I spent 3 nights 4 days completing this loop, with an extra day at White Pass Camp to do some exploring around Glacier Meadows and the basin on the other side of Foam Creek Trail.
Day 1: Hiked from North Fork Sauk River trailhead to White Pass Camp - slow going because of the heat and smoke. It took about 5 1/2 hours for the 10.3 miles. White Pass Camp was pretty full because it was the beginning of Labor Day long weekend.
Day 2: Inversion moved in and it felt much cooler and less smoky in the morning, although socked in. I took off towards Red Pass and down towards White Chuck Cinder Cone camp, where the XC route is supposed to take off heading east back towards Foam Creek. I couldn't find the trail, so cut across the open meadows and eventually found the route heading up that way. NOTE: if you want to attempt this route, you'd want to be sure of your backcountry navigation skills. I followed the waterfall and climbed up to the next basin - beautiful! From there I continued to follow the next waterfall up and popped up at the tarn right below the notch leading to Foam Creek trail. Had lunch there soaking up the beauty and the warm sun which was starting to peek out by then. I made my way around the tarn and picked up the climbers' trail which led me back to the notch connecting to Foam Creek trail. Climbed up the knoll next to the notch and roamed a little way down that ridge - amazing views of Glacier Peak and surrounding areas. Met many climbers that day but no one summited as far as I could tell because of an open crevasse with no snow bridges remaining. I made my way back to White Pass Camp - hiked 9 miles that day. White Pass Camp was very full that night and it wasn't exactly a peaceful evening.
Day 3: Woke up to clear, blue skies and no smoke! I left White Pass early to beat the heat, and arrived at Kodiak Peak around 11 am. NOTE: there's not much water along this section so be sure to carry enough. It took about 20 minutes to hike to the summit which was well worth it. Had lunch up there and enjoyed views of Glacier, Indian Head Mtn, and retraced my route from White Pass. From there it took around 2 hours 15 minutes to Blue Lake on the high route. The high route wastes no time and goes straight up the hill and straight down the other side. Views from the top were amazing! It's a pretty straight forward route, ski poles are helpful on the steep descent on scree and talus. Clouds moved in that evening and actually rained a bit in the middle of the night. Total mileage was 10.12 miles on this day.
Day 4: Left camp a bit later than most people, waited for the clouds to clear. Hiked up to the top of Johnson Mountain (0.5 mile one way off the main trail) which is well worth it. The views were stupendous - I retraced my steps from White Pass all the way here, great views of Glacier Peak, Monte Cristo and Sloan Peak. Back on the main trail, I spent the next 2 hours on probably the most spectacular part of this trip, hiking Pilot Ridge with Monte Cristo and Sloan on my left - so close I could almost touch them! NOTE: there's no water from Blue Lake to the very end of Pilot Ridge where it starts plunging down to the river. I stopped for lunch at a spot right before I lost the views to trees, and then it was about 2 hrs 20 minutes of down, down and down the ridge (with occasional ups as well) to the North Fork Sauk. The trail is a bit rougher than the main trails but not as bad as other reports I've read. River crossing was easy with several huge logs to walk across. From the junction with the main White Pass trail, it was another 2 miles back to the car. Total mileage this day was 13.6 miles.
Total trip mileage was 43 miles. There were a few bugs, and tons of blueberries. I would not hike this loop counterclockwise mainly because of the long, steep slog up to Pilot Ridge (and no water) and it's a long time before you see any views, and when you attain the ridge you'd be hiking away from the views of Monte Cristo and Sloan. Also on a busy weekend like last weekend, you'd be running into people all the time as almost everybody does this loop clockwise.
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