Second car in the lot at 6:45 am this morning. Armed with determination (I have tried this cursed trail twice in the winter, and still hadn't reached the summit), I set off. At Horse Camp, I decided to go left, even though I knew there would be snow. I had the offline map downloaded, so felt fairly confident. Well, Gaia was misbehaving (lesson learned; a real compass and paper map would be great), and once at the snowfield, I lost the trail and the footprints, and didn't feel comfortable pushing on alone. It was then that I met the lovely human who posted the review below! I was very lucky, since she had AllTrails and was able to locate the trail! The rest of the way up was uneventful. Really, once you are through that one snow section, the rest is snow-free.
Got quick glimpses of the lake at the summit, but clouds rolled in. Continued on the loop clockwise and was pleasantly surprised that the back half of the loop was mostly snow-free and easy to follow. This half has trail blazes...not sure why the other half doesn't?!?! Regardless, it was a gentle descent through gorgeous forest. Trail in general can be a bit slippery on the descent...dry dirt and scree is just as slippery as ice/snow in my opinion!
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