The first question is: Who is Pete?  But we liked his lake. :)  An overnight adventure outside, on a trail with only 400 feet elevation gain, at a lake.  All positives!  We arrived a bit later than anticipated, the parking lot was quite full but still with spaces available.  The trail is very nice, some roots/rocks but it is the forest--so to be expected.  Quite a few people were leaving the lake (or associated areas) which made us hope for a good camping spot.

We were able to hike nearly 2 miles per hour (!) and arrived at the lake, pondering where the campsites were located (most are not very obvious or seem to be aways from the lake).  The first site we saw, had a tent in place. So onward we went.  AllTrails was most helpful in locating a spot, as was a recent post about the Bong Man and Donkey. The post talked about a favorite spot by a creek, and photos showed gravel beds by the lake--so we were on the hunt!  On AllTrails, there was a side trail noted at the far end of the lake, so that is where we went; and we found the spot!  [side note, it is about 0.6 miles from the first campsite at the lake]

This area had a large camping area; we set up our tents in a spot where we could hear the water in the creek, flowing into the lake.  And no one else was around us!  We had Happy Hour on the gravel sandbar in the sunshine and enjoyed the peaceful lake.  We did not see any signs of bong man or Donkey, thankfully. :) 

On our way out the following morning (fyi, it was 42 degrees that morning, bundle up! Winter is coming!) there were a lot of day hikers and backpackers going in.  Backpackers were going to various spots, not necessarily the lake. 

One note--I wish when people obtained their parking permits, they were also given a handout on 'leave no trace' as there was scattered TP on the side of the trail. If people can pick up after their dogs, they can pick up after themselves.  On another note--thank you to the dog owners who all had their dogs leashed on the trail.  

It was a fun filled overnight forest adventure, not a hard hike at all, but a very nice way to enjoy the outdoors. And of course, lunch at The Brick in Roslyn on our way home.   

Headed to Pete Lake for the weekend, arriving early to hopefully camp at a site we'd used before by the creek inlet. Well, that didn't work out too well. We got to the site to find a bag of feed and a pile of dirty gear in one area and a bong, weed and weather radio in another. This site is large enough for 6+ tents but between the bag of feed, gear and bong, the whole area was "reserved" I guess you'd call it. We politely hollered out a couple of "hellos" to see if the person was nearby to ask him if he was camping there. A middle-aged and very dirty (clothes/hair/face) man walked up from the creek/lakeshore area (another wonderful benefit of this site is access to both) and gruffly told us he was camping there, that he had an "animal" and that us camping there "just wouldn't work." Well, I was a little pissed off by this, but the way the guy spoke, the tone of it, spooked me and being that we are two 60+ aged women, we backtracked out of there. I wouldn't say that he ran us off, but I wouldn't say he didn't. 

So, we headed back the way we came and found a lovely spot by the lake with its own small 'beach' access. We had a couple of conversations, wondering if Bong Man would be looking for us later (it was not a pleasant encounter and we were a little nervous about him).

It was a bummer than Bong Man was so unfriendly; we didn't feel like it'd be safe to walk back up there to get water from the creek so we used the lake for water and saw thousands of little (tiny) critters swimming everywhere near the shore. We used a double layer of cotton towel between the CNOC bag and Sawyer filter to pre-filter the critters and keep them out of the Sawyer and used Aquatabs on the filtered water just to be a bit more confident about the safety of the water. 

Saturday morning, from our little beach, we saw Bong Man and his "animal." Turns out he had a donkey with him and had led the donkey down to the shore to eat the grasses there. 

We day hiked on Saturday up to Lemah Meadows and on the way back, carefully stopped by the site where we'd encountered BM to find that he and his donkey had moved on and 2 or 3 groups of campers had moved in. We followed donkey hoof prints back to our site (and the next day as well as we hiked back to the trailhead). Donkeys are much smaller than horses, as are their hoof prints. 

Anyway, enough about the guy and his donkey...

We encountered a few flies, many nice backpackers, NO mosquitoes (yay!), total condensation on our rain flys overnight with more than enough sun next day to dry them out, gorgeous view of Chimney Rock from the PCT just north of Lemah Meadows, tons of peaceful quiet, lots of time to read, even more time to chat and play with the dog. Friday night was clear and the sky full of stars. Saturday night the clouds moved in.

Luxury items included a hammock (carried in but didn't use, we had the beach at our site but no trees) and pourover coffee with real half and half, which were enjoyed fully by the lake each morning. Great trip!  

Summary
One of the best camping locations I have ever had and a trail in great shape. Had a great time swimming at the lake and watching sunset/sunrise. But, while the scenery is great, don’t expect solitude at Spectacle.

Road/Parking
I drove a low clearance car, but other than watching out for some larger rocks on the road, it was smooth sailing. I arrived Friday morning before Labor Day around 8:10 AM and the parking lot was about 75% full, the bathroom had no toilet paper.

Trail
Like others have said, the trail is very gentle and cruisy for the first 5 miles or so, my only concern were the heavy pinecones saturated with sap that squirrels were chewing free from the trees above possibly landing on me! For the first 3 or 4 miles, I could constantly hear these being loosed from the trees and thumping onto the ground. There were some logs across Lema Creek just to the left of the trail I was able to use without getting my feet wet, but they weren’t very wide, so if I didn’t have my trekking poles, I most likely would have taken my shoes off and crossed through the water. Strongly suggest getting water at Lema before continuing as the trail shortly turns into exposed switchbacks where the sun really beats you down on a hot day. I also grabbed water at Delate Creek Falls, there is easy access below the bridge if you go left of the bridge and a nice place to sit in the shade. The only other difficulty was the trail down to the lake which I had to use my hands on a couple times to get over boulders and many spur trails that can lead you in the wrong direction.

Camp
There are trails that run every which direction, so I did my best at exploring my options for camp and ended up picking a spot towards the end of the “peninsula” in the trees that overlooked a large rock. I was a little concerned about getting stakes into the ground with how rocky it looked, but had no issues getting my trekking pole tent setup. The spot also had easy access to the lake allowing me to experience the best view I have ever had while swimming and to grab water. The views from camp are outstanding. There were also tons of blueberries all around camp which made for a great snack. The main negative is that you won’t get much privacy or silence here as it is so popular. When I returned from my swim, a couple had setup their tent literally 8 feet from mine and there were noisy groups that were “inland” of my site that I could hear constantly throughout the evening. I also had to cleanup a bunch of TP that was strewn around the site from prior visitors. Starting Friday paid off as I passed a constant stream of backpackers heading up on Saturday on my way back to the car, not sure where they all ended up staying because I don’t think there were enough sites at Pete/Spectacle for that amount of campers. All in all, I will definitely plan on going back someday.

Pete lake trail was in great condition and my wife and I were so surprised by next to a complete lack of insects and mosquitoes. Especially at the lake…didn’t need any repellant.

Lake and creek were beautiful and we had a great couple days. Rained in overnight but it kept things cool and made for peaceful sleep in the tent.

Great job on the trail upkeep WTA!

Road in was a breeze, and my sedan made it no problem. Hiked in to Pete Lake with my dog Saturday morning around 8am and was able to avoid the heat. In the sun it was quite hot, so bring sunscreen and a hat! In the trees, it was pleasantly cool. A few streams to cross on the walk in, but there were enough rocks/low waters to pass easily. Overall, a very tame and approachable hike. Lots of families and kids camped at the first sites along the lake. There was a pit toilet tucked in there somewhere, but I opted to bag out my waste. Bring paracord to hang your bear bag - someone fashioned a pretty cool pulley system with a slope, a tree branch and a couple rocks as counterweights. Great for first-time backpackers!