First time on this trail. The trail was sweet even after the fork break off. Snow was encountered .5 mile from the first lake. As we asended to the next .5 mile to the second lake the snow increased and the lake was frozen. Trail finding skills are required on the last .5 mile. Will return to head up to the peak.

A spectacular afternoon hike. The trail is snow free to the Crystal Peak trailhead with patches of snow for the next half mile. At Lower Crystal lake poles and boots gave way to snowshoes for the remaining half mile. I was tempted to hike up the east ridge to Sourdough Gap But thought better of it having heard two avalanches on the hike up. Instead I settled in for a thermos of homemade lamb stew and a nap. 1 3/4 hours up, 1 1/4 hours down.

Could not resist this beautiful November weather so headed for Crystal Lakes. It was cool and clear all day. The trail had recently been worked on in preparation for the spring runoff. They did it just in time because the ground was frozen this morning. There were patches of snow and ice to just beyond the Crystal Peak junction. Then the trail became completely covered with snow. There was a good path in the snow all the way to the upper lake where there was a little over a foot of the white stuff. The Lake was frozen with a dusting of snow on top of the ice. There is something special about the low angle of the morning sun in the snow at this time of year. It certainly offers some interesting photo opportunities. Did not see any hikers or wildlife until I was back at the trailhead. A party came down from a snowshoe trip up Crystal Peak. Overall, a great day of hiking, photo taking and solitude.

Two great hiking weekends in a row. Could we (Brigid, Butch, Tom, & I) make it a third' You betcha. It wasn’t looking good as we approached the trailhead. The last time I was out here it poured. This time it was looking like it would be more of the same. Luckily the rain quit just as we got out of the car. We got an early start hitting the trail about 9:30am. The trail quickly switches back through the trees. There wasn’t any snow on this stretch so we could tell that there had been some recent work to the trail. Mainly cleaning and repairing waterbars. They looked great! A few miles up there is a junction that heads up to Crystal Lakes. We took the route up toward Crystal Peak. After the little stream crossing the snow became patchy. At about 5200’ along the long switchback the snow became steady. By 5600’ the snow was about a foot deep. We left the trail at about 6000’ and headed up to the saddle between Crystal Peak and Peak #6706. Here we sat down and had a nice lunch as we looked down toward upper Crystal Lake would be. Couldn't see it through all the snow though. After leaving the saddle we scrambled up Peak #6706 the headed back down to about 6500’ and traversed around Peak #6904 before heading down to Sheep Lake and picking up the PCT. I was amazed by the amount of snow along this stretch of the PCT. There had to be a solid two feet of snow everywhere. We followed the PCT for a short while before getting tired of the switchbacks. We instead headed straight for Sourdough Gap. We picked up the PCT again and made our way through about three feet of snow before reaching the saddle northeast of Peak #6708. Here we crossed back over the ridge and dropped back down to upper Crystal Lake. By this time it was snowing pretty steady. I know Rainier was out there somewhere. It’s too bad we couldn’t see it through all the white stuff coming down. We picked up the trail again at the outlet to the lake and headed back down to the trailhead. Back to the car about 5pm. Stats: 12 miles, 3900’ gain, 7.5 hours.