Forest Road 58 is closed 0.2miles from exit 47 so I got the bike out of the car and pedaled the 2 miles to the trailhead. It’s an easy ride – there are no steep gradients. I looked at the way from Alpental Road first, but that’s completely blocked with snow. There were quite a few people walking the road, but they must all have gone to Franklin Falls because I saw nobody on the Melakwa Lake trail.
There are some blowdowns on the way to the water slide but not hard to get around. The log bridge over Denny Creek at the slide is gone but the water level is low so it’s an easy crossing. The snow starts in earnest after the crossing. I had snowshoes but some of the route was too steep for them so I used my faithful spikes.
Someone had been up a few days beforehand and their footmarks made my day much easier. The snow makes it tempting to take almost vertical shortcuts. I had the equipment for that but not the lungs. This trail is much harder in snow than the pleasant summer walk I did with my family two summers ago.
The lake is completely iced and walkable everywhere except the inlet and outlet. It started snowing hard so I left quickly and headed down. The snow reduced as soon as I left the lake basin. Days are getting longer so I didn’t need the headlamp until I got to the trailhead at 6pm. The ride down FS58 in darkness and snow was exhilarating and very cold.
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