Arrived at the trailhead at 7:10AM with one car at in the lot which had been parked overnight judging from the dusting of new snow. We were excited to hike without crowds on the holiday. After a quick stop at the pit toilet, we headed out at 7:15. Temperature at the trailhead was 33 degrees. Not as cold as we'd predicted.
The work on this trail is apparent. The new steel beam bridges are beautiful and have done away with some of the horse fords.
Near the Greenwater Lakes we passed the backpacker coming out, then we had the entire trail and forest to ourselves. Trail conditions were good before the trail splits between the Echo and Lost Lake trails. Mud was frozen, and a very light dusting covered the more exposed parts of the trail. Bridges needed to be crossed carefully, as some were slick.
The Lost Lake trail did have quite a few sections that were solid ice with a dusting of snow after obvious freezing/thawing cycles. Boots/poles were sufficient, but there were some slick sections where close attention is needed. Although we carried spikes and even snowshoes, we didn't need either. The temperatures were cold enough that the snow was nice and sticky once we hit snow consistently, which was probably 3/4 to 1 mile from Lost Lake. Approaching the lake, the snow is approximately 2-3 inches. We arrived at the lake around 10:45.
It didn't appear anyone had been to Lost Lake in at least a couple of days based on the old prints that had thawed, frozen, then been dusted with snow, but there were quite a few canine prints. On the way up, there were two sets, one appeared larger than the other. On the way down, there were prints headed down that were not there in the morning. We also saw elk/deer prints, heard pica and saw their prints as well.
All told we logged 12.3 miles with some exploration, 1602 vertical feet. Moving time: 5 hours 50 minutes. Just over an hour of stoppage time.
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