Out-and-back run up the PCT to Chikamin ridge, then followed the faint trail to Glacier Lake before returning to Snoqualmie.

PCT is in great shape and was surprisingly quiet, given the nice weather. Streams are dry through the high terrain, but there's still easy water access at Ridge Lake just a mile from the Katwalk.

Glacier Lake is a climber's trail, quite a steep descent from the PCT but otherwise easy enough to navigate. Recent trip reports give an accurate understanding of conditions. The lake itself is stunning - much cooler than the other Glacier Lake at the north end of Section J, in my opinion!

Air quality was ok but definitely hazy to the south and east, especially later in the day. As much as I love summer in the PNW, looking forward to a bit of rain!

Summary

This trip covered Section J of the PCT northbound over four nights and five days. The trail offered a mix of challenging climbs, expansive ridge walks, and beautiful lake campsites. We (me plus two friends) encountered numerous PCT thru-hikers and experienced mostly good weather. We opted for an alternate route on day 2 that saved us some miles and provided a different perspective of the area.

Day-by-Day Breakdown

Monday, 9/08

• Starting Point: Trailhead at Snoqualmie Pass
• Lunch: Near Kendall Catwalk
• End Point: Icy Heart Lake
• Total Mileage: 15.6 miles
• Elevation Gain: 4,646
• Highlights: Beautiful ridge walking with great views. Ripe blueberries.
• Challenges: Hours of hiking on talus fields was a little rough on the feet. It was also the longest, steepest, and hottest day of the trip.

Tuesday, 9/09

• Starting Point: Icy Heart Lake
• Lunch: Pete Lake
• End Point: Waptus Lake
• Total Mileage: 13 miles
• Elevation Gain: 2,077
• Highlights: We opted to jump off the PCT and take an alternate route along the Pete Lake Trail and Waptus Pass Trail. This saved a few miles and some elevation gain. Waptus Lake was an amazing camping spot. Both the sunset and sunrise were stunning. We spotted crawfish in the lake too!
• Challenges: The last two miles or so down to Waptus Lake was steep and brutal on the knees. Our friend brought Clif Bloks and shared them on the way down. It's silly how much the little things can help, but that little hit of sugar and energy kept our spirits up as we trudged down the hillside at the end of the day.

Wednesday, 9/10

• Starting Point: Waptus Lake
• Lunch: Deep Lake
• End Point: Somewhere along the side of the trail
• Total Mileage: 14 miles
• Elevation Gain: 3,314
• Highlights: We had to cross several streams in the morning on the way out of Waptus Lake which we all thought was fun. Water level was only to our mid-shins. We took a long lunch at Deep Lake to enjoy the views and the sunshine. We rinsed off a couple pieces of dirty clothes and let them dry in the sun.
• Challenges: We ended up finding a few campsites along the side of the trail after not finding any spots listed in the FarOut app. It was getting dark and we were getting nervous about our sleeping situation. Luckily we noticed some spots in the trees down the side of the trail, northwest of Hyas Lake. It was a dry campsite, but we'd passed an offshoot of the Cle Elum River a half mile or so back and had filled up on water.

Thursday, 9/11

• Starting Point: Somewhere along the side of the trail
• Lunch: Glacier Lake (our original planned campsite for night 4)
• End Point: Trap Lake
• Total Mileage: 13 miles
• Elevation Gain: 3,110
• Highlights: More beautiful ridge walking with awesome views. We all saved our favorite freezer dried meals for the last night on trail (mine was buffalo mac n' cheese).
• Challenges: No noteworthy challenges. The weather at Trap Lake was very windy and stormy in the evening, but all of our tents and gear did fine so it was find of fun.

Friday, 9/12

• Starting Point: Trap Lake
• Lunch: Lake Susan
• End Point: Stevens Pass
• Total Mileage: 12.5 miles
• Elevation Gain: 2,395
• Highlights: The morning sunrise at Trap Lake was amazing. The best view might have been from the lake's toilet. We pushed our pace on this day as we were very motivated by the burgers, pizza, and cold beer that awaited us at the end of the hike.
• Challenges: Much of the morning was pretty cold and misty. We all had layers we could have put on, but didn't want to deal with stopping to put them on, take them off when we got hot, etc. See previous statement about burgers and beer. We kept our stops to a minimum.

Hiked Section J Southbound, from Surprise Lake Trail head to Snoqualmie Pass in 5 Days.

Weather was perfect the first 3 days, then very hot the last 2, and hazy skies on the last day ( a shame since we were under tree cover for the first day and high in the alpine for the last day but hey not complaining- better than rain).

Trail conditions were great, rocky on the last day but otherwise little blowdowns, easy to follow and downright cruisey in a lot of sections ( hiked in my crocs for a few parts since my boots were way too hot).

Views were impressive from after Surprise lake, Cathedral Pass, Chikamin Ridge,  and Escondido Ridge were highlights. 

Swimming was sublime in Deep lake (after hot hot Cathedral pass) , and judging from the amount of tiny dots in the water seen from high above Spectacle, so was it. Plenty of other spots too, deception lakes, Ridge lake, even small park lakes and the pool under waterfall just before Spectacle all received human visitors (did I mention it was hot).

No bugs, seriously none (ok maybe one or two bites).

Campsites :

Deception lakes at the little peninsula was nice with 4 or so spots ( there are 3 others beyond the most obvious one) but looking around the rest of the joint they didn't seem that nice (not near the water no views, not flat etc. Also had a couple of old dudes show up late and camp in a non established spot within earshot and proceed to talk loudly about football (yawn) until 10 pm. Thank god for earplugs. Apart from having a dog clearly not under voice command, all else was fine, if not slightly annoying. 

Deep Lake: Fortunately was able to grab a more private and closer to the lake spot than the others seemed to be. Had some lovely neighbors. Magical swimming, great view up to Cathedral Rock. Slept well. 

Escondido Ridge (Lake/Tarn) before descending to Lemah meadows):

Bedlam. So many campers everywhere. We arrived late and almost got skunked for an acceptable spot. Eventually found something and just had time to enjoy an amazing sunset behind Chimney Rock. Best site for alpine view for sure. Note: technically camping is not allowed with 100 feet of the tarn (source: Hiking the PCT Washington) but Im not sure many people know this since there were plenty of people doing it.

Small Park Lakes Lake (or is it small parks lake ?)

Lovely. But not a lot of sites that have that perfect combo of shade, views, flat spots etc. We enjoyed hanging out by the water in the shade on a hot day. And then a ramble on the ridge above after dinner. 

Overall, a fantastic trip. Views are top notch and the hiking was fantastic. Some of the campsites were great but you had to get there early to secure a decent site because it was very busy. Ive actually never backpacked with so many people on the trail (lots of through hikers). 

Annoyances/Difficulties:

Heat in exposed areas of the trail was intense really glad for my sun hoody, electrolytes and lakes to swim in. 

Long distances between water sources on some sections - we got caught with not enough water on Cathedral pass.

Too many hikers. Sorry to say it, but having to plan to get to camp early wasn't great. I would have liked to been able to enjoy the trails a bit more rather than having to push on and get to camp before the hordes descended. 

Bleeping Toilet Paper. I dont know who these people are that are not packing out their TP after wiping their butts but they are disgusting and lazy. TP is light as a feather. I wish they would PACK IT OUT. 

Took the Pete Lake TH, to Lemah connector trail 1323.2, then south on PCT to Spectacle Lake. 

Bridge over Lemah Creek is out, but it’s an easy rock hop. 

Trail is overgrown in the burn areas; it rained during the day, so the wet vegetation over the trail made things ‘comically moist’, as one fellow hiker put it to me. 

Hikers do have to cross Lemah Creek at the junction with trail 1323.2, buts not bad right now, half shin deep at its deepest point. 

“It’s never the top and the rocky terrain doesn’t stop.” 

My husband and I spent 5 days hiking the PCT section J. We started at Stevens Pass on Friday, August 1st and ended today at Snoqualmie Pass. 

Day one-Stevens to Glacier Lake. Lots of mountain blueberries to pick for miles and miles. The trail is pretty nice all the way to Glacier Lake where we stayed the night. A few camp sites here. We did have some rocky terrain and overgrown trail. The hardest part this day was getting up the ridge out of trap lake. Not many bugs. Saw maybe 10. Lots of beautiful flowers!

Day Two-Glacier Lake to Deep Lake. We went up Pieper Pass early in the morning and glad we did. We had amazing views of Glacier Peak. Multiple hikers told us to avoid stopping at Deception Lakes on the way down. Mosquitos galore even when hiking. Walk quickly between here and Deception Pass. We didn’t see really any bugs after Deception Pass. The ford over the creek involves rock hopping and balancing over a tiny log but is doable. Cathedral Pass was hard to get up in the afternoon and best place to get water is at the ford. 

Day Three-Deep Lake to Lemah Meadows.  Coming out of Deep Lake has some ankle twister rocks. Fill up with water at Waptus River. There is only one source of water at the top Escondido Ridge and nothing again till almost to Lemah Meadow. The trail is rocky and hot in many places. Very overgrown in places. This was my favorite campsite. 

Day four-Lemah Meadows to Ridge Lake. The day started out great! The Lemah Creek Ford has a log you can walk across. The burn area was stunning with all the fireweed mixed in with the burnt trees. It had an interesting contrast. The views at the top of the ridge above Spectacle Lake is fantastic. Absolutely beautiful. Flowers, berries, mountains, easy trail. It has it all. We took a break at Parks Lake which has nice campsites. Once we left here, it was slow going over the Chikamin Ridge. Incredibly rocky for miles. Slow going. We had fog, mist and strong winds to deal with. Once we finally left the rocky terrain, which felt like it would never stop, we spotted 2 mountain goats. We had heard there were about 20 right on the trail. The 2 we saw were maybe 30 feet away. The ups and downs in this section just felt like they would never end. It was foggy and windy at Ridge Lake but we found a nice spot in the trees.

Day 5-Ridge Lake to Snoqualmie. The trail is nice to start. The Kendall Katwalk was eerie. It was foggy, so we couldn’t see anything below us. Just some of the rocks jutting out on the side of the trail. More rocky terrain to deal with, but lots of east going trail the last 3 miles or so. 

Overall, enjoyable. Views 10/10. Trail 4/10. Just be prepared for rocky terrain that can be hard to cross. 

Animals seen: marmots, pikas, deer, mountain goats, chipmunks, Canadian jay, great blue Herron, wood duck, and so many other birds. Marmots and pikas were curious in a few places and came close. 

Flowers: the entire flower guide book. Lupine, queen annes lace, fireweed, paintbrush, alpine daisies, pearly everlasting, bluebells and so many more. There weren’t many areas that you weren’t seeing flowers.