Shackleford Trail #5542

Dogs Leashed

Features Commonly Backpacked · Lake · Swimming · Wildflowers

Although it's a wilderness, this area is open to grazing in the summer, so expect to meet a cow or two. Be sure to treat or filter all of your water, even that which you get from the lakes. There is an excellent down-valley viewpoint just before you reach the PCT.

The Shackleford Trail starts as a now-abandoned road until it reaches the wilderness boundary where it narrows down into a singletrack trail. It then climbs gently up the drainage (but not next to the creek) under the forest canopy. At 2.8 miles from the trailhead, you pass a junction with the Campbell Cutoff Trail #5543 and then, at 3.4 miles, a junction with the Back Meadows Trail #5549 (which takes you to the trail to Calf Lake). Another 0.1 miles farther along, you'll pass small, shallow, Log Lake to arrive at a junction with the Campbell Lake Trail #5541 at 4.0 miles.

Beyond the Campbell Lake Trail #5541 junction, the #5542 passes a boulder field, an unsigned junction with the now-abandoned Little Elk Lake Pass Trail #5536 (you can still follow this route to Little Elk Lake but it's almost all a cross-country adventure now), and at 5.5 miles from the trailhead, Summit Lake and a junction with the Bull Meadows Trail #5548. Summit is a popular campsite for backpackers and has a few good spots for swimming.

Past Summit Lake, the trail climbs more aggressively and, in 0.7 miles, reaches a great viewpoint and, shortly thereafter, ends at its junction with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).