We started out on the trail and the weather was fair to cloudy. It was a pleasant hike in. There were mosquitos so you had to keep moving. Lots of wild flowers just coming into bloom. The lake was beautiful and we wished we would have brought our sleeping bags. We saw lots of fish jumping and talked with some people who had good luck fishing. Saw several groups of people especially once we hit the PCT trail. Their stories were great! Walked on further past the lake about 3/4 mile and the fog started rolling in and the weather changed to drizzle so we turned around and headed back. It was another great hike!

Hiked to Lake Janus today via Smith Brook and PCT.Muddy spots on thetrail between trailhead and Union Gap.Runoff water in many places between the gap and lake.One brushy area about midway between gap and lake.Buggy at the lake until the wind picked up, then fine. No blowdowns. Beautiful day. Saw no one else the entire day. Oh the pleasures of early season mid-week hiking.

My 6 year old was converted into a obsessive fisherman this summer at Moose Lake in California, so after hearing last weekend about someone who ahd caught lots of rainbows at Lake Janus, we had to give it a try this weekend. Verdict--nice shady, uncrowded hike in old growth, lots of mushrooms including a beautiful stand of Chanterelles, and King Boletes galore. The Lake--shallow, pretty, not spectacular, with lots of spinner eating waterlilies around the edge. The girls enjoyed swimming. The catch--2 rainbows in 2 hours--both hooked by the dads although the second one was reeled in by the 6 year old. One was small, and realised, the other was very large and made a tasty lunch addition. This is a too slow by the standards of a 6 year old, but sufficiently satisfying to be considered a success.

Beautiful hike with a sad ending. We had a great hike with intentions to spend one night at Lake Janus. We were there 2 weeks ago and came back for that overnight. It's amazing how much snow has gone away in that time. and now the bugs are quite active. All went well until the folks in the next campsite got out of control. We're convinced they were quite stoned (evidenced by continual screaming to hear the lake echo and lots of profanities) We didn't want to put up with this noise, but decided to wait in hopes they would settle down. After a few hours and no end to the constant racket, they started shooting firearms into the lake. (Don't ever do that as bullets ricochet off water.) Discretion being the better part of valor, we broke camp and made it back to the car before dark. Great hike, spectacular visuals, great weather, bad neighbors.

What a great hike! 2.9 miles each way. We started with only one other car in the lot, but never saw another hiker all day. The Smithbrook trail is .9 miles to the PCT intersection (called Union Gap) . This took us a while because we lost the trail in the snow and went WAY too far before we gave up finding the trail and retraced our steps back. We then found the intersection and had no problem keeping on the route thereafter. This place is full of great views of woods, valleys, and water. There was enough snow (up to 4 feet or so in places) to hide the trail in places. Taking lots of photos is a must, but I could have done without dropping my cellphone in the creek (Hey, they don’t work up here anyway.) We originally planned an overnight, but the weatherman said otherwise. As it turned out, he was right. Beautiful trip and the rain didn’t start until we got back to the car. The trail gains 500 feet and looses 700. The high point is only 4700 feet, but shade has protected the snow. Trail conditions are pretty good, though no maintenance seems to have been done yet this year. I only saw one or two blowdowns which were easy to step over. I recommend everyone stay away from this trail, because we are going back for that overnight. How many times can you find the PCT deserted? We didn’t need snowshoes. We saw no bugs, and temperatures were near 50f or so (a guess.)