We did the Seven Lakes Loop by way of Appleton Pass looping around on the Cat Basin Primitive Trail. Our first night we stayed in Appleton Pass. There are a lot of camp sites with a lot of distance between one another so privacy and noise is not a concern. There is a water source, it's stagnant though. We filtered it with the MSR Guardian, no issues. That was important because from there we hiked the Cat Basin Primitive Trail which has no water until you reach Bear Lake.
Several trail reports indicate that finding the Cat Basin trail from Appleton Pass is difficult. We scouted it out the day before and it was easy to follow, no issues. The Trail is a steep descent navigating past overgrowth of a few shrubs on trail. Once you're into the ascent to Spread Eagle Pass the trail is very thin, angles slightly down, and is steep at points. My pack was heavy for the push, weighing around 48lbs [I would have liked to have been lighter]. The view from atop Spread Eagle Pass just after sunrise was amazing. The entire trail gave majestic views of the Park, almost at every turn. The trail itself was easy enough to site and follow. We used a monocular to site the trail ahead.There are several rock fields to negotiate, and three minor ascents over some ridges. They're small and tight trails at points with the last ridge having some blow downs on the trail. That was the only part that had us stop and assess direction.
We emerged from Cat Basin near Bruce's Roost and hiked the Mirror Lake trail to Lunch lake. The sites at lunch lake are great. The sites close to the lake are like a mini maze to reach the lake. Bugs were minor here. Something came through that night [Deer? Mountain Goat?] and ate a sweaty shirt I mistakenly left out to dry.
Our final day we ascended the Seven Lakes basin trail to the High Divide and exited at Sol Duc. The descent was challenging on the feet as you're hiking large and loose river rocks almost the entire way. If I had to do it over, I would have chosen a sturdier boot than my Aslo Falcons.
Highly recommend the cat basin trail. Amazing views, challenging, be ready with plenty of water, and mind the bears. We saw 5 in total in the area but paid us no mind.
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