Hiked with my family of 4 (2 kids, ages 6 and 9) on Oct 11.
Road: Good condition, lots of pull-out areas where needed for opposite direction traffic and several dispersed campsites seen, including some occupied by hunters (based on gear and orange clothing of the ones at camp).
Parking: Arrived at 8 am on a Saturday and there were still a handful of spots.
TH Vault Toilet: Smelled terrible and no toilet paper, which is to be expected given the location and gov shutdown.
Trail: We started the hike around 8:30 am and a few faster groups passed us early on, but we were mostly on our own up to the lake. Trail was in good condition. Steep enough in some places to elicit a few complaints from my kids and husband, but we appreciated the spots where it leveled out.
Trail between lower and upper lake had a few blowdowns, but they were crossable by my 6 year old. It was also slightly less obvious than the main trail, so having the map downloaded was helpful.
We saw one tent across the upper lake and a couple day hiker parties that all left shortly after we arrived. Stopped for a ramen lunch break with some light snow (none accumulating during our hike) and then headed back.
Several groups heading up as we hiked down, including some larger groups who were really friendly.
2 leashed dogs. 6ish unleashed dogs who ran up to us, mostly way ahead of their owners ("they're friendly"). We chose to hike with one adult in front and one at the back of our line to prevent our kids from getting scared or knocked over, but it would have been nice for dogs to either stay close to their owners or be leashed.
3 bikers out on the trail, all of whom were great about announcing their presence so we had time to hop out of the way (we're not here to hold them up)
No trash seen on the trail!
Larches: Slightly past peak, but still gorgeous. Carpets full of needles near the upper lake.
Totals (tracked on my Garmin watch):
9.2 mi
2,530 elevation
6h19 moving time and 7h6 elapsed time (included lunch stop at the upper lake)
Kid rating:
Food: 10/10 for the gummies every 1/2 mile and ramen lunch courtesy of a jet boil.
Trail: "Never take us on this trail again because it was too long and too steep" (they'll definitely be taken on a similar hike next year)
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