We passed by the three or four "chain-up" areas on Highway 2. You can pull into the parking lot just across the railroad without chaining up as you exit before going up the pass. There's a convenient Honey Bucket here (probably for the RR workers), though there's another Toilet at the official trail head which is about 1/3 mile walk. All the trail info is nicely covered with plastic. We began at 10am.
The trail goes up from the trail head until you cross under the power lines. I did this snowshoe about 8 years ago, and I noticed more boardwalk which brings you up at a very gradual rate. The trees will unleash their snow in clumps, so beware! Also, some of the log bridges across smaller creeks require a good amount of balance, but you should be able to walk across the streams themselves. Our conditions were perfect, it had snowed 22 inches in the last 48 hours, but only 1 inch overnight.
You get more views of the creek about a mile in, which is a great place to stop for lunch. Our pace was 3 miles in 3 hours, but you could easily go faster. We ran into maybe 10 other snowshoers that day, so it was by no means crowded.
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