My wife and I completed a backpacking trip to Wing Lake over the weekend and found a passport at Lewis Lake, near the primary campsite along the main trail. Working to find the owner, but wanted to post here too.

Please reply to this report if you lost it so we can connect.  

EDIT: Owner Found! 

Easy going up until the boulder fields from the turnoff from the Heather Lake/Maple pass trail. We aimed too high on our way over and ended up rock hopping on some unstable rocks with our backpacking packs which wasn't fun. On our way back we basically hugged as low as we saw cairns and had a much better time through the boulder fields.

Wing lake had maybe five other groups camping besides us, and about half the spots were full. We camped further up on top of one of the ridges. Bugs weren't the worst.

We started heading up towards Black Peak around 6:30 PM. We were expecting almost no snow, but there is still snow covering the trail from the lake to about 200 feet under the ridge. By 7PM when we were on it it was starting to ice out, and when we were walking on it in the morning it was completely iced out and spikes would have been nice. In the middle of the day though it would be slushy enough you would be fine on it without any traction. Most of the glissade shoots end up in holes, so if you want to glissade you'll need a good way to arrest. We went up the snow until about 200 feet below the ridge where we transitioned to the scree. The scree was very slippery and especially near the top had almost no traction. If you stay right there's a path that sort of resembles switchbacks but it basically gives up by the top. We made it to the ledge by 7:40 and decided we would turn around because we didn't want to go down the scree in the dark. Going down was awful, I ended up downclimbing a slide of loose rocks because it was more stable than the dirt but there were just no good options. We also had a couple cantaloupe sized rocks break off of the ledge above and - while they missed us - we were glad to have helmets.

Coming down the snow was a bit sketch as it was more iced out than when we went up and so it was a little hard to make bootprints. More annoyingly though my shoes got wet from some of the slushier snow.

Overnight at Wing Lake was great, the lake was frozen when we woke up, although it was also very warm when we woke up (probably already 75+ in the sun). We saw a bear climb up from about halfway up the path to the ridge all the way up the snow field and over the top of the ridge.

Overall, the views from the ridge were good enough and the overnight made it worth it, so we'll be back earlier in the day sometime to finish off the peak.

• Started at 5am and it was nearly 40 degrees at the car. Pretty cold. Wing lake had a quarter inch of ice when we got to it later that morning so it must still be hitting freezing overnight up there. Was about 75 degrees at wing lake by afternoon though. 

• Trail is snow free now except for really small patches. No microspikes or crampons needed. 

• There is a small rockslide that slid over some snow in middle of the first boulder field you get to. You'll know it when you see it. Cairns beneath it are the way to go; going straight over it has unstable & sharp boulders that haven't settled yet. Looks like it may have been fairly recent.

• The terrible black flies are in full force at wing lake. Mosquitoes were horrible when we got back to the car in the afternoon as well, though they were nowhere to be found earlier that morning.

• The scree after wing lake to gain the saddle before the ridgeline may be considered a class 3 in and of itself by some. It's super dusty and slippery and steep right now. The last 200 feet to gain the ridge before even ascending said ridge to Black Peak itself is super sketch. Especially when coming back down.

• The snow that follows the side of the scree stuff above wing lake is perfectly glissadeable on the way down, but rocks are starting to poke through closer to the sides of the snowfield. We glissaded the lower section, and saw some other parties glissade the upper section. My glissade chute definitely uncovered a rock that my left buttcheek will remember for a while, so beware.

Parking at the Maple Pass Trailhead is rough since snow is still blocking the majority of the parking area. Parked cars were spilling onto the shoulders of WA-20. It was particularly crowded as I was leaving around 1pm on Sunday. I'd expect the snow to melt out in another week or two.

There were occasional patches of well-travelled snow up to Heather Pass (I stayed in trail runners for this). I switched to mountaineering boots at the pass where it becomes continuous snow. There's a large rock slide about half way to Lewis Lake. Use caution here. There are large unstable boulders sitting on top of melting snow and I observed a couple small slides.

There was an easy to follow boot path all the way to Wing Lake where I camped, along with around 4 other groups. The lake is still snow covered but it's possible to access water here without needing to melt snow. There are a couple sites where tents can be set on bare ground (at rock islands) but I ended up camping on snow. Overnight was a little windy with lows in the 40s.

The following morning the summit was in clouds. I waited an hour to see if it would clear but it seemed to just get worse so I set off anyway. Again there's a well-travelled boot pack to follow to the ridge. Once on the ridge, you can stay on rock for most of the way up. There are a couple couloirs with snow about half way up. I ended up staying on rock to bypass the steeper snow (approx 40 degrees) but then switching to snow for the final 100ft to avoid some steeper scrambling.

For the summit block, I followed the ridge directly from the west side. This involved some class 4 moves but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting since there are plenty of good holds. Although I brought a rope in case I needed to rappel, I didn't feel the need and I downclimbed it.

On the way out I plunge stepped the snow to skip some of the scrambling. I ended up postholing in a couple places so I'm not sure this was much easier. In typical fashion, the clouds around the summit cleared about 30 minutes after I had left.

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q1vqQnrJYdvyyFrQ6

Arrived at 8:30 am on Friday 10/8 to a full parking lot. Parked at the trailhead across the street to avoid leaving my car on the highway overnight. Overall trip took us 5.5 hours to get to Wing Lake.  Boulder field was treacherous and slow going as that side of the mountain is shaded and the boulder field was snow covered.  Cairns marked the way but it was still choose your own adventure.  My only advice is to keep right as there is somewhat of a bootpath. Larches galore. Lewis and Wing Lake are both beautiful. There were about 3 other tents there with ours Friday night.  26 degrees overnight!

Please don't camp on the fragile meadows/grass. I really hope rangers can get up here and restore this area sooner because it is extremely trampled. Please follow LNT principles. Fires are not allowed in this area, despite people building fire pits. Hiked out Saturday to pretty much all of Washington hiking Maple Pass Loop.