After seeing that Silver Lake was still 75% frozen, I continued onto Twin Lakes. The trail had a few down trees, mud holes, and some snow on the trail. The trail could use some trail brushing and leveling of trail in areas. This trail has a lot of gaining and loosing of altitude. Twin Lakes thawed only last month and snow remain around the sides.

Twin Lakes is a bit of a rough place. The road up is impressive engineering as it grinds upwards for 7 miles. Some of the switchbacks are so steep that I had to back up to make the turn. Four wheel drive isn't needed per se, but good clearance is a must. Snow blocks the road just as one crests the ridge to the lakes. There is barely ample room to turn around any vehicle (ours is 23' long camper) at the top so be careful until the snow is gone.

The trail itself leaves from between the two lakes and is partially melted out. The fork to High/Low Passes is melted out (take the left fork to Winchester). Teh trail is steep in spots, but more problematic are several steep snow patches that need to be navigated. I would highly encourage an ice ax for everyone. Some may even want a rope or to wait another week or two.

The Summit is free from snow mosly, although there is plenty enough for melting for water. The lookout was a fun visit, although the supports for the shutters couldn't be found so we left them closed. The views of Shuksan and Baker are right in your face. A great place to spend an afternoon reading and a night full of stars.

On descent we dropped intio the large gully due west of the summit. This gully is moderately angled. Follow it down until just above a waterfall. At this point follow the soft ramp up and to the left going over the lefthand ridge. It quickly drops down through blueberries and trees. The going quickly becomes easier. Faint trails through here become less faint and eventually one crosses at the lake's outlet. This leaves you just 50m from the top of the road.

We headed up the forestry road from Mountain Loop Highway that was bare and pulled into the trail head for Ashland Lake which was just passable snow. The Bear Lake road was closed at the turn off to the Ashland Trail head. We had planned to do Bear Lake and decided to do Ashland Trail -- unfortunately we missed the turn off to Ashland Lakes (not signed) and kept on the broadest path which turned out to be the path to Twin Falls Lake. It was a light drizzle and we just did not want to get the books and maps wet...

The trail from Lower Ashland Lake to Twin Falls Lake is closed. We discovered that direct to Twin Falls (TF) also has it risks! The snow was very wet and at that point where you are not sure if snow-shoes are worth putting on. We snow-shoed in, and winter boots back.

En route to the TF lake, there was a long series of elevated boardwalks which eventually lead to a twisted ankle. Often the boardwalk had a 1-2 foot drop on both sides, unfortunately the snow depth often hide the drop. Eventually a misplaced snowshoe went off the edge and got caught on the underside of the boardwalk, sending the hiker flying off the other side and hanging upside down (with some sound effects and expression of discomfort). After recovering, we went on but the leg was acting up so we turned back about .5 miles short of the TF lake, the constant drizzle and the leg was not a good combination.

We did red-survey tape the trail from the turn off until we turned back so subsequent snow-shoeing types can follow the trail as the snow deepens. But wait until there's 24" of snow because of the boardwalk risks...