Three night backpacking trip:

Day 1: Westside Road trailhead --> Lake George Camp

Hiked in from the Westside Road to Lake George Camp. Plenty of mosquitoes along the road, trail is snow-free and awash with avalanche lilies.

Day 2: Lake George Camp --> S. Puyallup River Camp

AM hike up to Gobbler's Knob: several flat patches of snow on trail, easily crossable in just boots. Lots of avalanche lilies and phlox.

Hiked to S. Puyallup and set up tents in campsite #2, which has a small creek behind it still running. Else, there's water just by the camp entrance. Some mosquitoes here.

From camp, hiked up around Emerald Ridge and back: spectacular! One tiny patch of snow on trail, and the meadow at the ridge has many flowers blooming, including pasqueflower, phlox, and sandwort. Saw ~10 marmots and 2 sooty grouse. 

Day 3: S. Puyallup River Camp --> Klapatche Park Camp

Hiked up to Emerald Ridge again, and then packed up gear to head to Klapatche.

Given ranger advice about sketchy trail on the Wonderland between S. Puyallup and Klapatche, my group had planned on going the long way around via Westside Road and St. Andrews trail, but a group we met at S. Puyallup who had come from Klapatche said the trail had snow patches but was 'just fine.' Based on this, we decided to take the shorter Wonderland trail. 

The first half of the trail from S. Puyallup was a series of switchbacks through the densest patches of blooming avalanche lilies I've encountered. Once the trail levels off, we hit about a dozen snow fields. Some were flat and easily traversable, others were side slopes with some runout. There were also snow bridges to be mindful of, and we punched through several times. We carefully navigated our way across- we did not have microspikes or trekking pole baskets, so kicked steps and went one at a time. Highly recommend trekking pole baskets if you decide to do this (better yet, wait a couple of weeks for this section to melt out).

We reached Klapatche Park Camp late afternoon, and set up tents in time to eat dinner while watching alpenglow. We only found one bear pole with four spokes at this site, so backpackers struggled to get all of their bags hung: consider consolidating smellables if camping here. Mosquitoes were present but not too extreme. Aurora Lake (easy water source) featured frogs, frog eggs, and some very human-food-motivated canada jays.

Day 4: Klapatche Park Camp --> Westside Road trailhead

We decided not to re-hike the snowy Wonderland, so returned via the St. Andrews trail to meet back up with Westside Road. The St. Andrews trail was entirely snow-free. Mosquitoes were annoying on St. Andrews and near the Lake George trailhead. We did not refill water on the way out, but there were a couple of small creeks on the S. Puyallup trail connector and along the road. The road was partly shaded and offered a mix of blooms including lupine, columbine, cow parsnip, and buttercup. Total distance ~47mi.

(Apologies for photo quality; somehow my uploads are not working well and the pictures look very washed out. Will attempt to reupload.)

First time up to the knob, and it did not disappoint. Views are rather awesome. The trail is in great shape, with intermittent snow (10%) from lake George to the lookout. On this warm day the snow was soft and easy to traverse. Could be more of a challenge if frozen.

We went for one night backpacking as a group, member # 5..arrived camp area ans setup tents eat something than started hike to Gobblers Peak..partially snow but mostly easy to pass, and you need Garmin because easy to lost way..few spot snow pass was hard, and hardest one very close to lookout cabin..you need microspikes and double poles..take slow..step by step because some spot snow sinking..and 4 spots passing need attention  otherwise snow part can break down and you will gone..serious..

Very close to cabin last part of snow return time snow slided and down on my but..before I pushed poles I to snow so both hold me..if you ask me will you do same agai. "No.." do not take risk because that part snow soft and icy..can break any moment because melting..possible in 3 weeks clean..

But beside all it was beautiful..didn't wait for sunset because passing snow parts highly dangerous in dark..

We start go down around 9pm..and made lake area around 11pm

I have Garmin trek so with that navigation was very easy both way..

Some bugs at area, I say Mosquitos lunching..bit not bad for now..trail was good and easy to hike..Park area about 3-4 miles to trail head, and trail head has bicycle looking lig..you can do mtb till trail had and bring strong lock..than you are on feet..all the way from parking uphill..to cabin more elevations kicks in..return just downhill..

Made a valiant, though ultimately unsuccessful attempt to scurry up to the Gob’s Knob lookout after my shift at the JVC on Monday.

Its do-able, but I didn’t start hiking until close to 6:30 and ultimately diminished daylight coupled with some difficult route finding (including some sketchy melting snow bridges over creeks) made me decide to turn around about 3/4 of a mile before the lookout. I could see it, but knew it’d take me awhile to get there. With ample daylight, I would’ve pressed on, but I didn’t want to try to navigate some of the hazards solo in the dark, and I bailed just before the 8:42 sunset.

The road & trail to Lake George is basically snow-free, though the lake is only melted out around the edges (sorry anglers, needs a little more time). Snow is prevalent above the lake. The initial route finding is pretty easy for the first half mile or so after the lake, but beyond that it gets a little more challenging, with creek crossings and potentially deep, ankle-threatening post-holing around melting out branches and trees across the path. I made it up a pretty steep pitch of snow (crampons and an axe could make it a little more comfortable), but ultimately turned around at an unstable looking snow bridge over a creek just before the junction with the Goat Lake Trail.

If you’re a decent route finder, like a challenge, and start earlier than I did, you should be able to do it. If you’d rather wait for trail all the way, give it a few more weeks.

Also, I have this trail at 12.4 miles as opposed to 11. It’s 3.8 on the Westside Road and 2.4 up to the Lookout from the Lake George Trailhead.

Happy trails.