Arrived at the TH around 12:45pm. Trailhead parking lot was full, but plenty of parking a short walk away on the street. TH bathroom open and stocked.
The trail becomes snow covered somewhere between halfway and two-thirds to the top. Before that, the trail is often very wet with running water over the trail in place. Not very muddy though, thanks to how rocky the trail is. Fine in waterproof boots. I definitely would not want to attempt it without. Only a couple insignificant blowdowns.
Once the snow begins it is fairly consistent, with just a handful of melted-out sections. Even late in the day it was firm enough that microspikes were fine. Very little postholing--no need for snowshoes. Some of the going is getting tricky, with the bootpath getting narrow with a big drop off of the snow bank on the downhill side.
There is a super aggressive bird at the summit trying to steal lunches. Please don't feed them! It's not good for them.
We returned to the TH around 6:15pm. Give yourself more time than the distance and the elevation suggest. This trail is rockier than most in this area, so the going is a lot slower than you are probably used to.
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