A friend hiked Bead Lake about a week ahead of this trip and reported 11 trees down following recent windstorms, so we put together a rare one-day work party for our sawyers to get a little extra practice & for our volunteers to have some fun time on saws! We are normally running these as multi-day trips and backpacking, so it's fun to have one that's just a day trip.
There was a little snow on the access road to the upper parking lot. Not much yet, so we didn't have any trouble accessing it, but it's important to note that the upper parking lot is not maintained for the winter so it may become inaccessible at any time. Winter access is usually a small pull-out area near the boat launch gate (which is already closed for winter). This trail is an awesome winter snowshoe outing, but finding a parking spot can be the biggest challenge and visitors should probably come prepared to dig out a spot if necessary.
Our crew reached our turn-around time at roughly the 3 mile mark on the trail, so I'm not sure how many trees may still be down beyond that point. We ultimately cleared 15 trees when only 11 were initially reported, so I think additional wind storms have been bringing down extra trees! It started to snow pretty hard as we were exiting and it was absolutely gorgeous out: light dusting of fresh snow on all of the trees and super calm conditions on the lake, so some very pretty views of the reflection of the trees on the water. It was a great day to be outdoors with a fun crew!
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