But my question would be if Mineral creek or Pete lake is quicker and easier. I have read that mineral creek can be a bush wack but how bad is it?
Pete Lake Trail to PCT is definitely the easiest way to Spectacle. Expect crowds at Spectacle...like all the campsites taken crowds, unless you go Tues-Thurs.
Mineral is quite brushy, the kind where alder and vine maple is crisscrossing in front of your face with ferns, salmonberry, etc waist high underneath. Maybe 2 miles long, the avalanche chutes added together. But there is tread under there at all times. You climb an extra 1000 vertical that you have to drop to get to Spectacle.
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Yes, what John Morrow says is all true. I do however prefer Mineral creek anyway.
1. When it rains you get soaked from the brush and don't need a shower.
2. No crowds.
3. I always see deer and saw a bear once. He was running at top speed away from me.
4. Park lakes are pretty.
5. The hill up and over from Park to Spectale provides great views.
6. The top of the ridge where you up and over to Glacier lake from the PCT is one of the nicest views I have seen. There are little pot holes with water here and there if you want to camp. They probably dry up in late summer but are probably still wet right now. Filter the water.
Mineral Creek is shortish, and nicely steady, with not too much up and down, but brushy, with brushy bushes growing clear across the trail. It's a dug down trench in places and in some of the bushiest, brushiest places there are rocks hidden to trip you. Park Lakes the larger is also best viewed from above, but camp-able. Much nicer camping if you continue upward. Strongly recommend visiting the meadowy saddle area between Park and Glacier basins. It's a relatively short detour en route to Spectacle if arriving via PCT, East Alta or Mineral Creek.
Pete Lake is...forest-ey forever until Pete Lake and then more forest-ey and then you climb and climb and sort of almost pop out of the forest at Spectacle. Also: Pete Lake trail is super horsey, especially on a hot day in late season after a lot of big packers have ground the road apples into a sick, vermin infested dust trench.
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