We parked 2 miles away from the trailhead. 2 miles in January! From one side I was happy not to hike the road 5 miles each way, but from the other side I am concerned as everyone else about lack of snow.
Road to the trailhead and beyond is groomed and goes very easy. River crossing is nothing to worry about, almost no running water there. Forest section has some signs of postholing and was a bit slippery but we used spikes and didn't have any postholing in the morning. After leaving the trees we headed to the Railroad grade, put snowshoes on and hiked it all the way to the climbers camp. We saw few parties on the mountain going up. At some point I felt some regret not even thinking about climbing Baker when I was planning this trip few days ago. It would have been relatively easy to get it done today and I would have had true winter Baker ascent. Next time then. We took a break enjoying Colfax and Baker views. Then we headed to the lookout. Didn't use summer trail around the final knob and took a direct line, it was steep but doable. At the lookout we took a short break, some photos and headed down. On descent we met few parties which planned to stay there for the night.
Beautiful day in Paradise!
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