Smithbrook road is in fine shape with few potholes. Beginning of trail up the the PCT is heavily eroded. Drainage failed. It will take crews many days to build stone steps or crib steps to repair. Starting near the top of the switchbacks is a series of big nasty messy blowdowns with lots of branches. We cleared some of the mess but it will take sawyers to open up the trail sufficiently. Snow starts before we reached the junction with the PCT. We explored a bit of the trail to Lake Valhalla. There is huge blowdown blocking the path right at the beginning and more later. We took the trail to Lake Janus which had some blowdowns but not nearly as many. Lake Janus was soggy around the edges but very pleasant in the sunshine. We were greeted by low flying military jets which shook the ground as they flew overhead. My friend left her hiking boots in the Smithbrook parking lot. If you rescue them call Janice at 206-322-2436. Reward offered.

I did this hike on accident. Me and two others were trying to go to lake Valhalla from the pct entrance but they closed it because they were chopping some trees down at the trailhead. the snowfields on the smithbrook trail made it difficult to find the trail since this hike isn't super popular. We didn't realize there way a fork in the trail to lake Valhalla until we made our way back. About a mile in these snowfields were pretty dense and a little hard to navigate through. The fork we took instead to lake Janus turned what could have been a 3 mile hike to Valhalla into a 7.4 mile hike. Though the wrong hike, it was absolutely beautiful. The trail is in good condition and suitable for most age groups. There was one river crossing were we had to soak our shoes but nothing terribly difficultl.

Started at Smithbrook Trailhead and the trail was snowy but visible. Left TH at 1230 and the trail was nicely defined by previous hikers. The trail was in good condition, but the mixture of ice and mud did make it slippery in spots. More pronounced on return when I was descending back to TH. Was probably 12 inches deep at lake. My intent was to go to Valhalla. Smithbrook comes to PCT at about the one mile point. My guidebook said to turn south. There were no markings at the trail for N or S so I went with my internal compass. That is how I ended up at Lake Janus! At PCT, turning right leads North to Janus and Left goes South to Valhalla. I did look at my actual compass after a mile or so, saw I was heading to Lake Janus and was fine with hike and experience on trail. It was very serene and I was only one up there at the time. Back to parking lot by 430 and second to last car out. Assume other group went South on PCT because I saw no one else on trail. Beautiful hike and the grade is pretty mild, so I think it would be a great spot to overnight with kids. Assume lake will be frozen soon.

Lovely fall hike to pretty mountain lake. Tons of mushrooms but hardly any people. Weather is turning so pretty chilly.