Arrived at the Ira Spring trailhead at 8 AM, to plenty of parking available. The lot filled up later in the day but only a few cars parked on the road. Privy is in great condition.

On the road in, which starts out paved but soon turns to dirt, beware the very nasty pothole right where the pavement ends. It's not so much a pothole as a trench that stretches almost across the whole lane.

I did the clockwise loop: up Putrid Pete's Peak, across the ridge to Mt. Defiance, to the top of Defiance and back, then down past Mason Lake and back to the TH. I didn't bother scrambling east from P3 to the true summit of Web Mountain.

Although the wildflowers are past peak, there are still many in bloom. I'm sorry I'm too ignorant to list them all.

Bugs were a serious annoyance at times. Most were the little ones that irritatingly swarm without biting. A few times it got to the point where I inhaled a few. Fortunately a little breeze was enough to provide some relief.

As many have commented, the trail up to P3 is very steep, and just keeps getting more so as you go along. Altogether it's about 3000 feet, and the last 1000 happen in just 1/3 mile. But at least that last section is wide open so it's not difficult to find a route. Lower down, near the top of a series of switchbacks in the forest, I fumbled into a route that put me in the middle of a huge boulder field. And I made the same mistake when I did this last year, too! The real trail, or at least the sensible trail, goes below that boulder field. But it does go through the middle of a smaller one higher up. I highly recommend GPS sanity checks.

I've never gone down P3. I think that would be considerably worse than going up, especially on tired knees. I prefer to head across the ridge leading the Mt. Defiance. This time I avoided the pitfall of drifting too far down the southern side of the ridge line. I stayed as close as possible to the top of the ridge, and though it is rough in places, that's the best route. It helped that another hiker was in front to show me the way (hi Leanne!). And of course the views are great up there. The whole of Mt. Rainier was in our faces today, the top of Adams, Glacier Peak, Mt. Baker, and everything in between.

Parked at Exit 42 and took the trail that comes out super close to the Ira Springs TH (a nice way to drive less and hike more!) and then took the connect to the PPP trail. It was an awesome afternoon for a grueling climb, and I got what I was looking for. As I left the trees and the steep grade persisted, I spent time in and out of a cloud before reaching the bare summit. I had thought about trying to add Webb on, but with little visibility, I settled for just PPP, at some cheese and crackers and then descended. Nice wildflowers complemented the somewhat limited views. 

This hike definitely ain't an easy one, but if you're looking for an awesome climb + some solitude, I recommend it! 

Today I hiked the PPP-Defiance Loop. I parked on the north side of I-90 at Exit 42 and followed the good trail to the Mason Lake Road and Ira Spring Trailhead. I followed the well-travelled path towards Mason Lake, but went straight instead of turning at the first switchback. From there, a fainter trail travels steeply up to Putrid Pete's Peak. The trail is very steep, but there are no blowdowns and is straightforward to follow. From there, I traversed to Mount Defiance. The traverse route can be tricky at times, but as long as you stay near the ridge you'll be fine. Eventually I linked up with the Mount Defiance Trail and took that to the summit. From there, it was an easy hike down the Mason Lake Trail back to my car. Total stats for the day were 10.8 miles and 4800 vertical feet in 5.5 hours. With two summits, a fun ridge walk, a beautiful lake, and fantastic views ranging from Baker to Adams, I highly recommend this trip.

The TL;DR on the Putrid Pete's Peak route to Defiance: Mind blowing views, but steep, as in lean into the mountain and use your hands steep. You should probably have some scrambling experience if you want to tackle this one.

My route was a clockwise loop, up Putrid Pete's Peak (P3), along the ridge, up to Mount Defiance and back via Mason Lake / Ira Spring trail. A friend suggested this to me as good training for scrambles later in the season. 

The trail starts by going straight on the Ira Spring Connector at the first bend of the Mason Lake Trail. Someone put sticks over the trail, likely to keep Mason Lake hikers from taking the wrong trail. The Connector is well maintained. A ways in you'll hit a sign for the continuation of the Connector, you take a right up the hill there. 

From there, the first half of P3 is reminiscent of the Old Si Trail - elevation gain, but with lots of switchbacks making it not too bad. When the switchbacks stop, the rest of the trail is straight up. It's a semi-scramble, similar to Snoqualmie Mountain (and steeper than Mailbox, since that's the trail everyone compares steepness to). Judging from the Strava heat map, it appears a lot of people turn around when they hit this part. 

The advantage of such a steep hike is that the views are incredible. After you get above the treeline, there are also tons of wildflowers right now. Rather than go to Web Mountain, I took a right and walked along the ridge. You have panoramic views to either side, Spider Valley and Lake as well as the I90 corridor. The first half of the ridge can be a route finding challenge. Once it dips into the trees it's a little more clear. 

Defiance was beautiful, but super buggy. They weren't biting bugs, but they swarm your face and are annoying. This was the only place bugs were an issue. 

The way down to Mason Lake was dry, and after the scramble and ridge hike, super easy. Mason Lake had a really nice breeze, so there were no bugs at all. People were swimming. The temperature and breeze were so perfect I stayed for a while. 

I saw no one on the P3 trail or the ridge until I turned up to Defiance, and only 4 people from there to Mason Lake. Mason Lake had one camp set up and one or two other people. On the way down I saw around 15 people coming up the trail, most with with overnight packs. Mid-week is definitely the time to hit Mason Lake. 

Did a CW loop of Putrid Pete then east along the ridge to the Mt. Defiance trail and back around to my truck. 

P3 is the steepest hike I've ever done! I was using my hands most of the way past the switchbacks. The boot path is easy to follow. Good condition right now, dried out from the snowmelt. The last scramble up to the top of the summit block is a bit dicey with not a lot of space to sit and hang out at the top. You can get a very similar view from a small saddle about 100’ east on the ridge.

There seem to be two boot paths along the ridge—one that runs mostly along the top and one that traverses the slope about 50’ below. The lower one seemed sketchy to me so I took the upper one. I’d rather walk on top of a ridge than on the side slope any day. The top route meanders around a bit and sometimes you have to poke around for it, but I never really lost the boot path.

Connecting to a “real trail” upon reaching Mt. Defiance was a relief! I didn’t go to the top of Defiance because I’ve done it before, but I highly recommend it. The rest of the loop was super easy. Barely any snow on the usual patch descending down the east end of Defiance Ridge to Mason Lake. There was some black mud caused by snowmelt though, which I fell into and got on my pants. Good thing I keep a towel in my truck. :)

Bear grass is about halfway to peak. Lots of purple flowers and some Indian paintbrush starting.