I hiked from the Pete Lake Trailhead to Pete Lake, over Waptus Pass, and back to the trailhead via Polallie Ridge Trail and Tired Creek Trail. This is a really nice loop, flat and easy to Pete lake, then some nice elevation to Waptus pass and over the ridge beyond that. No open views of surrounding mountains over the pass and ridge, but nice views through the trees.

Trail conditions were wet, with many stretches where the trail was simply a stream, especially on the way to Pete Lake (see picture). Some of these wet sections were fine to straddle or walk on one side of the trail, but several were deep and wide enough that a detour through the brush was needed. There was a lot of water at all the stream crossings as well. I was able to make it across all the streams up to Pete Lake with dry feet, but just barely and with small detours.

Even though the trail was wet, campsites at Pete Lake were in good shape and dry.

The two substantial water crossings on the way up to Waptus Pass were more difficult, no way to cross without wet boots. For the Cooper River crossing I took a detour of 150 feet up the river to find a spot that was just barely manageable, stepping over rocks that were submerged but not over the top of my boots. But that could change quickly, and if icy it would be tough.

There was a dusting of snow starting at 4200ft, increasing to about 2-3 inches at 5400ft, but it was all easy navigable. If there's a hard freeze the trail on the upper section will become really difficult with all the water on trail over Waptus and Polallie Ridge. There were a number of downed trees across the trail throughout, but none were too difficult to navigate.

NOTE: the Pete Lake Tie (trail 1323.1) appears at the wrong spot on Gaia and USFS maps. It is clearly signed and connects with the Pete Lake trail 500 feet north of where the map shows (I spent some time looking for it on my way in, argh!).

I saw no one on the trail all day on a sunny Friday. No cars in the parking lot at 8:15am, and one other car arriving at 2:30pm.

Day 1, Thursday: Took the trail to Waptus Lake. The bridge for Waptus River was out, so I ended up camping on the south side of the lake. Honestly, I really didn’t like this trail. It was covered in water throughout a lot of it. Found one abandoned sandal. Didn’t see a single person this whole day. A few downed trees.

Day 2, Friday: Waptus Pass to Polallie Ridge. I didn’t actually make it to the Waptus Pass. Incredibly punishing without a lot of reward. Lots of snow on the trail. Some more water-covered trails. Found a pair of sandals. Only saw 2 people on the way down who were coming up to hunt. Lots of downed trees.

I would probably never do either of these again.

We left our car at the Pete Lake trailhead.  We then walked back along Cooper Lake to the Polallie Ridge trailhead to make our second day shorter.  There were a few bugs here but they weren’t too bad.  The trail up Polallie Ridge is quite steep with most of the trail, as least somewhat, in the trees with only a few peek-a-boo views.  Even without views, it was a nice trail with a bunch of huckleberries all along the way.  Once we got up to 5,000 ft or so, the bugs started to show themselves.  There is a nice camp near the trail on the west side of Diamond Lake.  This side of the lake is kind of swampy so the mosquitoes here were horrendous.  We walked around the lake some and found another camp away from the swamp that was much better though there were still some bugs.  Unfortunately, the previous campers here were pigs.  There was fishing line, power bait marshmallows, granola bar wrappers etc. laying around everywhere.  They had also had had a fire (even though a burn ban was in effect) and left it only partially out.  There was still quite a bit of heat in the fire ring that we had to put out.  There was also another camp a little further up the hillside from the lake but unfortunately it looked like some idiot had gone to bathroom right on the edge of the cleared tent sight and just partially covered their mess with a rock as the toilet paper was very visible.

The next day we continued north along Polallie Ridge.  Where yesterday was a continuously up as we climbed the ridge, today started with steep ups followed by steep downs along the ridge.  We went past a number of pretty meadows and occasional snow patches.  Consequently, the mosquitoes were quite bad all morning.  We had to hike with our head nets on almost continuously as we hiked along at around 5,000 ft.  At the intersection with the Tired Creek trail we took it north, descending down to the Waptus Pass trail.  Just before reaching the Waptus Pass trail is a nice big camp.  We then followed Waptus Pass trail towards Pete Lake.  All along the Waptus Pass trail, above 4,500 ft or so we were still dealing with mosquitoes.  Just before the trail starts to steeply head down towards Pete Lake is another nice camp for a tent or two.  Once we started heading down to lower elevations the bugs started to let up and they weren’t too bad a Pete Lake.  There were a few people camped already at Pete Lake by mid-day but as this was a Friday there were a ton of people heading up to Pete and Spectacle as we walked back to our car.

Three friends and I backpacked a loop up the Cooper River valley, over Waptus Pass, and down the Waptus River valley back to Salmon Le Sac. We were originally going to camp the first night at SLC or Cooper Lake, but it was impossible to find a vacant campsite at either location. We pitched camp at a spot just beyond the Pete Lake trailhead - at 10:30pm. On the second day, we hiked over Waptus Pass to Waptus Lake. After encountering crowds everywhere we had gone, it was pleasant to have trail 1329 all to ourselves. There is about 1200 feet of gain between Pete and the pass, and then about the same amount of loss down to Waptus. Aside from a few downed trees, the trail is in good shape. A couple of my friends found this crossing to be strenuous, but I'd say it's moderate for an experienced backpacker who isn't carrying too much weight. There is a very pretty stream crossing near the top of the pass, where we stopped for lunch.

Conditions were perfect at beautiful Waptus Lake, and we found a great campsite on the west side of the lake. The hike out the next day was uneventful, though the bugs were bad for much of the way.

Got started at 8:55 am from the Pete Lake trailhead. In 1.2 miles I took the Tired Creek trail. Trail was extremely overgrown up to the road. Good thing I was wearing pants on this part as I was getting wet with the morning dew. At the road I took a right and just before the washed out bridge for Tired Creek the trail heads up hill to the left. The trail on up is in great shape. I was starting to warm up so I switched to shorts. Trail switchbacks nicely with an occasional view. At around 4900 ft I headed up a faint trail up to a knoll that had some fantastic views looking down at Pete Lake. There is a faint trail that follows this ridge with all the high points. The views are great but there always some trees in the way. I continued on this ridge toward the Tired Creek and Polallie trail junction. There was some lingering snow in the trees here that I had to go thru. I also found some old rusty barbed wire fencing with a piece of old wood nailed to a tree. I assume there is some history here, before this area was in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.

Got to the junction and took a right and went up to the Pollalie Lookout site. After checking out the views here I continued on the Pollalie ridge to the high point on the ridge. This high point is about 1.4 miles from the lookout site. There is a faint trail that veers off the main trail and continues along the ridge. There are a few high spots with a few ups and downs on the ridge walk. The views here are excellent. They are not perfect as there always seems to be a tree in the way. The views to the east toward Mt Stuart and up the Cle Elum valley do not have any trees, so the views are wide open. The Pollalie Ridge high point is forested to the west so there are not any views of the Lemah-Chimney-Summit Chief Peaks. Some of the intermediate peaks on the ridge between the high point and the lookout site have some excellent views of these peaks and also look across the Tired Creek valley toward the knolls that I was just on. Headed back to the the lookout site and decided that I would make a loop of it.

Back at the intersection of the Tired Creek and Pollalie Ridge trail I took the Pollalie Ridge trail down to the Waptus Pass trail. This section is in the forest the whole way. The bugs were also the worst here. After hitting the Waptus Pass trail I took a left and went toward Pete Lake. All the stream crossings were doable. One of them I really had to stretch the legs to reach all the boulders. There were no views on this part except on the switchbacks down to Pete Lake.

I got to Pete Lake at 3:00 pm, took a couple of pics and headed toward the trailhead and the car. Bugs were kind of bad here on the trail back. I tried not to stop and hoofed it as fast as I could. It was not fun as I was getting tired.

Made it back to the car at 4:30 pm. Long hike 17.7 miles with 4345 ft elevation gain. 2900 ft up to the lookout, 1000 ft to the high point and back riding the ridge, and 400 ft back down to Pete Lake and the trailhead. This 400 ft gain on the way down surprised me as I thought it was going to be all downhill. Not sure if I would recommend this loop as it is a long slog with a few unexpected ups and downs back from the intersection of Tired Creek and Pollalie Ridge trails. Going up the Tired Creek trail to the lookout site, the knolls, and the ridge walk was a great hike. If you decide to head up here, I would recommend just taking the Tired Creek trail back down. That's what I will do next time.