It was a great day for Granite Lakes. There's snow on the trail after the bridge, but it's been packed down and had a really great grippy texture. There's nothing icy or slippery enough that I needed spikes, and nothing powdery enough to need gaiters.
None of the water crossings were a problem, although if you don't use poles, crossing the lake outlet right now would be pretty spicy. There was also one long water crossing after the Thompson/Granite junction where poles were nice to have.
The lake is frozen, but the ice looks pretty thin still. The snow is deep enough at the lake that it appears to have kept folks away from the best viewpoints.
The lower part of the trail has several blowdowns, but nothing challenging. The mossy part of the forest is extremely vivid green right now. The connector trail between Granite Creek Trail and Mailbox is currently closed due to landslides.
There were around 15 other people on the trail today. I had some time at the lake to myself. There were people around, but there was also a lot of solitude for a holiday week.
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