There was lots of mud and lots of water. We could see snow at the lake, but not too much. On the trail I moved a blowdown off the trail. It was really cold and a little windy. We went around the lake and I climbed up on rocks. It was a really fun hike. We saw a squirrel. We bushwhacked a little bit. This was a great day to go hiking and not be at school! Nathaniel (Age 8) Happy Hiking :0)

This is one of those hikes that can be done almost anytime of the year. The trip to the lake is a 4 mile round trip on an excellent tread and near Everett and Seattle so as to allow easy access during the short days of winter.

I had actually planned to hike Green Mt. (long ridge just North of Mt. Pilchuck) but the numerous shot gun shells at the trail (road) suggested an alternate plan. The Green Mt. hike is in a winter hike book and should be avoided for a bit. Coming down the Heather Lake trail I heard gun shots from what I believe to be the Green Mt. area.

The trail to Heather Lake is in good shape as is the road! My last trip to this area about 3 years ago found the road in less than good condition. I was hiking with friends who had an SUV so no problem.

Heather Lake is frozen over with the latest cold snap. Ice falls where water runs off the face of Mt. Pilchuck were neat to see. The hike took about 2.5 hours with a long lunch break.

There was a light dusting snow at the lake but other than this the trail was in good shape with little in the way of mud.

Snow and mud conditions will be changing as the weather turns to winter like conditions.

Had a fun two family hike into Heather Lake. Our new backpackers (5 kids, my kids being the veterans) were little troopers and made it in even with a late, hot start. We had the lake to ourselves and enjoyed fishing, swimming (a great lake to swim in) and hanging out on the rocks. Kids had a good time finding garnets in the rocks. The fishing was lousy and they didn't seem to bite at much. The next day we all hiked into Glasses Lake. The ""fisherpersons"" trail was even flagged this time and made it easy to follow. Made it up to that lake and hung out there. The kids played and tried fishing again. Still very slow. The mosquitoes were also voracious!!! Some of us found a great trail up the right side of the lake through a boulder field. It lead us up to the PCT. We hiked out the PCT to Grizzly Mountain. The mountain itself wasn't anything spectacular but we had some spectacular views of Glacier Peak and Daniel and Hinman. The flowers were great in the high meadows!! This is a GREAT first backpack for people with kids!

A pretty sunny afternoon. The bugs at the dusty parking lot gave us a scare. Fortunately it got windy as we went up and fewer bugs showed up. The trail was a bit rocky and there was a bit water on trail, but nothing too difficult. It took us a little more than an hour to get to the lake. The walk around the lake was very nice. It was all very very green. A couple of people were fishing. We encountered a couple of rain drops on the way down, but it wasn't heavy enough to wash off any dust off the car. Alas, the bugs still got us - 3 days later red itchy spots started to show up on my arms.