On a beautiful, sunny, clear and warm day, I set out to hike Mount Rose. At 11 am there were a few other cars in the lot. The sign in the parking lot for the trailhead is next to a path that just goes down to the road, the path on the right is the actual trail and there's another trailhead sign just beyond the picnic area.
The trail was as described and on the way up I heard the wind in the trees, a few birds up in the trees and the deep, low, pulsating sound of several sooty grouse mating calls.
I met two solo hikers on the way up to the lollipop intersection. Both gentlemen are frequent users of the trail so you may meet them, too! Neither had ventured into the snow, but one told me that it started around 3,400 ft (where he had turned around). The other had turned around at the intersection.
Later on I met one more hiker who had summited and he shared that gaiters might be handy as he had postholed a bit, and his pants and socks were a bit soggy as a result, but the snow wasn't difficult to hike through.
I took the clockwise route at the junction, anticipating completing the entire lollipop, and there were several downed trees in the stretch of trail just before the snow started. Here I met a pair of hikers on the way down that said the views from the top were clear and beautiful. Once I got to the snow there was a welcome drop in temperature to cool me down after I had worked up a sweat climbing. The trail wasn't hard to follow as there was a boot path in the snow and pink and orange ties around the trees. There were some tracks that wandered off a bit, but just stick to the heavily traveled route and you'll be fine.
The snow has completely melted near the summit, so the last stretch was warm and dry. I had the summit to myself and ate my lunch there, looking down on crows circling, a boat here and there on the lake and admiring the surrounding mountains. There are SO MANY more to climb! :)
I started out on the continuation of the lollipop trail but the way wasn't quite as clear as what I had encountered on the way up, so I ended up turning around and going back down the way I had come. I didn't want to risk getting lost while hiking solo. I met one more hiker and her dog, Leo, shortly after heading down.
Since I had lugged my DSLR camera with me, I took my time on the way down and had fun playing around with the camera (which I'm still learning). I also took full advantage of the primitive bench at one of the lookouts, stretching out fully and just enjoying the peace of the woods and watching the tops of the trees sway in the wind above me.
I only noticed one clump of toilet paper off the side of the trail and picked up one torn-off corner of a snack wrapper. I noticed one cut switchback and a few social trails around some viewpoint areas, but for the most part the trail has been respected and it's in great shape.
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