In Jan. 2015 I way over packed and without snow shoes or skis , hiked the length of Clearwater and Cold camped on West Pike for a few nights. No clue what i was doing but i caught a mess of nice Lakers.. looking at the map and looking back should it have taken more than 1 full day to make it to West Pike ? It did for me.. Lets say average conditions and little slush do guys generally make it in a day ? Looks like about 5 miles on the map. I am thinking about a march trip this time for more daylight hours. Thanks.

Every fish was a cookie cutter.

Never been into West Pike but have trekked across Clearwater and camped there with a large group of students three times. Each time we left GM at 8 AM with a bus, took a long time to unpack and slowly went across Clearwater. Each of the three times we were more than set up on the far end of Clearwater by about 3ish.

I would bet if you were by yourself, you could make it across clear water in no more 2 hours. It is about four miles across.

Not sure about how long it would be to get from Clearwater to Pike.

I hope that helps.

Thank you.. Gosh I figured i was slow as heck trudging through the snow. No snow shoes or skis was a rookie mistake..And to much gear.

With proper gear I am sure you could have done it much quicker. Was there a trail for you to follow? than can make a difference.
If we have a broken in trail we figure we can do 8 to 10 miles a day. If we are breaking trail it really is dependent on the conditions but we are usually able to do 4 to 5.

Fresh 8 inches of snow and breaking trail. Then you would come to crusty spots and break through. But i still had alot of fun. And got great advice here. Case in point i had no idea what i was doing.. a very crappy sled packing job. I did a good job on the sled itself but the rest of it not so much. My canoe camping gear was the same. I've done a 10 ish day solo each year for the past 6... My gear when i was just starting out was frightful also. I guess that's how you learn..