Distance: 3.5 miles one-way
Elevation Gain: -370 feet (2400 feet 2030 feet)
Difficulty: Easy (Currently Medium difficulty due to snow)
Near: Mountain loop highway, by Granite falls (Northern Washington)
Directions: Get to the Verlot Public Service Center which is located along the mountain loop highway at 33515 Mountain Loop Hwy, Granite Falls, WA 98252. From the Verlot Public Service Center, travel east on the Mt. Loop Highway for 4.5 miles. Turn right on the Schweitzer Creek Road #4020. Continue 2.3 miles to the Bear Lake Road #4021 and follow this road for 1.5 miles to the junction with Road #4021016. Turn left and follow this road to end.
The road to the trailhead is gravel and has many potholes. Also, there are two trails leading off from the trailhead which can cause some confusion. One is a logging road, the other is the actual trail. The Ashland lake trail trail will have an information board at the start.
It is July 2008 and many of the trails on the mountain loop highway are still closed due to snow. Luckily, the Ashland lake trail was open, so we decided to give it a try.
Ashland lake trail consists of a relatively tame upward trek which leads to Upper 7 acre Upper Ashland lake, and then a steep downward trek which goes to the larger 12.9 acre Lower Ashland lake (hence the negative elevation gain). The trail is normally ranked as easy. However, due to the heavy snow in 2008, the trail can be difficult to traverse in certain areas. My friends and I all tripped and fell; One of my friends even fell face first on an icy log stump. One particularly bad spot was the following broken bridge which was highly unstable:
It was also easy to lose sight of the trail in the snow. The potential to get lost is definitely there.
Upper lake:
Lower lake:
Some fauna on the trail:
