The North Cascades are just built different, tough trails, but raw beauty. Might have been the toughest day in hiking boots (errr trail runners) in my life considering the elevation gain, terrain, weather and having an overnight pack on my back.
Road/Parking
Road is rough, but pretty sure a low clearance vehicle could make it if you took it slow. When I got there around 10:30 on Monday, only 4 other cars, so had room in the lot (probably enough room for 10 cars). There were also many pull off spots on the way up if you wanted to car camp. Not sure why Tuesday was so popular vs. Monday, but passed 12 - 15 groups heading up on my way down, so parking was full and cars spilled over to the side of the road.
Trappers Peak
Trail is easy the first 2 miles or so and then goes up up up with roots and rocks to climb up. Many places to get water in the first 5 or so miles, but after mile 4 (shortly after crossing into the National Park), no water until you get to the lake (unless you want to filter some pretty mucky puddles from melting snow near the summit). Including a GPX file in the first link below with my track and all the waypoints including water sources. The mosquitoes started around the same spot and were my constant companions for the rest of the day. The trail to the summit is tough and not sure I would try it again with an overnight pack on my back. About 1/3rd of a mile (see GPX) after the junction with the trail to the lake is the crux of the climb with a 30 footish section that is straight up and requires all fours to climb. There was one small patch of snow I had to navigate to get to the summit. Had the peak to myself and while there was some clouds, the views were great. When I started heading down, my legs were pretty much Jello from the hike up and then to make things worse, it started raining (no rain in the forecast) which turned into a downpour right when I got the vertical scramble. Luckily it seemed easier getting down than going up, but then I somehow ended up on a boot path right before the intersection to the lake, bushwhacking and sliding down the trail in Romancing the Stone fashion due how steep it was as the trail just gave out from under me. There were lots of boot paths all over the place both to the summit and down to the lake, so check your navigation.
Thornton Camp
The trek to the lake was also no easy feat, super steep, challenging terrain and everything being wet didn't help. Some route finding is required as the trail goes over large rocks where you can't see the other side. I read on AllTrails that others thought there was a dead deer in the outflow of the lake, but I didn't see any signs of it. That said, the outflow does have a mucky green layer covering it and it has a definite stank. Getting down to the logjam was more of a challenge than crossing it, basically had to crawl on all fours down a huge tilting rock. Not sure why there were steps carved into rocks in the trail above, but they leave you to your own devices the last bit to the lake. I believe there were 3 sites, I was so beat I didn't look around a lot. In order from distance to the lake, the second site was already taken by a couple and the third was close to site 2 and small so I decided to use the closest site to the lake. I was a little worried about the smell from the outflow as site 1 is right along the creek, but it only reached my site when the wind was blowing. Other than the swarm of mosquitoes (luckily brought a head net) the lake was peaceful as the rain had stopped by the time I got to camp. Definitely recommend having a head net and covering as much of your body as possible. I wore full coverage pants, long sleeve shirt and net all treated with Permethrin then added some deet for good measure, but they still were a constant cloud. That said, I luckily only got one bite on my leg, so my approach seemed to work. Tour of my campsite starts at 3:35 in the YouTube video below.
Hike Out
Another tough day with the "Hiker Hobble" in full effect, but mostly unremarkable, you know what is coming. Per above, the trail was crazy busy on my way down where I only saw 2 or 3 groups on my way up. Lots of salmon and blue berries, but the few I tried were not ripe just yet.
Parting Thoughts
As others have said, if I had this to do again, I would probably just day hike to the peak and skip the lake. The lake was just "OK" and with the smell/mosquitoes it wasn't a pleasant place to be.
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