decided it could work. I looked for more spots on my way to grab water from the inlet, then wandered past the outlet to a small hill. None of it had another camp.

184: used camp — Guess this will have to do. Wonder what the metal came from?

Then I remembered I'd wanted to do a little laundry this evening. A little late. It was dark before I finished eating. Whoops. At least there weren't many mosquitoes.

same trip, next day ⇒

*even more photos in the album*

©2023 Valerie Norton
Written 31 Aug 2023

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