Heather - Maple Pass Loop — Friday, Jun. 21, 2024

Bring poles and microspikes! We went clockwise, starting by visiting Rainy Lake (this trail is short, flat, paved, good for kids). Rainy Lake was nice (I wouldn’t say spectacular but nice). Then we backtracked a bit to take the clockwise trail up Maple Pass. The trail was visible / snow free for the first 1.25 miles up, but not much to see along the way because it’s wooded and you’re working to climb ~1,000 ft in elevation. After 1.25 miles, you hit a few snow patches (including some snowy inclines that I found ok to go up but very slippery to go down) and shortly after you will reach a great overlook of Lake Ann and the valley below. This is a good turnaround point if you don’t want to slog through a lot more snow (the trail is no longer visible and snow is slippery as it melts - and as it melts more it’s possible you will punch through). Lots of people were going the full loop today but it didn’t seem like an enjoyable or safe situation to us, so we turned around at the viewpoint and still felt it was a worthwhile hike. We’ll come back once the conditions are better.