Hiked the Lake Serene trail on a weekday starting at 9:30am. There were already about 10 cars in the parking lot.
The trail starts out easy with a gentle incline for the first 1.5 miles, until the turn off towards Bridal Veil Falls on the right. Continuing towards the lake (I skipped the falls), there's a big fallen tree blocking the trail (see attached picture). I agree with a recent trip report that it's worse than the picture makes it seem. Seasoned hikers may be able to cross the tree with ease, however for the average hiker it'll be a careful scramble.
Moving on, this is where the difficulty kicks up several notches with rocky terrain, stairs and a steep grade, making the first 1.5 miles seem like a cakewalk in comparison. There's compacted snow on the trail about a quarter mile from the lake. If you have good boots and trekking poles, you'll be fine without microspikes.
The lake is breathtaking - frozen but thawing. There's a narrow bridge on the right that takes you towards lunch rock. There's a fair amount of snow up the way to lunch rock, and it can be dicey if you don't have traction. Lunch rock is covered in snow for the most part, and I'd probably skip going up there if you don't have microspikes.
Great, hard hike overall. Took me about 5 hours, including a 30 min stop at the lake and a couple short breaks on the way up.
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