Boulder Chain Lakes are a part of the many lakes scattered around the peaks of the White Cloud mountains. Our access the the lakes was from the East Fork of the Salmon River. From the east fork you can follow Little Boulder Creek most the way to the Lakes. At the fork of Boulder Chain Lakes Creek, you then follow it north into the lakes. The chain lakes include Waterdog Lake, Willow Lake, Hatchet Lake, Shelf Lake, Slide Rock Lake, Lodgepole Lake, Hourglass Lake, Hummock Lake, Hidden Lake, Scoop Lake, Headwall Lake, and Lonesome Lake.

Our group began to form up Friday night at a BLM camp site along the East Fork. Jason and I meet in Stanley for a light dinner at around ten. Unfortunatley the kitchen was closed, so we had a pint and moved on towards camp. Jason and I road into camp around midnight and found Rhett there waiting for us. He had gotten there just before dark and was wondering where we were at as he started a fire and waited. That night we had a reunion and were up until about three to four when John and Lauri made it to camp to complete the group.

The next day we woke up, had a good breakfast, set up our packs and made it on the trail around our usual time, noon. Once we got up out of the East Fork valley and into Little Boulder Creek we had a nice trail and were able to look at Castle Peak. We had talked about the possibility of scaling the peak as it is the tallest in the White Clouds. Though we didn't acaully climb it due to a multitude of reasons (most important being there was still to much snow in the gully we were going to use on this approach), I do plan to one day return and add that summit to my list of climbing Idaho's tallests.

After a long day of hiking (9-10 miles) and being the first trip of the season we finally made it to our camp at the lower lakes and found a spot on one side of Hatchet Lake. The bugs that night were thick and I coped with the problem by wrapping myself up in my bedroll and resting up from the long day. The others dared the squadrons of mosquitoes and cooked up a good dinner.

Our last day we spent the first part of it walking up though the chain and back while fishing here and there to see what we could catch. Though we didn't make it all the way to Lonesome Lake, we had a nice hike up and around to Hidden Lake and back. As for the fishing, well we did catch a few 8-10 inch fish out of the upper lakes, but nothing worth talking about.

Rhett did not make it up to Hidden Lake with us. Instead he headed back and packed up his bag and then found us about the time we got back. He wanted to go fish in Frog Lake, so off he went to do that and said his farewells just in case he made it down the trail and bailed before us. While Rhett went off, we packed up our bags while cooking a late lunch before hitting the trail. We then headed down the trail and at our own paces made it to the East Fork an hour or more before dark. As we all arrived one by one, we took off our boots, put on some shoes and relaxed and waited for the others to all group up. Rhett himself was there and told us stories of large fish he was able to pull out of Frog Lake. After relaxing for a bit and saying our goodbyes we all went on our respective paths home.