We arrived around 0800 this morning. Parking is right off of i-90, any car can make it. The lot already had quite a few cars. The vault toilet was open and there was a little TP left. Trash cans are closed for the season, so make sure to pack out.
There are 4 water crossings that were very slippery early this morning before the sun warmed them up a bit. Spikes could be helpful here, but with waterproof boots I just walked through the water to avoid the really slick rocks.
Snow became more consistent about 2.5 miles in. The snow was really just compact ice, some patches were pretty slick. We didn't feel the need to use spikes, but they could definitely be helpful here.
We made it to Olallie Lake, which was frozen over. You could hear the water shifting under the ice sheet, it made really interesting sounds. We only saw 1 other hiker the entire way to the lake and then had the lake to ourselves, it was amazing!
The way back we encountered tons of people, almost every dog was off leash, which was a bummer for our leashed reactive dog, especially on the icy sections of trail.
My garmic tracked about 7.5 miles round trip with 2300 ft of gain. This trail felt very gradual, it was nice to have this over steep switch backs for a change.
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