Mid-route, where the route steepens noticably for the final several thousand feet to the summit.
The East side of Mt Baker in a word - solitude! This was a very different kind of trip to a side of the mountain that is not scarred by signs of human passage. There are no trampled climbers paths, no real obvious and well-used climbers camps, and no hordes of climbers.
My partner and I hiked in on Saturday evening, taking 2.5 hours from car to camp. Although this trip can be easily done as a day trip by fit parties (estimate 14 hours car to car) , its such an infrequented and quiet side of the mountain you might as well stay a little while and enjoy it. The hike in is at first a flat path through a steamy forest, which ends in a "bog". It really is a bog! At the other side of the bog, make a sharp right and climb up through the trees. (There is a sucker trail that also leads down the steep hillside to the creek below-dont take this!) The steep up through the trees takes about 20 min to where you start breaking out onto more gentle rocky terrain, and then the long grind up the moiraine to camp begins. Beckey says "4 hours" and with really large packs you might take that long, but 2.5 or 3 seems more realistic. A short pitch of 3rd class basalitic rock (an unusual feature!) leads to the alpine meadows of the moraine, and in 20-30 more minutes running water and flat camping spots.
Although my partner says this route is popular with the Mountaineers as a basic trip, we found the approach trail indistinct at times, no real obvious camps in the alpine meadows, and no one else around. The entire area seems really infrequented, and the reason is pretty obvious: the 3rd class scramble keeps most hikers at bay, and the routes on this side of Baker are not currently in any of the Select (Nelson/Potterfield, Kearney) guides.
The Boulder/Park Cleaver itself is not very interesting for its first half (the Cleaver proper), mostly a hike. We elected not to rope up for this portion and found excellent cramponing conditions. We made fine time to the top of the cleaver, where the route starts veering left to join the summit ridge (and the Easton route) near Sherman peak.
Mid-route, where the route steepens noticably for the final several thousand feet to the summit.
Here (currently, Aug 1) there is a section of hard ice that you must negotiate, and some very tricky crevasse navigation (ice screws handy, a "real" ice axe handy). Once past this section, the route steepens considerably. A leftward traverse with several end runs around large cracks leads through multiple large bergschrunds over the course of about 1000 vertical feet to the summit ridge.
Only a few hundred feet shy of the summit did we see any other people. We spent a short time there (thanks to the woman from B'ham for feeding me!), and then headed down. Descending, we found a slightly different but no less "heads-up" way through the short section of crevasses that separate the upper mountain from the top of the cleaver. The descent back to camp took us around 2 hours - the first hour to the top of the cleaver is slow going, as it's traversing above large 'schrunds and then though the icy crevasse mess. The second hour (3500 vert) back to camp is primarily glissading.
On the way out we saw more goats than people. This side of the mountain is REALLY nice if you want to get away from the crowds!