I did a late morning hike to Marten Lake and really enjoyed seeing the trail in early winter mode.
The road from the Taylor River Bridge to the trailhead has... well, at what point do we stop calling them potholes and start calling them craters? You can probably make it in any car, but having a higher clearance car helps.
The Snoqualmie Lake Trail portion of the hike was as usual nice and smooth. With all the deciduous leaves down, the forest feels more open and the forest floor seemed particularly mossy compared to Spring and Summer.
The Marten Lake Trail features a lot of roots and blowdowns. Some of that was pretty wet and slippery today. The trail is pretty clear, but if you haven't been up here before it's really helpful to have GPS or a downloaded map as backup, particularly on the way down where it's easy to stray off onto some of the social trails that lead to the creek.
The upper third of the trail has two different trails. I took the high one both up and down today. The creekside option has a pretty big bog and given how wet it is right now, it would likely be hard to cross. There were still a few muddy sections to cross on the high trail, but none that you would sink too deep into.
There was snow close to the lake today, but nothing you'd need spikes for. I was happy for my waterproof boots and poles to help with the water/mud crossings.
The lake is still ice free. There was a dusting of snow on everything. It started snowing while I was at the lake. The incoming snow clouds made the trip down really picturesque.
Total today was right near 9 miles and 1900' of elevation - most of the elevation is after you leave the Snoqualmie Lake Trail. I only saw one person all day. Parking lot was empty when I returned to the trailhead.
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