Hiked with wife and GoodKarma from Salmon la Sac trailhead all the way to the lake, making a side trip up the road to the driveway into the day use area by Cooper Lake.
People/Parking:
Arriving to the Salmon la Sac trailhead, snow was on the road past Roslyn and piled high once we crossed the river near the sno-park. Would almost suggest high clearance only, but I don't think our vehicle would be considered that and we did make it after all. Still, lots of snow. Parking around 10:30 there were a handful of other cars parked, but we saw very few people out on the trail. Maybe 3 other parties all day.
Toilets:
There was an open vault toilet at the trailhead. Toilets at Cooper Lake were locked for the season.
Trail:
We considered taking snowshoes but the trail looked pretty packed down. In loose snow we were stomping up to our knees, but on the packed trail we were very comfortable in micro spikes. We ended up doing the whole trail this way, having left our snowshoes in the car.
Apart from the obvious snow which covered everything 100 percent, the trail was mostly clear. There were a couple of blow downs that confused things, but mainly one big one about halfway to the lake road that truly obstructed the path. In reality it was two big trees blown down side by side, one to go under and one to clamber over but it's about 4 feet tall from where you stand. Returning, we clambered up and around the end of this "climb over" tree, which resulted in a slightly tougher "squeeze under" of the other tree but overall was easier I thought.
Once we reached the lake road we found the signed trail continuing on to the lake shore was untrodden since the snow had arrived and we would have had to stomp through it without our snowshoes. We opted instead to follow the road up the hill to where it enters the day use parking lot, bending back to the left. When returning we thought we would follow to the end of the parking lot, then realized it was a dead end. Rather than retrace all our steps back to the entrance of the parking lot, we opted to tromp through the snow up the embankment to the road ("I can see it! It's right there!"). This was an extra little bonus workout, but perhaps saved us a little bit of time.
Flora:
It was a really pretty, diverse forest including some west slope and some east slope features. The understory was mostly at the end of its fall phase, with oranges reaching brown but still popping brilliantly in contrast with the snow. Across the valley we could see what we thought might be the odd western larch shining yellow against the green forested hillside, though maybe it was a little late for them and this was something else.
Fauna:
In the first mile, an owl swooped across the trail about 20 yards in front of me, but disappeared into the canopy within seconds. Apart from this, our greatest interaction with animalia was with squeaking squirrels in the trees above us, and some pretty birds every now and then.
Views:
The river is nearby but not immediately present through much of the trail. It is true that the first step-off to view the river right after the start of the hike affords very good views, but there are some other opportunities farther upriver, closer to where you meet the lake road. It was flowing well and churning over rocks creating dramatic rapids this day. The lake, in contrast, was fully snow covered. We stayed off it, as you could see it was thin near the shore. However it was a very pretty sight.
Clouds were starting to roll in on us at the lake, bringing snow with them and cutting down our waning light in addition to our views. Before they did though we got some good looks at the surrounding dramatic peaks beyond Cooper Lake. Would love to come back and explore further.
Reminder:
It got dark on us about halfway back to the trailhead and we finished out the hike by headlamp, which was pretty cool in its own way, if not ideal! Always remember your backup illumination!
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