Hiked a five day backpack loop with three friends starting at Tucquala Meadows, up Cathedral Ridge trail to the Trail Cr trail junction, then up to Lake Michael on night one. A trail crew was working on the Cathedral trail, clearing drainage and deadfalls. The 4 mile trail up to Lake Michael is in poor condition mainly due to it's steep grade on most slopes combined with many deadfalls (some step overs, some walkarounds),water runoff, and horse damage. Its trenched and filled with loose cobbles in most sloped areas. There's a decent camp at the far end of the lake and its a pretty spot. Sparse wildflowers and few bugs along the way and at the lake.
On day two we climbed back up from Michael and went down the Trail Creek trail to a nice camp on the west shore of Waptus lake. Also many deadfalls on the Trail Cr trail, again mostly step overs and a few walk arounds. The Trail Creek ford to the Waptus river trail and the horse ford back across the Waptus river to the west camps were both easy knee deep wades. There are lots of nice lake side camps on both sides of the lake at the outlet end. We took an extra rest day here and spent some time swimming and walking the east side lake trail. The view of Bears Breast Mountain from the lake is spectacular. There are nice beaches for swimming. Bugs were very mild here also. Mostly just a few mosquitos.
On day four we took the Spinola connector trail up to the PCT and Deep Lake. This section had some significant deadfalls across the trail in numerous places, but otherwise a very easy uphill walk on pleasant PCT switchbacks. The best wildflowers of the trip were located along this trail. About halfway up to the Deep Lake cirque there is a "camping" sign and faint trail leading from a trail switchback to a cliffside view of a fantastic series of waterfalls on Spinola Creek. Well worth dropping the packs at the switchback and taking the side trip. We camped the fourth night at Deep Lake, where the mosquitos were thick and ferocious. Bug spray, long sleeves and net hats were a big help. There are several camps on the east side of the lake and a nice one on the west near the outlet logjam. One of our group hiked up to Lake Vincente from camp. The trail there is still partially covered with snow near the top.
Our last day we went up the PCT to Cathedral Pass then down the Cathedral Ridge trail past Squaw Lake and back on down to Tucquala Meadows and our cars. Much progress on the trail by the crew working there. Many thanks to them for their work. Them off to Roslyn for burgers and home.
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