Heather - Maple Pass Loop — Monday, Oct. 19, 2020

We hiked this Monday midday - plenty of parking, some slush lingered in the parking lot but roads were clear and weather was partly cloudy and in the 40s. We decided to do the clockwise direction which gets the steepest part out of the way first. The first part through the woods was extremely wet and slushy and the switchbacks seemed to never end. But you soon forget about them as the views open up as you start to get above treeline. This is also where the trail becomes completely snow covered - yes still hip deep in places - and it remained that way almost the entire loop. However, we did not have to break any trail as there were enough people that had gone before us and there hadn't been a recent snow event. But if we didn't have microspikes it would have been difficult to manage even with a packed down trail. Gaiters, poles, hats, gloves and warm layers were also essential to making this a very enjoyable hike. We lucked out on weather in that there were enough cloud breaks to see almost all the surrounding snow capped peaks, and YES there are still larches that have not lost their needles, even some close to the trail that are the perfect photo op! These might stay another couple weeks barring any major storm event. My one area of concern was about halfway through the loop, clockwise direction after you drop down from the ridge, the trail appears to cross an avalanche chute so not a place I would want to get caught in. Overall...this hike is incredibly amazing right now since you get both the bright yellow larches with a backdrop of snow covered mountains, but if you do this hike this weekend, my advice would be to watch what the weather is doing this week; if it gets another dump of snow it may be too difficult for most to navigate the whole loop. You could go part way and then turn around; in which case I would recommend the clockwise direction; steeper but MUCH better views.