The road to the Annette Lake still has some snow but most passenger vehicles should be able to make it to the parking lot. The parking lot however still has a foot or so of packed, rutted snow so parking is limitted. I started out doing the short nature walk nearby. It's a good way to practice your tree identification (many of the trees have signs telling you what they are). The Annette Lake trail starts with patchy snow, but turns to continuous snow pretty quickly.I found good tracks to follow and was happily schlepping along with my head down and my mind elsewhere, when the tracks suddenly stopped. This was just before the first potentially avalanchey chute. I reached into my pack to pull out my map to decide if I should risk crossing or go up and around, but to my dissmay found that I had only brought the USGS Snoqualmie Pass map and not the Lost Lake map which has most of the trail on it. I only had 9½ essentials so I put on my Sherpas and flopped up the steep hillside in deep, powder for a while leaving behind a loopy trail before turning back at about 4:00pm.

Met Dan, the Signpost editor on his way to the Snoe Fest at Gold Creek on Saturday. What a guy. Here's the report. Trail has several windfalls, particularly within the first mile of the trail. Snow starts in earnest above 2300 feet. The snoe track was faithful to the designated trail until just before the first avalanche slope, then it ascends steeply to cross the avalanche slopes above the danger zone. The general avalanche hazard was only moderate, but the local conditions indicated a much greater danger existed. Deciding to err on the side of safety, we chose the high route adding an extra 500 feet of gain and an extra mile. The lake is completely iced over and owing to the lack of people, was very peaceful and beautiful. No fish were jumping as they would bump their little fishie-heads on the ice. There is 8 to 10 feet of snow. http://www.geocities.com/~rangermike

Saturday promised to be sunny, if somewhat windy, so I chose Lake Annette as a location that should provide some nice scenery, without presenting much of an avalanche hazard. I arrived at the parking area around 10:00, and there were a couple of other cars already there. The snow along the road to the trailhead was soft enough that I was glad I'd brought snowshoes along, but once on the trail the snow is well packed in most areas, and there were several other folks without snowshoes doing just fine. In places the trail has been packed down two feet wide, with 6 inch ""curbs"" on either side - there's no difficulties in following it to the lake. Nice views of Humpback on the way, and a very nice view of the north face of Abiel once at the lake - snow, ice and rime encrusted.

The Alpine Lakes - There was snow from the road to the lake. We brought snowshoes but didn't start using them until around 2800 ft. Until then there was a pretty solid ice crust about 6 inches down. We slept in and got started around 8:30 and there were a few people ahead of us all going to Silver Peak. We were the first people to break trail to Annette lake in our snowshoes It was a very cold day but the snow was in great condition for snowshoeing! We did not need ice axes. The lake was covered in snow. [Online Editor note: Alright Dave! Glad you made it to the lake, but what about Abiel' Is it still alround there']

There are snow patches on the trail with the snow remaining continuous above 2800 feet. The snow has a crust on top and is up to six inches deep. Travel was possible without snowshoes. An ice axe was not needed but there are areas along the trail where one would be needed if the snow ices over. There are several windfalls. The lake was completely iced over and snow covered much of the lake basin.

The Annette Lake hike is a short easy hike quite close to Seattle and easily can be done as a half-day if that's all the time you have. There were quite a few people this Saturday and with good reason. Probably one of the last clear sunny days of the year. The trail was completely dry, snow not even visible on the peaks above the lake. There were a few trees fallen across the trail but they were easily traversed. There aren't many views but it is a very pleasant hike through forest with a pretty lake at the end. The whole hike took about 2.5 hours and it's only about a 45 minute drive up I-90. I almost regret that I didn't save it for a rainy day later in the year! Michael