Summit Lake Day Hike 8/12 (Mt Jefferson Wilderness)

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christabrews
Posts: 94
Joined: August 12th, 2018, 10:07 am

Summit Lake Day Hike 8/12 (Mt Jefferson Wilderness)

Post by christabrews » August 12th, 2022, 6:42 pm

I needed to verify that I could locate Summit Lake as a water source/camp spot for my PCT section hike later this month. I couldn't find much info online, so I decided to do a day hike to scope it out.

There were nice views of Mt Washington and North/Middle Sister in the burn area, but the haze (I'm assuming from smoke) did not help.
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Saw this cutie along the way!
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Finally, I left the burn area. There were great views of three fingered jack, as well as Booth and Martin lakes.
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I reached the point where I expected the trail to Summit Lake, based on the caltopo map, but I could not find it. I ended up wandering around just a bit off trail of the PCT, and eventually saw a trail down the hill from where I was standing. I first followed it back to the PCT, to see where I missed it. There is no sign of this trail where it meets the PCT. I headed back down it, and encountered a family leaving the lake. This was the first group I saw on this hike.

Summit Lake is beautiful, and there are several nice campsites around the lake. There was one group camped at the lake. I ate my lunch on a rock at the edge of the lake.
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This was a view from one of the campsites. It's a little exposed, so I wouldn't want to camp there if it was at all windy, but it would be a great place to watch the sunrise!
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I'm looking forward to camping here on my section hike.

Here are the coordinates of the trail junction in case anyone is interested: 44.460236, -121.846562

bbrewer
Posts: 4
Joined: July 8th, 2018, 6:57 pm

Re: Summit Lake Day Hike 8/12 (Mt Jefferson Wilderness)

Post by bbrewer » August 14th, 2022, 11:48 am

Thanks for this trip report! I've wondered about this lake, camping feasibility, and access from the PCT.

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