We had to drive around the back side to the wilderness area because of the road closures and began the hike from Shellrock Lake Trailhead. I wasn't ready to scratch up my new truck on the road to Frazier turnaround. We hiked up to Frazier turnaround the first evening and camped at the abandoned Frazier Fork Campground a little ways down the road, which sits right next to the Shining Lake Trailhead. We were interested to see the collapsed and deteriorating outhouses and picnic tables.
Early the next morning we headed down the trail with a plan to leave the trail where the ridge turns north, on the western edge of the bowl. We made the mistake of staying on the side of the ridge closest to the trail, which was infested with rhododendrons and quite the slog. Eventually we made it over to the other side of the ridge, which was a bit of a slope, but sandy and more open. Our mistake then was following game trails down too soon and getting of the ridge, where the rhododendrons began almost insupportable. My son wasn't a fan and at one point we were on the verge of turning back. We couldn't believe how far down it was to the lake and how rough the terrain was. We ultimately decided to press forward to the lake, mostly because we were out of water, and I was hoping we'd find a better way back out, without having to retrace our steps.
Finally we crawled through thick rhododendrons and emerged at the shore of the lake, which was a little disappointing. It was not as pretty as many of the other lakes in the area, more brown than blue/green in color. It appeared quite shallow, and with now inlet or outlet I could see on the map or in person, appeared to have drawn down quite a bit over the summer. I tried fishing, even using the powerbait method which will usually get a bite in deep water during summer months, but saw no indication that any fish survive in this lake. I saw a rough skinned newt, so there was some life. The water was still cold and refreshing (and super helpful since we had a challenging five+ miles back to the car).
Luckily on the way out, we managed a better path that was hard, but much better. We followed the ridge that ascends from the lake up to the top and worked to stay out of the trees and on the rock scree all the way up. We then stayed on the inside of the ridge and followed that around towards Indian Ridge. We tried several times to bushwack back to the trail, but hit walls of rhododendrons. Once we cleared the highest point on the topo map, the rhododendrons disappeared and we had a relative easy drop back down to the trail, which was considered a sweet moment by all in the party.
Ultimately, it was a good adventure, but the lake was unremarkable and probably not ever worth the hike again. The drop down into the lake was just too much without any trails. The sandy terrain on the inside of that ridge revealed plenteous signs of animal life, with cougar, bear and elk signs evident, with many game trails down towards the lake.
Outhouse at Frazier Fork (we didn't use it)
