Very secluded lakes or rivers

[joeblowbeav]

Hello,
My wife and I want to take a couple of backpacking trips this summer, late August, Mid september. We are looking for hikes that are 5-6 miles, stay for a couple of days, and enjoy the scenery. We also would like the ability to be naked, and also skinny dip in a lake. Yes, I know, htere is the potential for bugs, but we will roll with it.

WE would like to be a few hours drive from the Willamette Valley

[pcg]

Requiring something a few hours from the Willamette Valley makes this more difficult. The first thing that comes to mind is that there are dozens of small alpine lakes between PCT and Cultus Lake - some on trails, some not. After Labor Day you'll see far fewer people and less bugs too. Check hunting regs because during hunting season and the week before there are far more folks out and about off-trail. Should be able to find something fairly private. Paint yourselves with camo?

Note to self: Avoid hiking west of Cultus Lake in September.

[joeblowbeav]

How about something more than a few hours drive?

[pcg]

How about something more than a few hours drive?

Owyhee Canyon area.

Giving this some more thought though... in general, if you bushwack far enough up just about any creek in Oregon or Washington that does not have a trail or road alongside it, you'll eventually find privacy.

[VanMarmot]

You might consider the Sky Lakes Wilderness down here in Southern Oregon - about 5/6 hours from Portland, less from Eugene.

From the west (Seven Lakes TH), you can be in the Seven Lakes Basin in under 6 miles. Circle round the N side of Middle, North, or Alta Lakes and you should have a lot of privacy. By late summer the mosquitos should be less intense.

From the east (Nannie Creek TH), you can be at the Puck Lakes in under 4 miles and to the Snow Lakes or Martin Lake in under 6 miles. The Snow Lakes sit on a bench above the lake's basin, with a view and fewer bugs.

[Aimless]

No lake with a trail to it, within 5 miles of a trailhead, and a few hours drive from the most populated part of the state can guarantee you enough seclusion that you will not be seen skinny-dipping or sunbathing naked over a few days' time. This is the reality. Lakes are magnets for hikers and fishers. If you are OK with having uninvited visitors, maybe with kids, showing up at any time, then you can go ahead and do the lake thing.

Rivers are less popular, but camping spots along rivers are also magnets, since they tend to be rather few on any river trail. I'd recommend you pick a river trail and find your camping place, then maybe pick another place to swim and sunbathe, well away from camp, where the trail and river diverge from one another fairly far, and where there is not an obvious use-trail or camping place to draw visitors to you. That's your best chance for the kind of trip you are envisioning.

[drm]

For peak late summer basically I think you need to go to a lake cross country to get that kind of privacy. A bit longer drive won't help as in Aug and early Sept, people are willing to drive. If there is a decent trail to a nice lake in high summer, you are not likely to have it to yourself. Only by making it hard to get to - no trail - will people be kept away. And I don't mean a half mile off trail, unless there are obstacles.

[joeblowbeav]

Do you have any suggestions for an off trail lake?

[VanMarmot]

Do you have any suggestions for an off trail lake?

I have to agree with Aimless & drm - if you want seclusion (i.e., no one surprising you as you expose yourselves to nature) then you're going to have to go off-trail at least a little. In the Sky Lakes, that would be the north end of the northern Puck Lake (0.5 miles from the trail) or Lake Ivern (details; there's a trail to it but it's overgrown) or the largest lake in the Dwarf Lakes Area (getting there is all cross-country) or McKee Lake in McKee Basin (coming cross-country from FR 3770) or South Pass Lake in the Mountain Lakes Wilderness (there's a trail to it but it's not near any trailheads). I'm sure there are similar off-the-grid lakes in the Central Cascades but I can't speak to how hard it would be to travel cross-country to any of those.

[BigBear]

My suggestion is that you invest in some Green trails topo maps and evaluate what works for you. This way you can ensure all of your criteria are met.

The basic problem with your request is that if the lake is known by name, it probably has a user trail beaten to it (e.g. Golden Lake) or its so obscure that you would need some detailed directions. It's hard to fathom that any lake of reasonable size close to a population center would not already have some kind of path and a few established campsites.