Summary. Very enjoyable hike with a little of everything. Starts out steady and then hits hard with the incline. The trail is well maintained for the first ~3 miles, then becomes quite technical and overgrown.

Numbers.

• 9.11 miles of roundtrip distance.
• 2,068 feet of elevation gain up-and-down.
• 1,491 and 3,005 feet above sea level at the lowest & highest altitudes, respectively.
• 21 minutes and 4 seconds per mile average moving pace.
• 4 hours of elapsed time, 3 hours and 12 minutes of those moving.

Getting there. The drive to Spada Lake was fine. The dirt road heading up was well maintained. There is lots of parking at the trailhead and two portable toilets.

The hike. The first two miles over former Forest Road were relatively flat and well-maintained.  There are lots of picnic spots in this section that are perfect for those not too into hiking. Decent amount of wildflowers can be spotted through this section.

Shortly after you pass the old trailhead markers, the incline becomes unrelenting. The trail transitions to very challenging terrain: roots, boulders, and downed trees.

The brush takes over the trail entirely past Little Greider Lake. Lucky me, there were plenty of ripe huckleberries inches from my face.

I only saw six other people on the hike. It was awesome.

Land acknowledgement. Every place and each person are shaped by the history that has led to this very moment. I visited the cultural and ancestral lands of the Snoqualmie and Skykomish tribes. I share gratitude for their stewardship, their resilience, and the land itself. 

Did a day hike to both Greider Lakes. The first 2 miles are uneventful in the PUD section. As others have mentioned there are many downed trees once you enter the DNR section. There are various colored tapes to help guide you around said obstacles, and all were very doable, just required looking all around to figure out where it was taking you next. The trail between Little and Big Greider Lakes was pretty overgrown, but also had some ripe blueberries already! 

I have to wholeheartedly agree with Kelsey's review on Alltrails about the area of tree fall and options for going around. We saw survey flagging around 3.5 miles in and tried taking the main trail first based on a hiker we passed coming down. He thought the alternate looked too steep. It was a total pain to get past the tree fall and to the next switchback.

We then saw a couple of hikers above who had recently passed us on the way up and they told us to take the alternate routes. Sooooo much better and faster! A couple of steep boulders at one spot but overall not too bad. This from a 57 y.o., 6-2, 275# out of shape guy.

I think the alternate routes bypassed 4 or 5 of the southernmost switchbacks in total. It was hard to tell from looking that some of the main trail was even there from the amount of tree fall. (See pictures for proof.)

Overall I liked the lakes and am glad I made the trek, but I doubt I would do it again. The trail was wide open and easy to follow, but once you get to the uphill portion it is nearly all small to medium boulders and stones on the trail or tree roots galore. You have to visually place so many steps going up AND back down that is makes for a very slow pace. Normally gravity is my friend and I can get downhill at a good clip. Not this trail. Holy schmoly! WTA says it's a "rough" trail and they aren't kidding!

But hey, hiking in the Casacdes on a lovely Wednesday beats working any day of the week.

Other things to note.
- Lots of mosquitos. Bring something to fend them off. I use a 30% Deet and it works great. I smell like a chemical factory but I'm a Gen X'er so there ya go.
- There were quite a few flowers blooming and some cool type of water lily on the lakes. Gave the lakes a very Monet vibe.
- There was a big Salamander on the lower portion of the trail near the reflection ponds. I reported it to WDFW after trying to id it as it appears to be an "At risk" species. I think it was a Cascade Torrent Salamander? (See picture)

Stats (For your amusement)
Mile 1 - 24:18
Mile 2 - 27:26
Mile 3 - 46:14
Mile 4 - 84:25 (The Tree fall stretch!)
Mile 5 - 48:22 (Not including a break for lunch at Big Greider)
Mile 6 - 51:11
Mile 7 - 43:22
Mile 8 - 27:41
Mile 9 - 25:56

Overall time hiking 6:15:00ish

This was a short preview hike as I plan to do the full hike to Greider lakes later this summer. I had planned on a different adventure this day but it fell through due to weather and a complete lack of a trail. (Long story) So I decided to do a quick scout of the Greider Lakes trailhead and ended up taking a short hike on a portion of it. I did not get started until 2pm, thus the short preview hike.

I went just under 1-1/2 miles to the Bear Creek day use overlook, well short of the reflecting ponds. I had never been to Spada Lake or knew anything about it. Very interesting to find this large reservoir that supplies the majority of municipal waters to Snohomish County apparently.

It had been raining most of the drive up, which was on a pretty good gravel road for the last 8 to 9 miles. I have a Subaru Forester and did not have any issues on the road and think just about any car could drive on it.

Very quiet trail and nearly empty parking lot on a Wednesday afternoon. Only one other car in the lot. You are supposed to stop and register at a pullout a little before the trailhead parking. Parking was free and plentiful this day.

The trail was in great condition. Slightly overgrown in a few areas but nothing too bad. Mosquitos were around but not bad until I tried to eat lunch at the Bear Creek overlook. I had to give that up as they all seemed to know I had stopped there and was an easy target.

I especially enjoyed the first 1/10th of a mile of the trail. It was through a little forest glen area with a ton of moss on the ground and trees. Water crossings were either negligible, dried up or spanned by bridges between the parking lot and the Bear Creek day use area.

I'm looking forward to going back for the whole trail and getting up into the mountains to see the Greider Lakes!

The trail is mildly overgrown especially towards the top. Most of the trail was dry except for the little divots were the creeks goes by. Bridge B-2 is this under construction and at this time can’t cross the bridge but there is the old path you can still take under it.