Trailhead - very easy to get to from US2. Turn right about 0.3 after Iron Goat Interpretive Site, cross the railroad tracks and immediately turn right. The road has few potholes - but they are very easy to drive around even in a sedan.
We've started on a trail at 8:48 AM. Trail - first (short) portion - is just following the old logging road. Then turn left under the trees - by following the very visible trail sign. First half a mile is quite boring - very well maintained trail, wooden walkways and staircases - covered in ice and snow though. So the microspikes were needed almost from the beginning.
At mile 1.25 - first serious obstacle - a log bridge. Covered in 4" of ice and then 1 ft of packed snow. Two hikers in front of us - crossed it by sitting on a log and slowly sliding forward. We've done it by carefully walking in microspikes with the help of trekking poles to keep the balance.
Then nice and snow covered trails starts. Very visible path created in a deep snow (1-1.5 ft tunnel in snow). The trail flows under the trees with a little bit of exposure to steep and snow covered slopes on the left and Surprise Creek on the right. Not enough snow on the slopes for avalanches yet. The trail crosses multiple streams - so in some cases we had to build snow bridges to pass.
Then at mile 2.5 - the trail ends, deep snow and pretty steep ascent starts. For 0.6 miles it's a set of switchbacks we had to build in a deep snow. Then the next 0.4 miles - the map shows a set of switchbacks through the boulder field - but we've decided to go up without doing any switchbacks. And it was exhausting. Sometimes we would fall into snow caves in between boulders - which were 3-6ft deep. We've gained 1000 ft in less than a mile. Google Earth shows max slope at 56%.
Then another quarter mile of nice walk in a deep snow with 300ft of elevation gain.
Then - another obstacle just about 100ft from the lake - crossing Surprise Creek again. This time - huge 6-8ft snow5covered boulders with 2-3ft of water flowing under the snow around boulders. So we had to compress the snow across the boulders and over the stream - to cross the creek (see the photo below).
By the timer we've reached the lake - around 1:30PM - it was snowing quite heavy. The lake was visible - but visibility was disappearing very fast. So we've boiled water, had some tea and hot meals and started our descent back to the cars. Made it in about two hours.
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