Update to the Ira Spring Trail: About 0.5mi past the trailhead, the river crossing is VERY sketchy. The river/waterfall is currently at full steam and was all but uncrossable until we crudely laid some logs across it. Upon our return after a very warm day, the river was even higher and the log bridge was taken out. We laid some more logs from what we found but I would be surprised if it lasted another day.

In Short: Use caution, with the river this high, there is a significant chance to lose footing on a crude log/stick crossing and the consequences could be devastating with the river drop/waterfall mere feet from the crossing.

Started from I-90 Exit-42 ~7:15 AM. Took boot path to FR-9031 then continued up until hitting the trail. ~200 yards after passing Mason Creek, took old Mason Lake trail going up on the ridge. Snow became too deep so snowshoes were in order, prior to reaching the lake. Snow was very wet & heavy. Reached summit at noon. Lots of cloud coverage so no view of Rainier/Baker/Seattle. Ran into a party of 3 near the Iron Spring TH, also going up to Defiance. TH parking lot is in decent condition and reachable on a regular car! (I didn't take the chance so walked up extra 700 feet). Back at car at 3:15 - 8 hrs. 3800 ft, ~3.5 miles one way.

Album: http://tinyurl.com/d9ng334

If you want to drive to the trail head, your vehicle will need high clearance, traction tires and beefy chains. We went up this past Saturday, Jan 12th and it was a perfect day to be there; loads of snow (so, bring your snow shoes), sun and blue sky with very little wind. Their were only tracks for about the first 45 min but unless you have poor route finding skills, it's easy to follow. Bring your map and compass unless you know the trail well. We got a late start in the morning so we only went in for 2.5 hrs but will be back for sure this winter. Their was a SUV stuck at the trail head (presumably from last weekend), if they had chains, they likely would not have gotten stuck.

A group of four of us started from the trailhead around 9:30 a.m. and debated whether or not to bring snowshoes. We decided that if we took them, we probably wouldn't need them, but if we did not take them, we wish we had... so we tethered them to our backpacks just in case.

The trail up to the Mason Lake / Bandera Mountain sign had patches of snow, but nothing requiring traction. However, there was solid snow from the sign to Mason Lake. Although we still did not put on any traction, we did see evidence that others had used Yaktrax.

We made it to Mason lake around 11:30 a.m. Mason Lake was absolutely beautiful with snow-flocked trees. There were light flurries of snow and we were glad we had our down jackets to keep warm while taking a break. The group then broke-up due to two members having a hard stop.

Two of us decided to see how the trail was past Mason Lake and see how far we'd make it to Mt. Defiance before being turned back. As soon as we hiked around Mason Lake, the snow became knee deep and we decided to strap on the snowshoes. Since neither of us had been on the trail past Mason Lake before, we made sure we had our maps and compass handy since the trail was not obvious. We did find some somewhat fresh snowshoe tracks, but noticed they were only going one way... so either we were following a group going up to Mt. Defiance or following a group going somewhere else around Little Mason Lake.

Since the snowshoe tracks seemed to somewhat follow the trail up to Mt. Defiance, we decided to not blaze new tracks and just follow them. We did finally meet a group of three people in their snowshoes around a boulder field coming back down. They too had a hard stop, so did not make it to the summit, but said we were going on a direct route up to the top. The boulder field was somewhat difficult to get over in snowshoes since big steps were needed and often the snowshoes were punching through the snow. Given another foot or so of snow and it would have been much easier.

Once past the boulder field, we were following the ridge and found an open area to what we later found out was a false summit. The snow did not have layers (snow, ice, snow) so we felt pretty safe from avalanche danger in snowshoes as long as we stayed on the ridge. After trekking through more trees, we finally saw another open area to what was the true summit. Again, as long as we stayed on the ridge, we felt safe.

We turned around at the summit of Mt. Defiance around 2:00 p.m., but we did NOT make it back to the trailhead until 5:30 ish with much needed headlamps!

Suggestions/cautions for being safe this time of year:
1. Bring snowshoes if you are going past the Mason Lake / Bandera Mountain sign. Ones with heel lifts would be ideal if you're going up to Mt. Defiance.
2. Bring extra food and water (we were surprised how much energy we needed going straight up the mountain ridge towards Mt. Defiance)
3. Be aware of time
4. Bring down jackets and headlamps since it gets dark around here so early, plus clouds block sun even that much more making it darker and colder
5. Be careful going over the rushing waterfall stream which is in the first part of the hike, along the old logging trail. We were very surprised how much water was flowing, how little rock footing there was to use, and how dangerous it would be if you slipped or fell (you'd be dropping 50+ feet down another waterfall)... so be very careful here!

Happy Hiking,
-spdygz-