Two of us hiked clockwise from Dirty Harry's trailhead up to Putrid Pete's Peak (a.k.a. P3), over toward Mount Defiance (skipping the short out and back to the MD summit), down to Mason Lake, and back to the DH trailhead via the Ira Springs Connector.
There's not a lot of information about this route on the WTA's site, but AllTrails recommends that hikers follow the loop counterclockwise and estimates 10.34 miles with 5,387 feet of gain when doing so. In my opinion, anyone would be crazy to hike this counterclockwise. I've hiked up and down the Kamikaze trail at Mount Teneriffe in the snow, and that was a cake walk compared to this. P3 is STEEP, and descending that pitch on loose rock seems like a death wish to me. Based on our mapping with multiple Garmin and Apple devices, I will also note that the clockwise loop without a stop at the Mount Defiance summit is closer to 15.5 miles and 5,600 feet of gain in total.
Regardless of the direction taken, THIS ROUTE IS NO JOKE for even the most skilled of hikers. We knew we'd have to route find, so we used the AllTrails app to live track ourselves on the map, and that was a life saver. It would be very easy to miss a turnoff or follow the wrong path on this trail. We also knew we'd have to scramble a bit to get up to P3 and that it would be steep, but we underestimated just how scary the final ascent would be. I literally crawled up the last 1,000 feet and had to keep myself from looking down to avoid panicking.
Once up P3, it was a relief to see a faintly defined path just down to the right of the peak that headed across the ridge. We were concerned at first that it might take us down too far and that we'd have to go back up again, but it didn't. We followed another hiker's footprints on that path and made it across the ridge in 30 minutes.
The rest of the trail was significantly better, but there was still a fair amount of elevation to gain on the traverse back. Temps ranged from 50 - 72 degrees throughout the day, and we went through close to 5.5 liters of water between the two of us. I'm grateful to have been prepared with extra supplies and that we made it, but this trek was a one and done for me. I would not recommend this hike to others who aren't comfortable with open heights and rock scrambling.
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