Hiked from Pete Lake trail head to Pete Lake for lunch, the to Waptus Lake for overnight. Flies were really bad on the trail, but that is to be expected on any trail that allows horses. (If you have a dog, you are required to clean up after it. But if you have a horse, ehhh, never mind).

Once I got to the lake, I was amazed at the fact there were almost zero flies or mosquitos. Very nice. Lots of wild life in and around the lake. Just missed out on blueberries.

The main reason for this report is to thank WTA! The Waptus pass trail from Pete lake to Waptus lake is a thing of beauty! A large amount of recent trail work is obvious and it is wonderful. If you have ever thought about taking this trail, do it this year before the rains wash away all their hard work. Thank you WTA! This work rates as some of your best!

Cooper River (1311)/Pete Lake (1323)/PCT (2000)/Waptus Burn (1329.3)/Waptus Pass (1329)/Waptus River (1310) Loop

 

This trip was a learning experience for me and a friend who spent two nights on a hike we will now call the "accidental loop." Maybe because we were tired, maybe because we were chatting and not paying close enough attention, we missed the right turn to get onto the Waptus River Trail after leaving the Salmon La Sac Trailhead and ended up on the Pollalie Ridge Trail. We didn't realize this until a couple miles in when we saw the topography we were hiking did not match the section of the map we expected to be on. Instead of turning around, we decided to keep going. Originally, we had planned to go up the Waptus River Trail to Waptus Lake and then camp at Spade Lake. This would have meant a 12 mile day, but with fairly little elevation gain compared to the total mileage. However, on this route, we got about the same mileage but much more elevation gain. This trail has false summits galore and lots of rolling hills where you lose all the elevation you've just gained almost immediately. This created a challenging first day, but a fun adventure overall. The Pollallie Ridge Trail is mostly in good condition, though. The trail is fairly clear, with only a few brushy spots, and in the meadows where the tread disappeared about five miles in, there were helpful cairns leading the way. The descent from Pollalie Ridge to Waptus Pass was made tricky by a number of trees blown down across the trail. It looks like trail crews have been working hard to clear these all summer, but there are still quite a few obscuring the trail about a quarter mile from where the trail intersects with the Tired Creek Trail. Dozens of large trees are laid across the trail, creating a bit of a jungle gym to climb over. I don't think I'll ever get all the pine sap washed out of the seat of my pants from this section. Debris completely obscured the trail in some sections, which led us to wander for a couple minutes before finding it again. Once we passed this section, though, things cleared up significantly. We continued down and down and down some more into the Waptus river valley, crossed a few dry creek beds and then, after passing the sign for Quick Creek Camp, took a left across the horse ford to Waptus Lake. The horse ford is very low right now, only up to my shins (I am 5' 3"). We never made it to Spade Lake. After leaving the trailhead at 8:45 am, we made it to the campground at Waptus Lake around 6 pm and decided to stay the night there. It was a long, hot day and not at all what we had planned. However, it was gorgeous and there are SO MANY ripe huckleberries along this trail right now. Our hands were purple from picking them. We saw quite a few green and red ones, too, so it looks like there will be an abundance of berries for the next few weeks at least. On day 2, it was even warmer. We decided that we wanted a more leisurely day than before, so we went 5 miles down the Waptus River Trail to a swimming hole a couple at Waptus Lake had told us about. It was glorious and not too cold. After our break to swim, we hiked another mile down the trail to the first camp marked on the Waptus River Trail (about 3 miles from the trailhead). There is a gorgeous waterfall in view of the camp that my hiking partner walked upriver to see. The water is pretty low right now and she said it was a pretty easy walk in Crocs. On day 3, we set out from camp at 7:15 and were back to the trailhead by 9. We laughed at our initial mistake but were actually pretty satisfied with the loop. I'm looking forward to going back to actually make it to Spade Lake! Lesson learned: Always bring the Green Trails Maps that are adjacent to the map you know you need in case plans change.

We started this hike on Tuesday July 5. The 9-10 mile hike upto Waptus Lake is very peasant and you can make good time. For those not familiar with the region like we were not, the weather on this side of the cascades is completely different to that on the Snoqualmie Pass side with substantially less rainfall. Indeed we came over to this side because the weather was much better and the snow levels much lower. The trail upto Waptus Lake was in good condition for the most part but the trail did get quite overgrown close to Waptus Lake and especially on the part of the Waptus Pass trail along the edge of the lake. Moreover, the start of this trail was actually a mini river, and hence potentially miss-able, but eventually became dry again with one or two blowdowns. Additionally, Posion Ivy was growing like crazy and unavoidable since it was overhanging the trail a lot once the trail became overgrown. Despite sketchy reports about the possibility of getting out along Polallie ridge, we decided to give it a try. The trail ascends quite quickly along the Waptus Pass trail leaving the lake and there are a couple of places early where you could lose the trail but, overall, the trail was in quite good condition up to the junction with Polallie Ridge trail. Here's where things got interesting. The mile and a half stretch to the junction with Tired Creek trail was basically blanketed with blow downs, sometimes piled three high. It's passable if you're intent on doing so, but slow going and often the best way to make progress through the dense mass of blow downs is not obvious. However, the trail does clear up substantially after the junction with the Tired Creek trail and then you certainly get your reward! The view from the abandoned lookout is absolutely incredible!! Here you have a clear 360 degree view of the cascades. I think this view easily beats that from the Kendall Katwalk. But, be prepared for bugs in bug season. They were crazy over the July 4 weekend. The rest of the trail down to the parking lot is rarely flat, either somewhat steep up or somewhat steep down. I guess this is why the trail is not as popular as it could be given the view from the abandoned lookout. But the trail is easy to follow and basically snow free. Closer to the trailhead we started to come across more blow downs although no where near as intense as the other end of the ridge and clean up crews were already making good progress. Overall, I highly recommend the Polallie Ridge trail.