Mosquito

From the town of Twisp, take the Twisp River Road west. It is paved for quite a distance. This road becomes Forest Service Road 44 and then at the Mystery Campground it becomes Forest Service Road 4440. 22.5 miles from the town of Twisp, is the South Creek Trail #401 just past the South Creek Campground. The trail is in good shape for the first 2 miles to the junction that goes to Louis Lake. Here you want to go right. At about 3 miles, there is a stream crossing that can be a problem in the spring when the water is high. At about 4 miles from the trailhead, you will come to the old burn area that starts at about 5100 feet. You will do two shallow switchbacks, then at 5400 feet there is a sharp switchback just as the trail touches the forest again on the west side of the old burn, Here you will see an obvious route going straight ahead into the trees. Follow this route until it disappears in about 100 feet. From there you are pretty much on your own, but it is not a problem because the going is quite easy. You want to drop slightly as you traverse around this shallow forested bowl towards Mosquito Lake. Shortly you will come to a small stream which should be easy to cross later in the season. Continue dropping a little so that you hit the next very small (maybe even dry) stream at 5200 feet or a little higher. Below this level it can be very wet and swampy, so it is wise to stay a little higher. At this point, you will want to start going back up slightly, but of course since the lake is only at 5282 feet, do not get carried away. Soon you will be able to see the clearing ahead where the lake is, but there is a large swampy area ahead just before the lake. We found the best route was to go to the west side where the slope is and get around with dryer feet. This will bring you to the north shore of the very shallow Mosquito Lake.