Hiked to Spade Lake on 9/10 and stayed until 9/12. The trail to Waptus Lake is in great condition and is, for all intents and purposes, completely flat. Hiked 3mph to the Waptus River crossing and took off our boots to cross at the horse ford. The water was slightly above ankle deep and a nice cool foot bath. Ate lunch at Waptus Lake before going up to Spade Lake.
The hike to Spade Lake is STEEP. I've completed a good amount of up and down hikes, but this trail has to be one of the steepest. Very few switchbacks to alleviate the steepness and numerous downed trees across the trail you have to get over. It was slow going but we made it to spade in 3 hours from Waptus Lake.
Spade Lake is absolutely beautiful. We camped at the south end of the lake and had a campsite suitable for 2 3 person tents and was really close to the water. There's numerous camp sties scattered throughout but you may have to walk a bit for water access. Friday night was very windy - it seems like Spade gets really windy at night as throughout our trip, it was windy. We staked our tents down and it was all good.
Saturday it was completely sunny and we hiked up to Venus Lake which is a short hike (~1.5miles from south end of lake). It's absolutely worth going up to Venus and seeing the south side of Mt Daniel. Really pretty lake. There is a boot path up to the west from Venus Lake but we did not explore it; looked interesting. You can see Mt Rainier looking south from Venus lake which was a pleasant surprise.
Sunday we hiked out. Again, the trail is STEEP. Took us 2 hours to hike down and the ground is definitely loose. Few members of my group slipped numerous times. Crossed the horse ford again and made it to the car in 3 hours. Last part of the hike was definitely tiring.
Overall, amazing hike that's well worth the effort. We were one of 3 or 4 groups at Spade Lake so had a good amount of solitude. Absolutely zero bugs at any lake or on the trail. Berries were mega ripe and plentiful at Spade Lake. The weather is definitely changing as the bushes are all changing colors as you get up from Waptus.
Oh ya.. fishing was good ;)
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