Well, I made it.
We parked at the gate on Amick Road. There's a sign on a stump, adjacent the road that reading, "Private property, No Trespassing." Actually, there are two or three of them! This didn't scare us off, though we were hesitant to park in the "pull out" next to the stump.
We backed up and parked about 15ft. from the gate, as far off the road as we could get. A sign on the gate says, "Do Not Block Gate. Vehicles will be towed."
Anyhoo, it's a mutli-lock box with padlocks for DNR, Motorola, AT&T, and a few others. I just did a quick glance, but it didn't appear that all the locks were there..........
They've done some work up there since I was last in the area--a lot, actually. There are several cell towers, repeaters, etc. on the top of the hill. There used to be a gate ~50ft from the trail to Lake Ten--this no longer exists. Many of the side roads have MASSIVE troughs dug to keep vehicles out.
Keep an eye out for the crude fisherman's trail about 1.5 miles up from the gate--it looks a lot like a fairly worn deer trail. There's about 700 feet of elevation gain, followed by a 200ft elevation drop at the lake.
Some views along the way:
Clear Lake is in the picture. Just behind the trees to the right (not visible in this pic!) is Big Lake.
Continue past the trailhead and you get some decent views of the valley in one direction, and the salt in another.
Here's Lake Ten from a high spot up the road (nearly to the towers).
The trail is in pretty rough shape.
We saw bicycle tracks up to the trailhead, as well as a single set of boot-tracks...which is about right, since the trail looks nearly untouched bas on all the new growth. There are some steep sections, some muddy sections, SEVERAL very brushy sections (some thorny), and a few fallen trees. The first 100yds is the worst, with brushy and thorny things at/above eye level.
The old, crude "bridges" over the marshy creek are in rough shape, too...
When we arrived at the lake, it was pretty apparent that it hasn't seen much use. The majority of the litter (and it's not a whole lot) is beer cans and bottles that are a decade or two old. There is now a house on the (west) end of the lake. If you hit up google earth, the white spot near the lake is the home-owners BOAT.
Of course, this means the housing developement off cedardale/stackpole roads has continued well up the hillside. Looking at the maps, the newer roads up the hills above the north end of the lake--maybe you can access them, maybe not...but I bet they're full of houses in the next couple years...
Anyhoo, it might be worth trying to get up there via Cascade Ridge/Quail Drive.
The lake:
Just at the tip of the lake, which isn't quite visible in this picture, is the home mentioned.
It's shame--some of the best brook trout fishing is right in that area... No effort was made to contact anyone in the home--we kept our distance. Maybe they're nice?
The other end of the lake:
We fished the lake for ~2 hours, from 4:00-6:00pm. Sunny with a light breeze.
We confirmed both Rainbow and Cutthroat trout are still in the lake. Several fish in the 12-14" range, some smaller. There was a fair amount of surface activity.
There may, or may not, still be a small population of brook trout.
The best shore fishing was along the East/Northeast shore...catching almost entirely Rainbows in the deeper water. The "point" along the north shore offered mediocre fishing, where the majority of fish were Coastal Cutthroats that were hiding fairly shallow around the numerous snags.
We only tried spinners--almost exclusively "natural" colored 1/8oz rooster tails.
All fish were released!
Lake Ten seems like it's still a fairly "easy catch" lake--probably due to the low fishing pressure. There are numerous "keeper size" trout in the lake.
I'll probably make it back in the future, but with the nearby construction and homes popping up it won't be a "frequent" destination for me.
If anyone heads up there and makes contact with the home-owner, please PM me.
