This was a perfect day for lots of fluffy, pristine snow. More fell as we worked our way up. We only made it the first three miles on account of playing in the fluff and because the peaks started to disappear with the oncoming storm. The trail has been used frequently, so we had minimal trouble finding it. Because the parking lot is under a layer of packed snow, bring the snow-worthy car or at least front-wheel drive and chains.

I marked this as a day hike instead of XC/snowshoe because I opted against bringing snowshoes, instead I used gaiters because the temperature was close to freezing and I figured post holing wouldn't be too bad. But after a couple hours I quickly realized why people like to XC ski and snowshoe in this area. It was a white wonderland, an easy grade trail surrounded by old growth trees and later the crystal clear surprise creek. I wasn't waist deep or anything, but my trip would've been a lot smoother after a couple miles in the higher elevation with snowshoes because even shallow post holing is still grueling work after a couple hours. I left the trailhead around 8 am. I wore my best insulation, an Ice breaker 200 base layer with a polartech REI powerstretch on top and a waterproof marmot shell, with a arcteryx fleece in the bag for backup. A wonderful combination, But after 2 miles in I was sweating like the good old days playing backyard basketball in the summer. I was ready for more, but after trying to pace myself and taking a fifteen minute break under an old growth tree, I couldn't stop shivering, wet as a stray dog. I decided to turn back. Besides, I had forgotten my cell phone to tell the time, I had forgotten my lamp, I forgot my green trails map (I feel naked without it) and I was surrounded by recent mud and ice block avalanches from slopes on both sides of the river, some which had split trees in half. Safety first. On my way back, I went at a leisurely pace, and in less than twenty minutes I was bone dry and happy as a clam. Theres a reason waterproof/breathable gear is expensive, Its breathable =).

The last 1.5 miles or so of the trail are still buried in deep snow and no where to be found. Serious post-holing and snow bridge collapse when you scramble up along the creek. Beware. We got about 0.6 miles from the lake, decided we had enough and turned back.

The log over the stream is at exactly 1.8 miles from the trailhead. After we crossed the stream, the snow got deep. We put on the snowshoes and were able to follow the trail for a while. Lost the trail and picked it back up a few times. As we headed up the steep slope to the left, we could no longer see the trail. We could have traversed the slope a few times and made it up, but it wasn't going to happen on this day. We were about a third of a mile from the lake with 500' of elevation to go. The slope is steep and looked a little avalanche prone on this warm day. I am curious to see the path of the actual trail when the snow melts. This last mile of this hike is very tough when snow is present.

Surprise Lake trailhead was unused since the last snowfall, and with some rain that had fallen the trail was nowhere to be found. My buddy and I hiked through the woods and headed to the southeast (knowing that was the direction of the trail). I had done this snowshoe hike two years ago and remembered the direction we went. I knew we would hike between two small mountain ranges where Surprise creek drains. So we just hiked through the woods until we ended up to the snowfields, and ended up about 200 feet above the trail. We could see the creek below. Hiked across some avalanche slides, maybe we shouldn't have, but we did. Had lunch in the trees, and made it close to three miles out. Decided to turn around, and made it back to the truck just before 3:00pm. We had started at close to 10am. Not a bad day, with the weather clearing during the hike. My redbone coonhound is exhausted sleeping on the couch, and I'm on my second Mirror Pond. Life is good today.