I started off at white river Trial head around 6:30 7 am. About 3ish miles in you will run into overgrowth on Indian Creek trail. Sometimes you will not be able to see the trail because part of it is overgrown. There are quite a few patches of overgrowth so prepare to get a few scratches on your legs if you don't have pants on. 

Once you get near Glacier Peak there are plenty of spots to camp out at. I didn't bring crampons or an ice axe because I did not plan on hiking on any glaciers. I went to the ridge on the left side of Disappointment Peak. There is a bunch of scree this way so be prepared to empty out your shoes. Just be sure you give one another space so you don't drop rocks on one another this way. Even though I was by my self there where still people I had to watch out for going up. I gets a bit easier once you hit the Disappointment Peak. Once at the to enjoy the views if it is not cloudy.

If you plan on hiking out of Indian Creek trail at night make sure you have an in-reach device on you. I started from the PCT at 8 pm and didn't get off Indian Creek until 2:30am. I did get lost a few times while hiking thought the thick brush. There are deer and bear trails runoffs on this trail. I may have takin a few and got lost in the woods. At least I had my Garman on me to help guide me back to trail the 5 or 6 times I lost the trail. 

My intention with this trip was to finish the season with a route I would have a hard time completing. The plan was to do an 83mi loop around Glacier Peak, starting at White River trailhead, in 3-4 days. The elevation gain was the big question mark; I had never tried to do four ~5,000ft days in a row. The total gain for the trip would be around 18,500ft. I packed enough food for four days.

Day 1: White River Trailhead to Kennedy Creek

I started off from White River Trailhead at 10AM on Friday. The weather was clear and the temperature was perfect for hiking. There was a very thin layer of smoke driving towards the trailhead, nothing serious. The first four or so miles on Indian Creek are well maintained. I had read that the trail turns into a serious bushwhack after this point but I still underestimated just how difficult it would be. I opted to do this loop clockwise so I wouldn't have to deal with these trail conditions after three days of intense hiking, which turned out to be the right decision (more on that later). From mile four to mile 10 this trail is essentially abandoned. The undergrowth is so thick you won't be able to see your feet for minutes at a time. At this point in the season this valley is very dry, and the plants growing over and directly on the trail are brittle and sharp. I lost the trail half a dozen times and was glad to have GPS navigation. Very thick pants are the only way you'll make it through this trail without dozens of cuts on your legs. Two days later I look like I lost a fight with a weedwhacker. I considered putting on my lightweight shell pants but they would have been completely shredded by the time I reached the PCT had I done that. I'm not exaggerating when I say motorcycle shin guards would be a reasonable idea, although my thighs are cut up too (suit of armor maybe?). I will never step foot on this trail again unless I'm part of a trail crew or I hear that a dozen volunteers spent two weeks lopping at all that undergrowth.

Indian Creek climbs gently towards the PCT but the undergrowth actually gets worse as you progress along the trail. Water sources were regular enough that I did fine with 1200ml of capacity. I've never been so happy to see the PCT. As soon as you approach the junction the conditions improve and you'll have smooth sailing as far as trail conditions go for the next 40 miles. I didn't encounter many people on the PCT for the remainder of the day. I rounded Red Pass, dropped down into the White Chuck River valley, and caught a few glimpses of Glacier Peak. I stopped on the climb a quarter mile past Kennedy Creek, about 3mi past where I planned to stop, and camped at 8PM.

Day 1: 24.45mi, 5399ft ascent. 10hrs

Day 2: Kennedy Creek to Miner's Creek

My goal for this day was to make it to the bridge across the Suiattle River, 25mi from Kennedy Creek. I dry camped the night before, so I climbed for a mile and a half until I came to Glacier Creek and had breakfast. As I climbed to Fire Creek Pass, I got a good look at the White Chuck River valley from above. A dense layer of smoke was lingering in the valley as far as I could see. This was the only point along the route where I saw significant smoke. 

This day was extremely challenging due to the elevation profile. I climbed to Fire Creek Pass, descended to the Milk Creek crossing, immediately ascended to Vista Ridge, then descended again to the Suiattle River. I underestimated just how rough it is to not have a flat section of trail to recover on between so many ascents and descents. I had planned to do a significant amount of running on descents along this route, but had to cut back to give my exhausted muscles and beat up feet a break.

A speedy NOBO thru hiker was kind enough to pace me on the descent to the Suiattle. I crossed the bridge as night was falling, and decided to do a little night hiking on the following ascent along the river. At this point, it was feasible I could complete the loop in 3 days, and be back at the trailhead the following evening. Taking a few miles and a thousand feet of gain off the following day would be key to avoiding totally exhausting myself on the final day. I ascended until 9:30 and camped off a switchback above Miner's Creek two miles from the Buck Creek Trail junction. 

Day 2: 30.5mi, 7716ft ascent, 14hrs.

Day 3: Miner's Creek to White River Trailhead

This day wound up being one of the hardest things I've ever done. I broke camp at 6:30AM. I had dry camped again so I stopped and ate breakfast along the trail around 7:30. I reached the Buck Creek Trail junction and began the long climb to Buck Creek Pass. The next section from Buck Creek Pass to High Pass is one of the most beautiful pieces of trail I have ever seen. The views are mind bogglingly sublime and the area couldn't feel more remote. High Pass is the perfect viewing point of the entire glaciated ridge from Clark Mountain, to Glacier Peak, to Kennedy Peak. As I climbed, the clouds covering the top of Glacier moved north and revealed the entire peak. I felt so lucky to have clear weather and smoke free air. 

Buck Creek/High Pass trails were surprisingly busy, I saw far more people along this section than I did on the PCT. High Pass Trail is rugged, and trail conditions are poor. Some scrambling is required, but the pass is snow free. The worst sections are extremely steep and dusty, the kind of trail where it's easy to lose your feet and wind up sliding down on your butt. Navigation was difficult too. I lost the trail multiple times along the descent towards the Napeequa, and overall this section feels like an unofficial trail at many points.

I hadn't anticipated these conditions, which slowed me down significantly. I knew I had another 2,000ft climb over Boulder Pass to make it out that day, and wasn't looking forward to it. The final obstacle would be the lengthy and steep descent from Boulder Pass to the White River Trailhead, as descents were more painful than ascents at this point.

My four day plan was to camp around the junction of the Boulder Creek and Boulder Pass trails, which I reached around 5PM. I was determined to complete the loop that day, but after the conditions on the descent I had just completed, I was worried that the Boulder Pass trail would be even worse. My fears seemed to be confirmed at the junction, which was marked by a sign that pointed southwest to what barely even looked like a trail. If the trail was this bad at the junction, what would it look like on the climb?

I followed the barely visible trail 50 yards down to the Napeequa ford. The river was running very fast and was completely opaque, there was no way to see the bottom through the milky blue/green color. The trail was visible on the other side. I turned myself towards the flow and started side stepping my way into the river. The bottom sloped rapidly downwards and I was quickly up to mid thigh depth. I took one more step and was in up to my waist. I was only a few steps across and I could feel the bottom continued to slope down. This was an unacceptable level of danger for me considering how fast the river was flowing.

I side stepped back onto the bank and ran through my options. If I couldn't ford the Napeequa I'd need to take Little Giant Pass to FS6200 and somehow find a ride back to White River Trailhead, which would be an extremely difficult hitchike. I needed to find a place to ford if I could. I found a rough tunnel of trail through the undergrowth along the river which went a few yards north of the official ford. This opened up onto a well used pair of campsites and a spot along the river which was about half the width of the spot I previously attempted to ford. Again, I had no clue how deep it was, so I very slowly inched my way sideways into the water. This time, it only came up to mid thigh, and I made it across. I was able to bushwhack my way back to the trail and start the ascent.

Boulder Pass trail was thankfully in great shape. The ascent is quite steep, 2,000ft over two miles, but it was a relief after so much descending. Trail conditions remained good for the rest of the day. I made it over the pass, down the other side, and night fell as I reached the junction with the White River Trail. This trail was an absolute blessing, as it was completely flat. At this point I was reaching a level of exhaustion that required some serious mental fortitude to push through. My legs had held up surprisingly well, but the front of my right ankle suddenly started hurting. I had 5.5 miles of night hiking ahead of me, and if I kept up a good pace I would be out by 10PM. Because the trail conditions were so good, I was able to do some light running. I had to give this up with 2 miles left to go as my ankle protested. Unlike the previous two nights, which were pitch black due to cloud cover, I was treated to a clear night sky and visible stars. 

I reached the trailhead exactly at 10PM. The two and a half hour drive home was as hard as the last few miles of hiking thanks to my ankle. 

Day 3: 28mi, 7133ft ascent. 15hrs.

Trip totals: 83mi, 20,228ft ascent/descent. 39hrs.

We started out at 9am from the white river falls trailhead, on the indian creek trail. 2.2 miles out, we passed a newly put-up bridge over the indian creek, putting us on the northern side of the creek. We had another 3 miles of clear trail until we hit massive overgrowth and obscured trail. This lasted about 5 miles until the final ascent to the PCT. It was not a pleasant experience. Expect your legs to get pretty thrashed.

Once on the PCT, a severe damp fog rolled in, but the 3 or so miles were easy. We took the junction east at white pass, taking us another few miles up to the lip of the basin. The low visibility made the boulder fields a slow process, but we found a camp a mile or two in.

The next morning we headed out around 6, moving across the basin and up through glacier gap. Total bluebird skies gave us a great view of the disappointment cleaver route all the way up the southern spine of the mountain. It was easy going along the spine, choosing to skirt across the glacier instead about halfway up.

Once we reached the headwall of disappointment peak and crossed the Gerdine glacier, moving up to Cool glacier became an obvious problem. The pitch was steep, and Cool glacier was in pieces  coming over the lip, forcing a narrow westward ascent up through rockfall. We foolishly pushed up to the top with my friend on crampons and me on microspikes, and it was sketchy. When I topped out, I could see that the time taking to summit, combined with the quick warming of the glacier, would prove a very dangerous later descent. I made the quick decision to turn right around and carefully drop back down.

Once safe below the wall, we returned all the way back to the parking lot that night by 9 pm, clocking in 30 miles that day, and 20 miles the previous.

Without Ice tools, a rope, and some screws, this route appears to be no longer a safe option for this season. Regardless, the views are unparalleled, and we had the mountain to ourselves, probably due to N fork sauk trail being closed.

The USFS has now replaced the washed out log bridge across Indian Creek at mile 2 except for guard rails so there is no need to ford the very fordable river.  The description of this hike is very accurate. The trail is hard to follow in many places beyond mile 4-5 (the countless blow downs seem to be disproportionately at sites where the trail direction changes adding to the challenges). There are quite a lot of bugs in the hard to navigate regions, adding to frustration of not being able to move on quickly.  Unless this gets some maintenance soon it will be on the same trajectory as the White River Trail.  I came down this at the end of a Glacier Peak circumnavigation and it made me glad that I went counterclockwise because this would have been an unpleasant trail to ascend.

I'll second what Mr Wilcock said in his recent trip report... Bridge over Indian Creek is in, but no railing yet. Bridge is secure enough, but could cause injury if you fell off; use caution.

Trail is occasionally overgrown with very thick brush from miles 4-9. I lost the trail twice, once ascending, and once descending. Navigation skills are necessary.

Carry plenty of water. Last good water source on way up is about five miles in, just beyond junction with Airplane lake trail. If you run out in the next 5-6 miles, plan on bushwhacking to the main creek. 

Descending this trail is easier than ascending, so choose wisely.