Summary: The scramble up to the top of Daniel is virtually snow-free, no ice axe or traction required. Air quality in the alpine area around Daniel (anything above 5000 ft) is noticeably hazy and smokey, courtesy of wildfires. Bugs at Peggy's Pond were unpleasant but not unmanageable.
To Trailhead: Cle Elum River Road is long and bumpy, but passable with any vehicle, since unbridged Scatter Creek is basically dry. The TH's privy is locked, and parking can be tricky (though we lucked out and snagged a primo spot).
To Cathedral Pass: The trail up to Cathedral Pass is well-graded and unremarkable. There is a brand-spanking new toilet at Squaw Lake, and there were a few families camped there. There's been some recent stock use, as evidenced by a decent amount of horse droppings, but otherwise my companion and I had no trouble getting to the junction with the trail to Peggy's Pond.
To Peggy's Pond: As the description suggests, the trail is mildly exposed, and has some rather annoying up-and-downs. We ran into a man who was struggling - possibly due to dehydration - and helped him to the best of our (limited) ability. After that bit of Good Samaritan-ism, we quickly found ourselves at the glorified tarn that is Peggy's Pond. It boasts a web of social trails and two privies, which seems a bit extravagant to my primitive sensibilities. The photo below shows the campsite we chose, perched in a large flat area next to a creek and small waterfall. We kept an eye on distant Daniel's summit, and with the cloud cover soon turning into surprisingly heavy rain we opted to wait until the next day to make our ascent. Luckily, the wind and rain kept the bugs at bay, and we largely survived bite-free.
To Mt Daniel's Summit SE Saddle: As day two dawned, a friendly ranger wandered by to alert us about the fire ban and inquire as to our itinerary. As I talked with her, the clouds dispersed somewhat, and soon we started the long trek up to the summit ridge. There's a few ways to gain the SE summit ridge - featuring various amounts of steep scree, rock-hopping, and dirt - but they all converge around 7000 ft. From there, it's a standard ridge-line traverse to 7200 ft, at which point you can either cut right across a snowfield to a saddle south of Mt Daniels' East Peak or continue scrambling the ridge up to around 7600 ft, at which point it drops down to the same saddle. We opted to take the ridge, as did most of the other parties we observed that day: unsurprising, as the snowfield would be a bad place to take a fall.
To the True Summit: There's a gnarly scree slope to traverse, but it's doable with a trekking pole, and after that it's mostly a matter of walking at varying levels of steepness to the summit pyramid. There's a single small snow patch, but it's hardly more than 20 feet across, and relatively flat. Between the wildfire haze and the persistent cloud cover, our views from the summit were minimal, and we did not linger long. As we descended, the smell of smoke grew stronger, and the haze increased noticeably, no doubt due to shifting winds.
While it was a shame our views from the top weren't better, we had a peaceful camp, plenty of whiskey, and a strenuous (but not overly technical) summit as a reward.
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