Road to trail head is in good shape. Lots of snow covering the trail and at about .5 miles to top, complete snowfield covered with deep snow - hard to find the trail. Still, great views. Blue Lake has some ice & snow still.

Same as the last report. Snow and ice covering the road about three miles from the trailhead.

Just wanted to make a quick note here so no one else drives several miles of gravel roads, like we did, only to find out there are huge, thick sheets of snow still covering the road to the trailhead. We have a AWD vehicle, but the snow was way too thick for it to handle. We had to turn around and head back. Hopefully it melts soon!

The trail overall is in decent shape - although it's quite rocky and rooty in the first 3/4 mile, it is easy to follow and the views get better and better as you climb. The trail is very exposed towards the top - very little tree cover for the last mile. The sun was pretty relentless today, and I wish I had brought a hat and more water! Once you get up to the meadows...I swear you can hear Julie Andrews singing...it is that picturesque. Fall colors are emerging, painting the meadows pretty reds, oranges and yellows. Just about a quarter mile from the summit, the trail forks. I went left for the "straight up" route, which is steeper and involves a little bit of scrambling over boulders...but it's shorter than the trail winding around the base of the summit on the right. The summit is not too big, but big enough for maybe 10 or 15 people. There is room for about 15 cars at the trailhead, and the privvy looks brand new...complete with a recycling bin and trash can inside. Pretty nice compared to other trailhead privvies! The drive up isn't bad - there are signs the whole way pointing you toward Blue Lake (the shared trailhead). The worst section of road is the first 4 miles of Forest Road 12 - there are a bunch of potholes, sometimes covering the width of the road, but it improves after that. My compact made it up fine going slow through the potholed sections. My gps tracked roughly 4 miles for this hike, about 1500 feet elevation gain. It was roughly two hours for me, roundtrip. Excellent views of Baker, Shuksan, Twin Sisters range, Baker Lake and North Cascades :)

Hikeathon is underway, and my goal this year is to do hikes that I haven't done before, or haven't done in a long time, or ones that have defeated me. I am also trying to pick underreported on hikes to bring some new ideas to the hiking community here. Today we hiked up Dock Butte and then into lovely Blue Lake on the way out.The hike to the butte and former lookout site is moderate, the hike to Blue Lake easy. The trail is a bit narrow and rooty in spots, but easily followed. As you head up to Dock Butte the views of Mt Baker start in the first mile up the ridge and only get better as you go. The tarns that are normally present along the trail are dried up, muddy or grassy, the berries withered, the flowers long gone. Such it is this year. As mentioned before, there are 2 spots where the trail forks as you reach the bottom of the butte, stay right at both intersections for a more gradual ascent. The only tricky spot comes w/in a couple hundred feet of the top, where there is about 10' of boulder scramble, no problem, but Ravennspirit's old four legged companion just couldn't quite make it. We took turns hiking to the views, and they were fabulous! Rainier,Glacier, Baker, Shuksan and lots of unindentified peaks of the N Cascades are spread before you, along with a peek out toward the sound. A great place for the lookout that was once there. Once done, hike back down to Blue Lake and find a nice spot for lunch and a good swim. We might have had this hike to ourselves, except as luck would have it, it was a hike featured for a local geocache club, and they were there in droves looking for the treasure chest. If you follow my trip reports, please consider sponsoring me for hikeathon at https://www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=1468&AID=3052&PID=515381 Thank you