Walked the Pete lake trail to Spectacle lake and camped overnight at Spectacle lake. Trail to Pete lake (about 4 miles) in good condition except for the horse stuff and accompanying flies. Ran into a girl scout (?) group singing ""B_I_N_G_O"" - could hear then coming 1/4 mile away - fortunately they were on their way out after staying at Pete lake. After Pete lake, trail crosses a 'stream' (noname?) and gives you a choice of 'primitive' crossing or walking ""to bridges"". The stream definitely had no good rocks or logs to cross on (that I could find), so I took the bridges route ... but after 15 minutes, decided the bridges route could be too far out of the way, so I returned to the 'primitive' crossing, put my wading shoes on, proceeded to walk half way across the 'stream', stepped in a deep hole, and got 'refreshed'. Dried out on the other side, while swatting flies, had a snack, and continued toward Spectacle lake. Trail now became continually steeper (lots of switcbacks), very overgrown in several places (with lots of berries !), and had several muddy spots. Once on top of the ridge, it's another 1/2 mile down to the lake and several beautiful camping spots. I walked around one of the inlets and stayed on the peninsula so I could be on the main part of the lake - with the better views, more breezes and fewer bugs. Had the entire lake to myself. Only a few patches of snow far up on the surrounding mountains - Spectacle-ular views!. Great hike, lots of variety, but not sure how far it is. Trail sign at start says it's 11 miles one way to Spectacle lake. I have 2 books that say it's more like 9 miles one way. It took me about 5 hours, including my refreshment and lunch.

No snow on the trail. Lots of flowers. Muddy conditions, especially after the recent rain. Also, the horses have really beat up this trail (especially on the Pete Lake and Waptus Lake trails)! Tired Creek trail is somewhat overgrown right at the start, but no problem finding it. When you hit the old logging road, turn to the right to find the continuation of the trail. There are several cairns. The trail picks up right by Tired Creek. None of the creek crossings were a problem, despite rain this weekend.

Didn't see a single person on the Tired Creek trail and from Waptus Pass to Pete Lake. On a Sunday! Passed 1 rider and 1 group of 4 day hikers close to the lake. Pete Lake was deserted. On a Sunday afternoon!!!

Most of the trail is in the forest, some nice meadows, Pete Lake is nice, views of snowcovered peaks are worth it.

The view from the old lookout site at 5482’ on Polallie Ridge was especially good on this day, with clouds banking up on the west side of the ragged and rugged Cascade crest wall between Chikamin and Daniel, spilling through the gaps (like Dutch Miller), and sometimes cascading down the east wall. In the other direction, Stuart was out nicely, though occasionally its summit was masked by a passing cloud.

The route taken was out Pete Lake trail for its first mile or so, up Tired Creek trail to the crest of Polallie Ridge, then east on the Polallie Ridge trail for a quarter mile or so to the old lookout site. Look for the Tired Creek trail on the right (obscurely marked) perhaps 100 yards after the Pete Lake trail crosses Tired Creek.

Snow is now completely gone from this trail, though a few small patches remained nearby. A few mosquitoes at the trailhead and on the first mile of the Pete Lake trail (presumably the advance guard), but pretty much mosquito free otherwise. Most of the first 200 yards or so of Tired Creek trail is getting overgrown (the huckleberries should be good here in two months or so), but the rest of the way is in OK shape for a “secondary” Forest Service trail (though somewhat steep in places). Flowers coming out nicely, with shooting star starting in the small but excellent wet meadow around 5100’, and pedicularis looking like it’s not too far away. A fair number of glacier lilies left above 5000’ or so.

This report describes a loop trip starting on the Pete Lake Trail #1323 at the head of Cooper Lake. From there I hiked to the intersection with the Tired Creek Trail #1317. Halfway up this trail, when you hit the logging road that crosses this trail turn right and hike about 100 yards down the road to find where the trail continues again. The trail reaches meadows at about 4800'. There's some patchy snow up to 2' and lots of flowers everywhere else. I wanted to get to the ""viewpoint"" described in the 100 Hikes book. There's no obvious route up to the ridge, just pick a path a go for it. Once on the ridgetop you'll discover there isn't really a viewpoint because the entire ridge is below treeline. You can good some good peeks over treetops in a few spots however. From there I descended back to the trail and made my way to the intersection with the Polallie Ridge Trail #1309. I made a quick detour to the old lookout site. The view here is nice but also through or over trees. I backtracked and took the Polallie Ridge Trail back down to the Waptus Pass Trail #1329. I was suprised to encounter worse trail conditions in this area because it was lower elevation than where I'd already been. However there is a constant mix of dry trail, mud, water, and snow to negotiate with never any one of those being longer than about 50 yards. The trail is generally easy to follow but there was a spot or two where I had to wander about until I picked it up again, especially in the area of the initial intersection with the Waptus Pass Trail. The next stretch of the loop is pleasant overall because it is flat, remote, and there's a lot of flowers & green to look at along the way. There's a couple of creek crossings to negotiate but the water was only ankle-deep. You eventually reach a series of steep switchbacks that take you down to Pete Lake. There's a huge waterfall along this part that is broken into a series of maybe a dozen 50-ft cascades. You get to see some of these up close when at the north switchbacks on this section of the trail. Each of these seems to have a crystal-clear pool at the bottom that looked great for cooling off but of course that water was snow earlier in the day so it's better just to look. Arriving at Pete Lake offers a decent view of Chikamin, and Lemah but only from campsites which will probably be occupied unless you are here mid-week. Pete Lake was actually the only part of the trip that I encountered other people. You can bushwack around the south shore for view of Chimney Rock but it's rough going. From Pete Lake I headed down the home stretch to complete the loop and then the final leg back to the trailhead. It's a quick and easy 5 or so flat miles. Overall a great day.