Page 1 of 1

Dinkey Lakes Wilderness

PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 6:04 pm
by huynguyen1
Any suggestions for a good 3-night basecamp at Dinkey in June? What are some of your favorite fishing lakes there? Thanks!

Re: Dinkey Lakes Wilderness

PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 8:20 pm
by AlmostThere
If the roads are open in June, which is a really big IF, you'll be walking in snow. The lake basin is above 9000-10000 feet. No surprise that I am on the trail crew there as well as Kaiser - we clear Kaiser earlier than Dinkey because the road to Willow Meadow trailhead is a shitty dirt road the last mile of which has likely drummed up business for auto mechanics for years. And that road first needs to have the 4 wheel drive clubs and their chainsaws clear it. The road to Courtright Reservoir where the other main trailhead is - that waits til all the snow melts off the road for the gate to open, and that will likely be late June - early July this year, PGE runs snowcats until they can get trucks in, they don't plow it. You can get to Dinkey from Badger Flat / Potter Pass trailhead, but that will take a full day longer than from the other two trailheads and that section of trail is difficult to follow at Weldon's camp.

Dinkey in summer is very busy indeed as the hiking is not strenuous nor the miles long. The lakes have mostly brook trout, with rainbows in Mystery and Island (which has golden/rainbow hybrids). Nothing huge. I believe that some of them are still planted by air. And the mosquitoes are epic during the snowmelt. We always bring the big can o spray-on DEET.