Portapotties remain closed and have probably been closed since the November fire; signs on the doors steer you to other portapotties down the street, or you can find a favorite tree.
9 of us enjoyed a lovely chilly hike to Granite Lakes today. Two patches of black ice on the road made me slow down and proceed cautiously, but they were short. Most of the debris on the trail from previous windstorms has been cleared, and where it's not, trails go easily around larger logs. The biggest hazard is not so much stream crossings but ice on the trail.
All 9 participants used trekking poles, gaiters, and traction devices.
We left the cars at 8:25 a.m. (and only saw one other person all day). We reached the lake by 11:15 and hung out for 35 minutes before returning to the cars.
I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE everyone trying this hike in the next few weeks to take poles and traction devices. With recent dry weather, cold temperatures, and sun, a few spots on the trail have had running water freezing and thawing repeatedly, laying down some thick ice.
The bridge is passable if you stick to the sides. The first thick ice is near the Falls - stay right to proceed through the brush. And where you start getting continuous snow is a great place to put on traction devices.
The stream crossings I was concerned about were fine - again, the dry weather has made for less flow so one hiker in our party who turned around a few weeks ago commented about how much better the conditions were today. To get to the lake, we used two logs, one that had a thin layer of snow and was fine with spikes; the other was 3-4 branches laid close together; we all side-stepped across with spikes on.
It was a beautiful day, and everyone had a great time. We saw some interesting fungi, heard golden-crowned kinglets, black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, a brown creeper (I think), several gray jays, and a varied thrush. Our total moving time was about 5 hours.
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