Three hoomans and 2 doggos hiked Waptus and Spade Lakes this past weekend, hiking in from Salmon La Sac Trailhead into Waptus Lake, where we camped for 2 nights, and day hiking to Spade Lake. If you're wanting to visit both lakes and are not able to make the big push to Spade Lake on day 1, this is how I would recommend doing it.
The short drive from the paved road that ends at Salmon La Sac Campground is easy to navigate in any vehicle, with few potholes. The trailhead parking area is very large and can accommodate horse trailers. At 7am on Saturday morning there were a handful of permitted parking spots but the lot was full a couple of hours later.
The hike to Waptus Lake is meandering and pleasant, with a lot of shade. There is at least one good stream before the horse ford to get to camp. The mosquitos were few until we approached the lake, from which point on they were pretty bad, including at camp. Would highly highly recommend DEET and a bug net. Our small dogs had to swim across the horse ford and we were in to our knees. Once you arrive at the shore of Waptus Lake, there are an abundance of lakefront campsites, and the early birds definitely got the best ones. The bugs did limit our enjoyment of the lake but it was still a beautiful base camp.
The day hike to Spade Lake from Waptus Lake is not for every hiker. We traveled northeast along the Spinola Creek trail, then west on the PCT before joining the Spade Lake trail north. The trip is steep, narrow, and rocky, with areas of tight brush overgrowth. The temperature was high but thankfully there were many water sources along the way. The mosquitos persist for the first couple of miles before a reprieve. But the payout at the top is worth the effort. We were completely alone to explore the glistening Spade Lake.
Had we more time and the doggos more energy, it would have been great to push on to see Venus Lake too.
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