Biked / Hiked the former FS road from Gold Creek to Kendall Lakes.  Biking uphill was difficult and we needed to walk the steeper sections.  Snow patches on road until 3600', then 100% snow.  The snow was soft and snowshoes helped a lot.  After leaving the road, there were some steep slippery sections to navigate to get to the lower and middle lakes, our MSR snowshoes helped.  Getting to the upper lake required climbing a very steep slope, and the superb grip of our MSR snowshoes was essential!  The upper lake is beautiful!  We managed to cross it, hoping to ascend the gully on the north end, but there was too much shoreline melt-out on the north side.

Tip:  Our map showed a trail on the north side of the creek (between upper and middle lakes), and this was our first ascent attempt.  This path followed an open avalanche slope and was very steep and exposed.  Although there was no avalanche danger, we opted to ascend thru the trees on the south side of the creek.  This minimized the fall hazard concern and the snow was firmer, allowing better grip with the snowshoes.

We hiked on Saturday, April 5. There is snow the entire length of the trail. We both wore hiking boots, but only I had micro spikes over mine; I’m so glad I did because the snow is so uneven. We both used trekking poles which we highly recommend for the unevenness. We both wish we would have brought snowshoes because we did a lot of postholing, a few times up to our crotches, when hiking in snow that gets warmed by the sun. That is why it took us 6.5 hours to hike the trail.

Alltrails was guiding us the entire time and it showed we hiked 9.5 miles roundtrip, not 8.3 miles that Alltrails shows as the mileage. I highly recommend using Alltrails because there is no sign, at least this time of year, pointing towards the lakes when you get to the top of the ridge. We kept walking up to a lookout that dead ends. Alltrails notified me we were off the trail, so we backtracked and saw 2 different snow shoe trails made my people who had also not known to turn.

It got up to 64 degrees (it was 70 in Seattle). We had blue skies with a few clouds which gave us a beautiful view of Mt Rainier, the Kendall Peaks and the mountains around Snoqualmie Pass. We walked across 2 lakes.

We started at 9:45am and saw 10 people on the trail in 3 groups.

The best views of the Kendall Peaks is as you are walking up the trail. When you get to the lake at the end of the trail you can’t see the Kendall Peaks at all; in my opinion it is not worth hiking to the last lake in the snow as there was not anything pretty to see.

It's end of season. We hiked in spikes and the snow was wet and sloppy. 

At the parking area it is a stark reminder of human carelessness. The roadside and port-a-potty areas were littered with trash.

Carry your waste out. Let's leave these trails as pristine as we found them.

Today, the route to Kendall Lakes was a well-defined trench in the deep, fresh snow, but the path became narrower and less consolidated as we climbed past the first mile. Snow continued to fall all day, and more was forecast overnight! Snowshoes or skis are necessary.

We mostly followed other skiers' and snowshoers' tracks up to the second lake. When we occasionally broke our own trail, it was arduous in more than a foot of unconsolidated fresh snow. Heading back, we made our own tracks down the upper part of the valley along the north side of the creek. Skiing the steeper slopes though the forest is challenging, and most of us took at least one fall, but it is possible to do on backcountry nordic skis. When we reached an old logging road that heads southeast across the valley, we followed it to intersect the main trail at the big switchback at about 4100 ft.

One of our group broke a ski pole on the way up. Fortunately, we had some duct tape along for an emergency repair. The pole ended up 6-inches shorter, but we didn't need to abort the trip.

Stats: 8.4 miles, 1,900 ft elevation, 5.5 hrs

Started out on spikes at around 8:30 with low clouds, light precipitation, and obscured views. Decided to follow some ski tracks up to the third lake which was fine going up, but not so nice going down, especially as the sun broke through and the snow softened. Very glad to have snowshoes for the return as things got increasingly slipperier and unstable with the warming of the day. And that is the conundrum: leave early for good traction and poor views or take a chance at a cloud break and worse snow. Either way, better than staying home.