I have done the Circle, Spade, Deep lake loop a few times, but I have never included Lake Vicente. This post from ALW Hiker on nwhikers.net inspired me to give it a try. https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1240011
I looked for a recorded track from Spade to Vicente, but I could not find one. I posted a link to our recorded tracks at the bottom of this post.
A LOT of this route is off trail and requires off trail navigation skills.
Day 1: Hike to Circle Lake
There are a lot of posts about this route, so I won't go into much detail here. The main thing to to follow the boot paths that go up behind Peggy's Pond. Don't follow the ones that stay at the same elevation as Peggy's Pond heading east.
Day 2: Circle Lake to Spade Lake
We started by going up the shoulder above Circle Lake. You don't want to get too high to fast. We then headed up to get the views just below the Citadel. It is worth going up to the ledge just below the Citadel. If you are not doing this, then you don't want to get too high. Once you are off of the ledge just below the Citadel you need to drop down a bit before going up to the ridge line. There is a boot path that leads up to the ridge.
Once you are on the ridge it is "Scree Skiing" down to the granite slabs. In the granite slabs there are a lot of places that cliff out. When you find one of those, you just keeping checking to either side until you find the safe passage.
Day 3: Spade Lake to Lake Vicente
We started off by following the Spade Lake trail to the point where it makes a sharp right and starts descending. At this point we started "bushwalking". It never really opened up until we got to the Talus field below the ridge. It wasn't too hard to find our way through here since we knew we needed to get to the ridge. It did take a while to traverse this section.
Once on the ridge, we just followed the ridge. We needed to stay high to go around some obvious cliff bands, but we didn't go all the way to the top. Once we were around to the other side there is a boot path that leads in to the next section.
At the end of this boot path it comes to some trees and bushes. When you get through those there is a ravine. It is MUCH easier to cross it lower down. My tracks cross it too high.
Once across the ravine you can follow the talus to the spine that leads down to the lake.
Day 4: Hike Out
This day was just following the trail out. There is a little bit of work in the bolder field coming off of Lake Vicente.
Comments
PiperMarmalade on Peggy's Pond, Circle Peak, Spade Lake, Lake Vicente, Cathedral Rock
How many total miles was this? Forgive me, I'm not seeing that info anywhere. Loving this route. Would you prefer this route to Spade and Venus over the Waptus route? Definitely more exciting. Ha!
Posted by:
PiperMarmalade on Aug 18, 2025 07:23 PM
Stephen Johnson on Peggy's Pond, Circle Peak, Spade Lake, Lake Vicente, Cathedral Rock
Doh, I forgot to include that. It was about 23 miles. I have done the rote going to Waptus and I like this option WAY better. It is so much better to stay high and go over the ridge above Deadhead lake. I will say that this option was more physically challenging, even though it was a little bit shorter than dropping down to Waptus.
By the way, thanks for all of your posts. I have seen a number of them when researching trips.
Posted by:
Stephen Johnson on Aug 20, 2025 09:05 AM