We did this hike to celebrate my 61st birthday. I'd never been to Polallie Ridge but knew the view from the ridge was beautiful based on reports from my mother who had been many times in her younger years. I had an old guidebook that recommended a route currently known as Tired Creek (trail #1317) but we opted to take the WTA-recommended route from Salmon La Sac (trail #1309) assuming that WTA knew better. I hate to say this WTA, but there is nothing to recommend trail #1309 unless you are wishing to have the trail to yourself (there's a reason no one else is on it) or you are a masochist.
Trail #1309 is steep, rocky and hot (as WTA reports) and not particularly scenic (contrary to WTA reports) from Salmon La Sac to Diamond Lake, a distance of about 4.3 miles. There are a couple peekaboo views of Mt. Daniel along the way and occasional views east towards the Teanaway, but the view I expected was the one of Daniel, Summit Chief, Lemah, Chickamin, etc., not available until three miles past Diamond Lake at the old lookout just east of the intersection of the Tired Creek trail with #1309. If you want THAT view and only have a day to do it you should definitely use the Tired Creek trail to get there.
The WTA description of the #1309 trail does emphasize that it has huge swings in elevation. The steep ups and downs continue past Diamond Lake for the additional three miles it will take you to get to the expansive view at the junction with the Tired Creek trail. We made it to the old lookout site, and swore there was no way we were going to return the way we came. My husband said the trail reminded him of the old codger who says "when I was young I used to have to walk to school barefoot and it was uphill both ways." We figured with all the ups and downs we had climbed over 4,500 feet in the 7.3 miles to our destination. Instead of returning the way we came (a nearly 15 mile round trip) we opted to do a loop down the Tired Creek trail which was lovely, with pretty meadows, lots of nice views along the way, switchbacks (now there's a concept!) and reasonably good tread. To shorten our 16-mile loop a bit we opted to take the old road that crosses the Tired Creek trail 0.6 miles before it intersects the the Pete Lake trail. This parallels Cooper Lake for two miles and dumped us out on the Cooper Lake Road several hundred yards from the Cooper Lake Trail (#1311). From there it was another 3.2 miles back to our car at Salmon La Sac. There were nice views of the Cooper River along the way but by that point I was too weary to appreciate them. Get a copy of the Kachess Lake Green Trails Map or something similar to scope out your options. Next time, I'm parking at the south end of Cooper Lake and taking either the Pete Lake trail or the old road to Tired Creek and heading up from there.
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