Hiked Timberline CW with 4 others from 8/7-8/10, 3 nights/4 days. We experienced some weather extremes on both sides but it was a lovely experience. Highlights right now are the constant wildflowers, especially on Paradise Park, and lots of ripe blueberries. We camped in Paradise Park (cannot recommend this enough), Elk Cove, and just before Newton Creek, which made our daily mileage 6/15/12/8.
Campsites: Since we hiked from Thursday-Sunday, we dealt with some large crowds. This is a very popular trail. I recommend not planning to camp at Elk Cove on the weekends unless you arrive before 4 pm. That was our longest day, and at the last second we decided to push on and we got what was clearly a rarely used site, .25 miles down the Elk Cove trail, surrounded by dead trees. We saw others that decided to camp in delicate wildflower meadows, which was sad to see. It's a lovely area, but if you're planning on it, the next campsites in either direction are a couple of miles and it makes it much harder if Elk Cove is full. Similarly, the Newton Creek sites in the trees were claimed by 3 pm. I hiked ahead of my group and set up just after 3 in one of the last spots, and watched a parade of folks hike past looking disappointed as they realized all those spots were taken. The spots by the river are nice, but fully exposed and not ideal when it's hot (which it was). If you want to camp in the popular places, start early and end early.
Water Crossings: We were able to entirely avoid getting our feet wet. The two most difficult crossings were Newton Creek and White River, followed by Eliot. Newton Creek was fast and silty, but there was a large tree across with branches still attached. The branches wanted to hold on to me as I crossed, but it was workable. White River is best to just wade across. The rocks were just too far and too high for my little legs, but more doable for others. Eliot crossing itself was simple, but the climb down on the ropes was dicier. The way to the ropes going CW is not well marked. There is the smallest, most easily missed cairn to the right showing where they are. We met hikers who missed it and somehow climbed down another way, and did not recommend it.
Snow: There were about 7 snowfield crossings on Day 3 through the wide exposed section above treeline. Half were small, half were longer, but all had clear bootpaths and were easy if done slowly. One involved going quite close to a boulder, and the snow near the boulder was melting out. This is a potential foot-trapping hazard, so I kept my distance.
Exposure: We did Paradise Park on Day 1 during very cloudy, cold weather. It was windy but stunning. There's a beautiful campsite up by a split boulder, but it was far too windy to camp there safely. If I go back in better weather, I would camp there. On Days 3 and 4, the weather heated up quite a bit, and we encountered significant patches with little to no trees. The very last climb on Day 4, uphill through sand, was in 90 degrees and was quite miserable. I recommend timing the most exposed sections for first thing in the morning, and for this reason recommend going CCW.
Blowdowns: There were quite a few in various parts of the trail, especially the burned sections. We heard from others that the traditional trail past Ramona Falls was quite slow still due to blowdowns, so we opted for the PCT alternate. It was quite a climb but doable.
Bugs/Flowers/Berries: There were some mosquitos at Elk Cove, but the rest of the trip we avoided most of them. There were also some flies at Elk Cove and other bits, and I personally found them far more annoying. They bit as I hiked! Berries, however, were everywhere and just ripening, and the flowers were still absolutely epic.
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