Spade Lake — Wednesday, Sep. 15, 2021

Double D and KJ joined me for this somewhat leisurely three day backpack. We camped at Waptus Lake with Spade Lake as a day trip. The 9 miles to Waptus is posh as reported with no problems other than an easy ford of the Waptus River. Early in the season this ford may be difficult to downright dangerous. We passed a few groups of backpackers, but it wasn't too busy on this week day. We settled on a camp near the Spade Lake trail junction with a nice access to the lake. Waptus Lake is very beautiful for a low elevation lake with views of Bears Breast and Summit Chief with large, comfortable camps. Next day it was on to Spade Lake and a trail I remembered very well as rough and steep, but not as nasty as some have reported. Although with a full pack it would be a killer! This was my third visit to Spade, but the last time was in 2006 and was part of a seven day Alpine Lakes tour. The trail starts out very steep in places, then does some nasty tricks with ups and downs including about a cumulative 700' loss that needs to be regained on the return trip. It's dusty and rocky in places with a few downed trees for added fun, but they're easy enough to get around. The last mile or so is a somewhat skimpy traverse where it's best to watch your step so as not to take a tumble. Finally, the basin emerges to meadows, a tarn and lots of granite slabs. The lake is gorgeous, but I was very sad to see how the meadow had deteriorated with useless way trails everywhere and the heather stomped to death. The place could really used some meadow restoration work, but I don't think anyone is doing that anymore. I wish that as much time and effort would be put into this as is put into trail work which of course is terribly lacking as well. In the meantime, it would be extremely helpful if folks would confine themselves to camping at Waptus and day tripping to Spade since the heather and huckleberry need time to recover. If one feels the need to camp here though, please, please, please stay on the most used paths or on rock. The problem is that this place has been so abused that it's difficult to see where the main paths are and folks are following what looks like a main path to a dead end and then crossing the meadow to get back on track. It's a mess. Also, there are no toilets and few places to go so there are paths to anywhere that looks hospitable for pooping and toilet paper aplenty. Alliterations won't make this description any prettier! Please take care of this beautiful place!