Snow Lake

I started out to do the Kendall Katwalk, but the short road to the TH is now buried under six feet of snow and there are several signs warning about "No parking or you die" (alright, I added the last part, but that's the implication). So I went up the road to the Snow Lake TH.

The trail is covered in deep snow right from the parking lot, tho it was frozen solid enough that I did the entire hike with just boots and Yaktrax. Snowshoers and X country skiers have groomed the trail so it looks like a garden path, and the hiking is quite pleasurable, especially on a beautiful sunny day. Avalanche chutes were not a problem since the snowpack is consolidated and hard as concrete.

Along about the third switchback, the trail suddenly disappeared under deep untracked snow. Rather than turn back, I instead went up the Source Lake trail branch, again on nicely groomed tracks, and eventually bushwhacked my way up past Source Lake to a high overlook of Snow Lake. I had snowshoes but, even up top in untracked snow, they weren't needed. Though it was windy up there, the scenery was stunning in a fresh coat of sparkling snow.

Speaking of wind - it was howling on I-90 all the way from North Bend to the pass, strong enough to blow a large SUV over, leaving it perched precariously on top of a guard rail. Incredibly, the Snow Lake trail was completely wind free all day. Go figure.