Arrived at the Cathedral Pass trailhead at 5:30am on Sunday morning. There were quite a few vehicles parked overnight, but plenty of space for more parking. We started on the trailhead at about 5:50am. Hiked up to Cathedral Pass and Peggy's Pond, and then up to Mount Daniel. Reached the summit at about 11:15am, and was back at the trailhead about 4:20pm (about 10.5hrs roundtrip). Fresh snow overnight, but no need for traction. WTA description helped when trying to determine the right approach at the "gendarme". Overall, amazing views and great hike!

   I challenged myself to a loop hike starting at the Cathedral Pass TH, with a side trip to Peggy's Pond, back to the PCT to Deception Pass, then taking the Deception Pass trail back to the TH. My mission was to delivery some cold snacks to the WTA crew working near Hyas Lake in the afternoon.
   Parking was crowded at the TH when I arrived at 07:15. I had to repack some things and finally got going at 08:00. Cathedral Pass trail is in good condition. I was able to steadily gain elevation to Nosh Nosh Wahtum. I wish the WTA hiking guide would mention the meaning of the lake name. More steady elevation gain to the junction with the PCT. Head south for just a bit, then branch off to Peggy's Pond trail, which is a narrow boot trail traversing around the base of Cathedral Rock. You get a great view of Deep Lake below.
   I arrived at Peggy's Pond around 10:45. I saw two groups had set up camp, and two guys were fishing. I took some photos and headed back to the PCT junction. There I started to cold soak my lunch and continued on. 
On the PCT, berries were ripe! I snacked on a few handfuls at a few good patches. Delicious! On the map there are seasonal streams but the first one I came across had dried up. I checked the Far Out app and saw that the next stream was also dry and the next water source was  3.3 miles from the junction, the stream/creek feeding into Hyas Lake. I started with 1.75 liters but I had drunk it all. Thankfully it had been all downhill from the junction. The sound of rushing water sounded heavenly when I arrive around 13:15. There I filled up on water and took my lunch break. 
   After lunch I continued on, crossing the creek on rocks. The PCT started to climb again but a few more berry breaks helped me ignore the climb. There were portions where the tread was slipping. Some brushing would also be helpful. I arrived at Deception Pass at 14:30. From there, the trail would be all downhill! I kept a steady pace. The trail is in good condition but could use some brushing. I started seeing brand new puncheons and finally saw the WTA campsite at around 15:35. I delivered the cold goodies to the seven member BCRT crew. We chatted for a bit, exchanging volunteering stories.
   I bid the crew farewell and headed out around 16:05. I was back at the TH parking at 17:15.
   Total miles walked, according to GaiaGPS was 16.9 miles with 3828 ft of ascent and descent, and 9hr 15min on trail.

We enjoyed a peaceful hike to the base of Cathedral Rock on Friday. We hiked a bit up the social trail toward the rock, and enjoyed a nice view of Deep Lake while we ate lunch. The trail is in good shape overall. Lots of ripe huckle/blueberries!!! Especially in the last mile to the top.

There are a couple small creeks to cross, but it's easy to step on rocks if you have good balance or poles. The lake in the middle is a nice spot for a break. There were some bugs in a couple spots like the lake but nothing terrible. We found a breezy spot on the crest for lunch so they didn't bother us much.

The road was fine in our Honda Fit. It has significant washboard sections but nothing terrible and is not very potholed yet. You have to cross a wash or two. We got the last spot in the parking lots (multiple trailheads here) at 9am on Friday - there was a WTA work party sign so the lot may have been more full than usual. There was some more parking along the road, but it was sad to see a lot of people parked on vegetation when we got back. The trail itself was fairly quiet, we saw about 10 people while going up and similar on our way down. We had our lunch spot all to ourselves!

Talk about an exciting trip to Peggy's Pond and Mt Daniel! Every single time we've tried to summit Mt Daniel, we've been racing against incoming storms. This time we gave ourselves a couple days to finish the job, which was definitely needed.

Going to Peggy's Pond, the weather forecast called for a 30% chance of a thunderstorm but no accumulation was expected. Apparently that forecast changed. A couple hours after we got to camp, dark clouds rolled in quick and unleashed a crazy hail and rain storm. We easily had a few inches of hail followed by a couple inches of rain. Enough to cause a few washouts along the traverse from the PCT to Peggy's Pond, and you could see parts of the mountain above Circle Lake washed out as well. You can see the craziness of the storm in our video https://youtu.be/CnP_grz4Im0

The next day we were back to clear skies, just with a little bit of smoke lingering in the air. Some mini fires started nearby but sounds like those were put out pretty quickly.

We made our way to Mt Daniel, and my map had the East Peak labeled as the summit. We were very disappointed to find out that we were on the wrong summit after we were already standing on the East Peak.

So we backtracked and found the real trail and made our way over to the true summit, which is definitely much cooler. Pea Soup looked amazing in the sunlight, and the rock features are really neat there.

There was also a great water source below one of the snowfields that we filled up at near the summit. The water was so cold and delicious. It was worth the 100' of elevation loss to get to it.

Overall the trip was amazing and I'm glad we finally knocked Mt Daniel off the list!

I think this is actually a 9 mile hike according to my GPS. Overall, the incline is pretty gradual and the trail is well maintained. lots of wildflowers right now and there were a few huckleberries coming in. it was also fun to see 3 lakes along the trail - some people were overnighting at noh noh (squak) at 2.7 miles in, but it didn't look packed for a Saturday. the bugs were buzzing me the entire hike and i had to eat my sandwich walking in circles to try to keep them from eating me alive. used a Japanese bug spray- still came back with 10 bites. it's pretty quiet, and most of the hikers I did see were coming home off the pacific crest trail. I'm not a strong hiker - it took me 6 hours total.

the parking is a complete zoo though due to all the backpackers hiking to Jade Lake, so you'll likely be parking a mile away from the trailhead. road there is rough, including a creek crossing with 18 inches of water, that I managed in my hatchback, but I'm not sure if that was smart...