Wow, what a gorgeous hike! I'd been planning to go back to Blue Lake for a look at the Larches but diverted here at the last minute and feel lucky to have found this trail. I took the counter-clockwise route (from the Trailhead, follow the sign for Lake Ann), and after winding through the woods for a short while, the trail broke out onto the first wash of fall color on an avalanched hillside. A bit more forest, a couple more colorful, open slide patches, and then bam, you're above the trees, looking down on Lake Ann, up at big snow-covered peaks, turning Larches, and blazing fall color in every direction. Gorgeous!

The Larches are just starting, so plenty of time to still catch them. The ones lower on the trail are still green, and higher up, most are the fresh, lemony chartreuse of just starting to turn, with only a minority of over-achievers already full golden. If you can only come up to see the Larchi goodness once, this is the trail.

Fresh snow dusted the upper trail making it feel all the higher and more majestic, especially with the out-of-control views of Cascade peaks all around. Without trekking poles, the slushy, muddy, steeper parts of the upper trail felt a little treacherous to me. I opted to come back down the Lake Ann side rather than follow the loop. The steeper trail wouldn't have been any fun to descend in the slippery conditions, and sounds like it drops into the trees fairly quickly, so I didn't mind taking the longer, scenic route back down. We explored a couple of side trails, and the whole route is so beautiful that unlike a lot of turn-around descents, by the time you are ready to be done, you are. Just a great hike all around and possibly at its best in the fall.

Before heading for home, we swung by the viewpoint a few miles up the road at milepost 163 to catch the sunset on Liberty Bell. Very much worth the stop.

As always, a great big thanks to all the people who either kept their dogs leashed or had put in the time to train them well enough to call them back when asked. I had my first run-in with a real DB (rhymes with "tush sag") on this trail though, hiking with a young, off leash husky who understandably ignored the dozen times the guy kept saying, "Max, Max, Max" in an attempt to call him back. The second time we had to deal with them, the DB tried to excuse his lack of control over the dog with (say it with me everyone...) "he's really friendly." When I said it didn't matter, the DB replied I should then keep my dog on a leash. Seriously? My dog was on a leash while his loose, untrained dog was approaching us for the second time.

Heads-up, dog owners: even people who love dogs and have dogs, DO NOT necessarily want YOUR dog approaching us, nor does it matter if they're friendly. These trails are not an off leash park. Everyone understands your desire to let your dog run loose, but if you haven't trained them to recall reliably, you don't have the right to let your dog off leash here. Never mind it's just against the rules on any trail and is only excused more readily for well-trained dogs. The self-entitled types who are unwilling to take responsibility for their dogs make it that much harder for everyone else -- two and four legged.

If you are interested in my hiking pal here, the sweet and photogenic foster dog, Asha, you can read more about her on Petfinder: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/20088007