Eagle Cap Wilderness

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
Post Reply
maxjamesnw
Posts: 2
Joined: September 7th, 2017, 3:06 pm

Eagle Cap Wilderness

Post by maxjamesnw » September 7th, 2017, 3:44 pm

Completed a labor day backpacking trip to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Here are the highlights.

Day 1
Friday morning drove to Two Pan TH, arriving at 1:30pm. Out on E. Lostine river trail at 2pm. at Mirror lake some 3 hours later. Pushed on to Glacier Lake. Camped on eastern edge of lake. Great spots on hill overlooking lake, or further to the south.

Strava recorded stats for day one: 11.9 miles from Two Pan to Glacier Lake. 3,539 feet gained. 3 hours, 58 minutes. 3mph.

Day 2
Left camp with an Ultimate Direction 35 liter as my day pack. Cross country to Prospect lake. Circled to the right of the lake. Exited behind lake headed southeast. Dropped down into valley, hopping boulders and circling counter-clockwise to link up with Hawkins Pass trail. Crested over Pass and dropped down into valley that is the head of the South fork of the Imnaha. Crossed over the head of the valley SE to outlet of stream. Follow up into bowl that sits south of Cusick mountain; gained saddle south of Cusick; ascended Cusick headed north. Slippery rocks made it a difficult ascent, but an easy descent. Couldn't find registery at summit. Tried to descend off SE corner to find famous Limber Pine - no luck. Tracked back south down ridge to saddle, back into bowl, and back out to the valley. Re-tracked back over Hawkins pass but continued to Frazier lakes. Took a left turn and headed back up to Glacier Lake.

Strava: 12.9 miles to climb Cusick via south ridge. 5,026 feet gained.

Day 3
Left camp with fly fishing rod and UD 35 liter pack. Back to Prospect, as several people told me it was the best fishing lake. Wrapped around Prospect Lake clockwise for exploration; buggy with outlet meadow. Came back around and scrambled southwest of Prospect up ~200 feet. Found an unnamed tarn at ~8500 feet that is displayed on USFS maps. Returned to lake. Waded to island in Prospect Lake - space for 2 small tents. Fished off the farthest rock on the island, into the deepest part of the Lake. Returned to Glacier Lake, exploring area between Glacier Lake and unnamed sister lake. Picked up camp and descended to Moccasin Lake. Took left and wrapped around to Sunset Lake. Crossed into unmarked trails west north west of Sunset. A couple meadows, hunters camp, several sites overlooking lakes' basin and Eagle Cap. Found two largish unnamed tarns (marked on USFS maps). Camped on large granite slab.

Strava: 11.9 miles. 2,205 feet gained.

Day 4
Broke camp in the morning. Looped back to Sunset Lake. Followed trails back to Two Pan TH.

Stava: 9.4 miles. 297 feet gained.

Thoughts: Prospect Lake and the tarn above were highlights. Would be floored to camp on the small Island in the middle of Prospect. The bowl that sits due east of Cusick summit is awesome. Couple unnamed peaks around the bowl look more fun than Cusick to climb. Could come up South Fork Imnaha for that. Looks climbable from S. Fork valley floor.

jimmywells
Posts: 6
Joined: July 26th, 2016, 1:51 pm

Re: Eagle Cap Wilderness

Post by jimmywells » September 7th, 2017, 5:00 pm

How was the fishing in Prospect?

User avatar
Bosterson
Posts: 2317
Joined: May 18th, 2009, 3:17 pm
Location: Portland

Re: Eagle Cap Wilderness

Post by Bosterson » September 8th, 2017, 1:49 pm

maxjamesnw wrote:The bowl that sits due east of Cusick summit is awesome. Couple unnamed peaks around the bowl look more fun than Cusick to climb. Could come up South Fork Imnaha for that. Looks climbable from S. Fork valley floor.
Cool! I went up Cusick in 2015, and it's great. (Didn't see a summit register either.) By the "bowl" to the east, do you mean the South Middle fork drainage of the Inmaha? The ridge along its south side running off Cusick looks pretty rugged, but eventually leads to Marble Mountain. That area is a gem. :)
#pnw #bestlife #bitingflies #favoriteyellowcap #neverdispleased

backcracker
Posts: 38
Joined: July 25th, 2013, 11:55 am
Location: Tri-Cities

Re: Eagle Cap Wilderness

Post by backcracker » September 8th, 2017, 7:51 pm

I've been over the saddle from Glacier to Prospect a couple times but never ventured over to the outlet stream that descends to Little Frazier Lake. Did it look like a scramble up from Little Frazier to Prospect is doable?
I have a trip planned the last weekend in September from E Eagle TH up past Crater Lake and down along the S Fork of the Imnaha and plan to either camp at L Frazier or ascend to Prospect on day 1. Day 2 plan is ascend E Cap form Glacier Pass (bypassing lakes basin) and back down and over Horton Pass then up to Hidden Lake. Day 3 a nice easy peasy hike back to E Eagle TH.

maxjamesnw
Posts: 2
Joined: September 7th, 2017, 3:06 pm

Re: Eagle Cap Wilderness

Post by maxjamesnw » September 9th, 2017, 7:21 am

I didn't catch anything at Prospect Lake, but several people mentioned that it was a great fishing lake. Crucially, i have little experience fly fishing. But wading out to the island in Prospect and fishing off the boulder at its end, into the deepest part of the lake, was a trip highlight. life highlight.

About bowl to 'east' - i misspoke. The bowl i came up through sits directly west of summit of Cusick. must fill with snow and drain to the South fork of Imnaha.

and Backcracker: yes, it would be a doable scramble to veer from trail above little Frazier lake and head up to outlet of Prospect lake. I would descend from pass down several switchbacks, then head across boulder field to left/west/NW in a clockwise direction around to where stream feeds from Prospect to little Frazier. Head up the stream.

Post Reply