We headed up to Waptus, Spade, and Venus Lakes for a 3-day trip. Day one we hiked from Salmon le Sac trailhead to Waptus Lake. The ford of the Waptus River was easy as water was only mid-calf high. We camped at Waptus Lake both nights and dayhiked up to Spade and Waptus on day 2. All the campsites on the east end of Waptus Lake were full on a Friday afternoon so we headed along the northern shore and after about a mile, found an idyllic tiny peninsula (connected by a small isthmus of land to the main shore) that we had all to ourselves. It featured 3 or 4 tent sites and ample slabs of granite for jumping into the water and lounging on the rocks. The water was warm enough for true swimming rather than a quick dunk. And almost miraculously, there were almost no bugs, even though the lake is at a very low elevation (3000')--partly due to the breeze that came up off the lake both late afternoons we were there.
On day 2 we marched up to Spade Lake, where we'd been 5 years earlier. The trail from Waptus Lake is nearly straight up for the first 1.2 miles or so, and then traverses the slope in some rough roller coaster trail. Even though the difference between Waptus and Spade Lakes is only 2200' and Venus is another 500' feet above Spade Lake, at the end of the day we had climbed a total of 4050' in visiting Spade and Venus with all the ups and downs along the trail. In fact, we saw some people (with backpacks) turn around on this trail, and we saw a father-son group where the young adult son hiked ahead of his dad to Spade Lake, deposited his pack, and came back to carry his dad's pack and escort his dad to Spade as well. The hike from Waptus to Spade is not to be under-estimated. It is short but grueling. However, Spade Lake is a gem with its sapphire blue water and undulating granite shoreline, framed by Mt. Daniel. There were several parties camped at Spade but they were spread out along the generous east and south shoreline.
From Spade to Venus, you walk along the east side of Spade Lake and follow a boot trail straight up to Venus. It's a bit hard to follow the trail in a few places just after it leaves the Spade Lake shoreline, but the overall direction toward Mt. Daniel is clear. It's only about a mile from mid-shore of Spade up to Venus. Part of the ascent to Venus is on fairly steep granite slabs, which are easy to ascend but a little trickier to come down. Venus is a much more Martian landscape, with scree slopes dotted with long waterfalls descending into a deep bowl of turquoise water. Only one party of two was camping at Venus on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Huckleberries were in abundance, some blueberries were available on the trail between Waptus and Spade, and we saw a pair of toads at Waptus and heard many whistling marmots (or pikas?) up at Venus. And almost no bugs at any of the three lakes.
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