Hike Time: 5.5 Hours (with an hour + stop at the lake)

Road to trail head: No bad. It is a dirt road but low clearance cars should be fine. No big pot holes. 

Hike with dogs (small and large)

Smith Brook Trail Head was a great start to the hike. The hike begins going up hill. There is a large tree down right near the start of the hike. You can climb over it or follow the road up to meet the trail above it. The beginning half of the hike is an incline but after that it's pretty stable in elevation. There is one more large down tree before you reach the "T" to head towards Valhalla or Lake Janus.

At the "T" where Smith Brook intersects the PCT is you go left you head to Valhalla (where we meant to go but hey what's a hike with out a detour). Heading right will take you to this very secluded lake. 

The trail was very nice, a little muddy in place and some snow on the trail. All was easily passable. For a Sunday hike there was very minimal foot traffic. While on this section of the PCT we encountered 2 other groups of people. 

At the lake there were a ton of bugs. I highly recommend Deet or some very strong bug spray. The water was beautiful and very easy to swim in. 

If you are looking for a moderate hike and very minimal people I would highly recommend this trail!  

The trailhead was full and overflowing so we parked on the shoulder. First of all, there is snow here- about 3 inches at the trailhead and 6 inches or more at the high point. The road in was fine, I drove in in a Scion. The Smithbrook trail is usually a nice start to the hike but it was trampled and sloshy and muddy today. Once we got up to the clearly marked junction we took a right and headed down to Janus. This part of the trail was a bit colder and in better shape with compact snow. I think a majority of hikers headed to Valhalla today so we were relieved of the crowd on this section. At almost three miles in we ascended through a an old rockslide, crossed a creek and passed a couple ponds to reach the lake. It was nice and calm at the lake and there were only a couple other hikers there. The temperature warmed up on the way back and turned the trail into a slushy mess in a lot of places.

Another Remi et al. 2017 hike down in the books, and a thru-hike no less!

We started by planting one car at the Top Lake Trailhead. IMPORTANT NOTE: To access Pear Lake from the Top Lake Trailhead, the coordinates to the trailhead are 47.875357, -121.112286 (the map on the Pear Lake WTA site shows the Heather Lake Trailhead instead of the Top Lake Trailhead - the directions are correct but the map is not!). The road between Top Lake Trailhead and the Smithbrook Trailhead is bumpy but passable - there are some sharp rocks and large potholes but no flat tires! We then drove to the Smithbrook Trailhead to begin our hike in to Lake Janus!

We left around 5pm and arrived 3.5 mi and an hour later at Lake Janus just before nightfall - this was enough time to find a good spot, make dinner and set up our tents. Janus has mosquito larvae but no fliers - it was quite chilly that night. There's a camp toilet and several camp spots - it was a fairly popular spot with two other camping parties at the lake.

The next morning we left around 9am with the intention of having lunch at Grizzly Peak (which we accidentally passed - it's not really that prominent of a peak!) and then camping at Pear Lake for the night. We had lunch in a small meadow-rock park amongst the marmots. They whistled, we whistled, it was a good time. We continued and arrived at Pear Lake, despite many huckleberry picking stops, around 2pm (~8mi). It was mild but we managed a swim in Pear Lake - the water was great but there wasn't much sun to dry off in. Still worth it!

The night of the 16th was chilly!! It got down to ~30 degrees and was crystal clear out. The stars were beautiful.

We hiked out from Pear Lake via the Top Lake Trail to our car, 6.5 mi - then celebrated with beer and pizza at Blewett Brewing in Leavenworth. 

Just for variety I spent Thursday night at the Mountaineers lodge at Stevens pass, which is open for the month for PCT thru hikers and anyone else. Really enjoyed meeting 16 or so thru hikers that spent the night there. Parked at Smith Brook at 9:45 on Friday morning, about 10 cars in the parking lot. Nearly everyone on the register was headed to Lake Valhalla. I'd been to Valhalla recently but hadn't been to Janus for years so at Union Gap I  decided to go north to Janus, which involves dropping  around 600 feet. Very nice hike but if you are trying to decide based on which lake is prettier I'd pick Valhalla (also slightly easier). Relaxed at the lake, chatted with a few thru hikers, back at the car around  2:00, according to Green Trails miles think its about 6.5 miles RT.  Spotted a cool old trail marker (see photo). Berries seemed to be fading.  

I set out to hike to lake Valhalla and mt McCausland on my way home to puyallup from Leavenworth.  This was my first time doing this hike, and so Janus lake got thrown in by accident.  

Smithbrook rd is easy to spot heading west from Leavenworth.  Coming from the west the road comes up a few minutes after Stevens summit and is easy to miss.  I have hiked off smithBrook rd before (Minotaur lake) and was thankful that the first 3 miles were in great condition without potholes, or any of the harrowing drop offs that you get further up the road.  I did a solid 30 mph to the parking lot. I arrived at the TH at 8:45.  There is not "ample parking"- the lot is very small and people were already parking down the side of smithbrook rd when I got there.  Still I got a good parking spot not to far from the TH. 

I budgeted about an hour up, an hour at the lake and an hour down, hoping to be back at my car by noon.   That plan all went to hell in a hand basket when I took a wrong turn on the PCT and accidentally ended up 1.5 miles in the wrong direction at Janus lake.   If you have not hiked this trail before, the "gap" where you meet the PCT from smithbrook trail is a T- junction with no signage visible from the ascending perspective.  I saw nothing and didn't notice the T junction, and just veered right by mistake.  There are signs for PCT and smithbrook trail but, as I learned the hard way, they are only visible from the PCT and even then they are "super hidden " as a kind hiker told me when I realized I was lost.  If you want to go to lake Vahalla , take a LEFT at this junction- you will know it by a large tree on your left with a big scar on it.   You will shortly after see a sign about camping at Valhalla to know you're on the right path.   If you start descending and descending and descending some more (700 feet in total that you'll have to regain on the way out) you're going the wrong way unless you want to go to Janus lake. 

Once I reached Janus lake, my fears that I was on the wrong track were confirmed by a group of backpackers.  Janus lake is very "meh" and I certainly would not select it as a hiking  destination on purpose!  Lots of bugs too. 

I turned around and zipped back the other way, gaining the 700 feet I lost and finally got back on the right track.  I momentarily debated just going back to my car, however, but I decided to finish what I started and headed to Valhalla. From the junction, the trail was easy to follow and before I knew it I was at the boot path to mt McCausland, which is marked by a cairn.  This trail is very dry, steep in places, and dirty!  Nice views from the top.  I didn't have poles but I used the trees and bushes along the trail for support during slippery steep parts of the descent. 

Finally I descended into lake Valhalla, my intended destination. By this time the sun was high in the sky and the lake was getting crowded so I didn't stay long.  There is a trail that goes along the lake but I decided to save the exploring for another day as by this time I was getting tired and hungry, and I was overdue to be back at my car.  I headed back and actually made it back to my car in about an hour, despite being totally pooped at that point.  Passed a lot of hikers with well behaved leashed dogs and wished I had brought mine!   

I do see why it is such a popular hike.  Easily accessible, fairly low effort, fairly big payoff.  All in all it was a good day, despite being a little longer than I had planned for.  Now that I know the way, next time I will get there earlier and faster and have more time to enjoy the lake!