The trail to Shoe Lake is straightforward, steadily but slowly gaining elevation. 5 of us started at ~11:30am. 2 hours in the woods, passing 2 grassy ponds: Ginnet Lake after ~1 hour, the 2nd pond 20 minutes later. Ignore all branches, one of them goes down to the Ski area. Still in the woods, no view. About a mile later, you get a glimpse of Mt Rainier above the ski lift. 
Yet another mile later, you finally get out of the trees. View here is very nice, and you can see the little Miriam Lake, and the big pool of blue Rimrock reservoir far to the west. The view gets better and better until you are just above Shoe Lake, at this point, you can see the peaks of the Goat Rocks. Camping is now forbidden in the lake basin. The closet camping is Hidden Spring, about a mile further on a side trail. Again, all in the woods.
I continued on south along PCT. Passed two sizable ponds, one of which is named Lutz Lake. Both grass rimmed, and have camp sites. From the trail, the water doesn't look very clear. But I could be wrong: I didn't get to the edge of the water to check that. There're also a number of tiny streams, which I don't like as my water source. There're a couple of more camp sites by the trail, which I don't see obvious water source. I pushed on, totally disappointed. Finally, after 2.5 hours, maybe 6 miles, ~half a mile south of the trail junction to McCaw Basin, I emerged from the trees. I was now walking south on a slope with the view across McCaw Basin on my left (east) and a sun basked slope dotted with flowers to my right (west). 
Soon, you crest the ridge, and go down west to a beautiful flowering basin, with melting snow running in force. A nice small camp site, just being claimed by a couple. Further down, closer to the running creek is a large campsite, already had 5 tents. Passing the creek (easy), going up above a flowering plateau. Another nice campsite, already claimed. Somewhat windy here. I was by then exhausted. Found a clump of trees and pitched my tent in front, facing the mountains, on grass (very bad, I know). Relieved to have the pack off my shoulders. It was 7pm already. 
Put on my fleece and I continued up towards Elk Pass with my water bottle. I found a couple of more camp sites, and saw one more person. I was walking into clouds that was getting darker and thicker. So, I turned back after maybe 3/4 mile from my tent, and maybe still 1/2 mile short of Elk Pass. All along, very pretty and open country. Cooked dinner ~8:30pm, it was quite cold. No bugs.My phone registered 46k steps. I estimated ~15 miles from camp to trailhead. Extra 2 mile for going up the butte above Shoe Lake, and from camp to Elk Pass.
Encountered at least 7 PCT through hikers today. They are fast.
8/7, Sunday. Woke up ~1:30am by my bladder. Pleasantly surprised to find out that the sky was clear. Beautiful stars, no moon. I set my alarm at 5am, because I promised to meet my group at 9am. Packed up and started heading down without cooking breakfast. 
It was around 5:50, and the sun was just rising, casting a yellow glow all around. After 30-40 minutes in the beautiful alpine scenery, back to the dreary woods. I got to the campsites of my group by 9am, and they were packing up. I checked out the area. A small meadow 5 minutes walk further (so is the spring, which I didn't see). Another 5 minutes, there's a better camp site on a ridge with nice views of distant hills.Headed out, we took the trail to Shoe Lake. Unbeknownst to me (should have checked my map), you can continue and it connects back to PCT. I left my pack at the trail junction, so had to come back. The lake is nice, but not as pretty as when you look at it from above. My group was flying. I wasn't able to catch up with them. Arrived at the car 5-10 minutes late. Drove back by 1pm.
My phone registered 43k steps today. My longest hike to date this year.
