White Pass - Pilot Ridge loop offers supreme mountain scenery, endless alpine meadows, once you get up to PCT. The 4 day itinerary allows us to explore the area with a day pack on day 2, definitely recommend this. We were ~3 weeks too late for prime flowers. No mosquitoes, some small flies last day on Pilot Ridge. Abundant huckleberry.8/24 - day 1, Thursday. Thick clouds. Ashley picked me up at Sunset TC at 6:40am, drove to Zach's. Then we all piled into Zach's car towards Verlot ranger station after a couple of breaks, some traffic. Zack bought this Greentrails map with more trails than on my National Geographic map (I put in a wrong backpack anyway. Not recommend that map: doesn't even have milesage!) and on any of my GPS maps on my phone. The road after Barlow Pass (Monte Cristo town) is gravel, slow going in a small passenger car. A vault toilet at trailhead. Talked to the Darrington District ranger who just cleaned the toilet. We didn't start hiking until about 1:30pm.
First 5-6 miles are easy, nice maintained trail, mostly soft. A bit up and down, easy. Quite some big trees. We may saw Chicken-in-the-woods. Giant skunk cabbage in the first mile, then giant devil's club in the 2nd mile. At mile ~2, junction to Pilot Ridge trail. An MSR tent there, looked abandoned. A few camp sites along the way with signed toilet. 
Mackinaw Shelter at mile 6 is a joke, barely standing. We filled water here as every source recommends. Not much horse droppings, nor muddy as I encountered in 2009. The next 3 miles gain 2800'. The grade is steeper in the first mile. Luckily the temperature was cool today, quite cloudy. There are enough trees to rest in shade. Once you start to break out of the tree line, ~5pm for us, the view gets better the higher you go. 
By 6pm, we were in alpine meadows. Eventually hit PCT at about 9 miles from TH, elevation 6100'. All around is flowering slope. Now mostly browned corn lilies and lupine pods. Some fireweed for color. The next 0.5 miles to White Pass (turn right) has plenty little streams. 
A side trail goes down to camp area sheltered by trees. Quite a number of tents here already. There are 2 wooden toilet boxes (I only saw one), a tiny stream at the other end, both not too convenient. The sun was setting. View is obscured by the trees. I left both of my headlamps in the other pack:( Almost tripped over at the toilet. Cooked dinner, using my Kindle as light source. Went to bed just past 9:30pm, with a bottle of hot water at my feet.
8/25 - day 2, Friday. Cloudy - Sunny. The night was very cold. The pail of water I fetched for our camp had ice formed on the top. Surprisingly, I slept ok in a 45F bag and a liner (I wore wool base layer and down sweater in the bag). I got up at 5:30am, and headed up to the ridge of White Pass for photos. Lots of dew, some frost on ground. Crawled back in to my sleeping bag until the sun reached the camp. It dried the wet tent fly quickly.Today we did a big loop (shown on Greentrails map): NE to White River valley (Chelan County), cross the ridge N to Foam Creek valley, over a short pass NW, all the way N to the foot of White Chuck Glacier, up NE to the climbing route, back down SW the kidney shaped lake's outlet, down to White Chuck River valley, up on PCT and back. About 12-13 miles without the climbing route spur (I underestimated it as 9-10 miles). Lots of ups and downs. Gorgeous scenery. Many lakes, marmots, boulders. Some route finding and scrambling. My favorite day of this trip.
At White Pass, a smaller trail goes NE. More or less leveled for about a mile. Good view to the White River Valley, and back at White Pass. 
The trail goes above a small ridge, and down steeply to the small Foam Creek basin, and immediately go up again to another ridge. 
Here the view is splendid. Here I climbed the small knoll to the left of the trail, while my company happily waited at the ridge. Even before reaching the top of the knoll, you can see Baker. The top is more or less flat, and view is expansive and beautiful. Good to survey the terrain we'd embark on for the rest of the afternoon.
Down and up a bit to the lake basin, cross many tarns, big and small. About 6500'. Total alpine playground. No more trees. A few grass and flowers clenching to the ground. There's no one else for miles. Had lunch by this tarn, big enough to be a lake. Pristine water. Clouds departed as we ate, and the sky turned blue. Retook all photos by the water. Saw another couple coming this way.
Continued over to the foot of White Chuck Glacier. It's massive. A climber with broken clothes caught up on us. He planned to climb Glacier Peak the next day. All 4 of us hopped boulders and walked higher to the next cairn. At some point, Zach and Ashley decided to turn back. Me and the climber continued to this basin, where he said he'd camp. He wasn't happy how little snow was left. I guess this is Glacier Gap. Up front, I could see snowfield, which would lead towards the summit. 
Down as I came, excellent view of the basin below. However, not exactly the same trajectory. Once again, I couldn't find my pack, and it's grey! I spent the next 40 minutes franticly looking my backpack, slipped twice over the rocks, got both elbows bloody.
By the time I found my pack and my companions, they were getting restless. We hiked out the outlet of the kidney-shaped lake. It's big and pretty, rimmed with bright moss. 
No trails in the basin. We followed the map, keeping the lake and the stream to our right. 
Eventually we found the trail down to the valley, where the lake water tumbled down in pretty cascades. At the bottom, you can see another stream tumbling down to join this one. The valley below looks very inviting. Green, lush, big patches of pink fireweed. Once we reached the valley floor, trail disappeared again. Crossed the streams (easy now). 
We bushwhacked upslope the west side of the valley until we hit PCT. All afternoon, the climber was the last person we met until PCT - the highway of the backcountry.
Many zigzags up to Red Pass. Sun was setting, we had to hasten our pace. Dusty. Met two solo PCT through hikers, then a group of 3 guys camping in the small space at Red Pass. While waiting for Ashley, I scrambled up the knoll to the left. A bit too dark to take a good photo. It was already 8pm. Chilly. Had to put on my fleece. The rest 2 miles we walked nonstop in moonlight. More or less flat. Zach waited for us at the turnoff to the camp. It's a bit steep there. His headlamp is much appreciated.The night wasn't as cold as yesterday. Little condensation on the tent.
8/26 - day 3, Saturday. Bright sunshine. Mostly on PCT today. Easy grade, well trodden. At times, the trail is deeply eroded like a ditch. Lots of through hikers, and some section hikers. Saw a grouse. Fall color was starting. Huckleberry everywhere. One guy at White Pass camp was doing PCT. He started on March 1st, and went through Sierra with full winter snow gear. He loved it. He also likes the desert, because the flowers were exceptional this spring. All others we met today started later, except for one guy who did the southern Sierra (and loved it), all skipped the entire Sierra due to record high snow. All mentioned Goat Rocks being their favorite sections so far (other than Sierra).
I don't understand why Indian Pass is a low point in a small meadow, according to the map. Quite pleasant, no water, plenty berries. Gain elevation to the ridge (which I call it Indian Pass) with side trail to Kodak Peak. We had lunch hiding in the shade of a campsite (no water). Afterwards, I headed up to Kodak Peak, while my two companions rested. Past another camp site. Dry and hot. Huckleberries here were low lying and red. Met the couple (from White Chuck basin of yesterday) on my way up. Lots of flying ants on the top, hard to even take a photo. Good views here. When I came back, saw Zach's pack next to mine, but nobody. It turns out that Ashley took off in the wrong direction, and Zach went to chase her back. Poor girl was dripping with sweat when she returned.
Continued on PCT below Kodak Peak to Dishpan Gap, not interesting. 4 trails here. We left PCT and took Bald Eagle Trail signed for Blue Lake. Next intersection, we took Blue Lake high route (unmaintained for stock). Quite brutal: south facing, no shade, and steadily going up. Very hot around 3pm. Good autumn color. Once reached the ridge, very good view. Headed down a steep trail toward Blue Lake, at the foot of Johnson Mountain. The lake is true to its name, looks very inviting.
Arrived at Blue Lake just before 4pm, dripping with sweat. Stopped at the first flat spot by the lake, an obvious tent site (big, but has 2 piles of horse droppings). Washed up, cooked dinner, overall chilled here by the water for a long time. Didn't bother to check out the lower Little Blue Lake (didn't want to lose ~500'). Saw fish jumping. Zach found the leak in his pad. Patched it. He didn't like camping at the bottom of the lake basin, thinking that the cold air would sink in the bottom. 
We set up our tents higher up in the trees, with a "private" beach access, but quite steep. Already a few tents here and there. More people arrived later. A few bugs, not an issue.Warm night. I got up around 12:30, and walked to the lake to see stars reflecting in the lake. They twinkle more in water.
8/27 - day 4, Sunday. Not much of a sunrise: hazy. I woke up everyone at 6:15am, as they suggested. Departed 1 hour later. A bit confusing of all the side trails near the lake. Eventually we were on the right track (right below where I camped) towards Johnson Mountain, gaining elevation steadily. The air was still cool in the early morning. No one wanted to scale Johnson Mountain (only 0.5 miles one way). The next mile is my favorite of the day: flowering slope with clear view to the mountains to the south. Many ups and downs, seems to take forever. Temperature was rising, and we could smell smoke. We made two rest stops, the last one at a small heather meadow before the final descent.. Quite steep at first, then it was zigzag.
~5.5 hours after we left camp, we reached the bottom of the forest: North Fork Sauk River. Many big logs fell over the river. Zach wanted to cool off, so walked into the river in his crocs, and promptly lost one. Ashley is afraid of log walking, so she tried to wade the river bare feet. Bad idea. Tried again with boots. I waited for them on the log. There isn't a trail obvious at the other bank. So bushwhacked about 100 ft to find the trail. That MSR tent was still there! 2 miles later, we were at the parking lot. Ashley got some hotspots on her feet due to wet shoes and socks. I found that the food I left in the car attracted some rat. I hope it's not living in Zach's car.Drove to Granite Falls for an early dinner (~4pm). We randomly picked Buzz Inn Steakhouse. Very happy with cold beer and AC. Food was good, and the waitress was friendly. Forest fire smoke was still in the air, and it was very warm: close to 90°F. Long drive home without incident. I got home around 10:30pm.
Total about 44-45 miles, maybe 9-10K feet gain. The steps my phone registered: 29k, 43k, 29k, 34k.
