Apparently I was one of the other people in RedBeardRunningClub's trip report as I saw only him and one other person on the trail today (hope your ear is ok!). It was a gorgeous bluebird day. Stayed mostly on Mt Washington Trail, but did a side jaunt on Olallie Trail to catch some of the views. Parking area only has light dusting of snow and accessible to all vehicles. Started out with crampons, but eventually changed over to snowshoes at the junction with Olallie. The snow is all powder right now and saw no potential avalanche issues. Powder is over 6 inches deep in the higher elevations. The downed trees are still there from previous reports, but all are near the beginning and easy to get by (even with a large backpack with snowshoes strapped on). I must say hiking Mt Washington Trail with snow is much nicer as it cushions the usually hard and rocky trail. It was challenging to follow the trails in the areas where I was the first one through, so if you are out exploring off the trails we cut today, best have GPS.

I was one of 3 cars at the trailhead. Snow from the start. Put spikes on at about 1 mile in after it got a bit deeper and I wasn’t on rocks as much. Followed a set of tracks to the junction of Great Wall/Mount Washington. Once I continued on to mount wash I was alone and had to break trail. Snow was 6-12 inches at times. Got to the rock field and decided to head back with how deep the snow already was and I didn’t have snowshoes. A beautiful day but safety always comes first and I didn’t feel comfortable continuing to the top. Will come back for this one another time.

Hiked solo yesterday and only remembered to post a trip report today! The weather was threatening to dump at 11 AM so I tried to get a mid-morning start so that if I was dumped on it would be on my way down. Started my hike precisely at 8:14 AM. Only about 7 cars in the lot. 

The trail at the beginning has several blowdowns, but every one of them is passable for me, a 5' 10" person with a large backpacking pack (for training). It had some running water streaming down the trail at times, but since it wasn't really actively raining at the time (only misting) it wasn't difficult to walk on/through. Prepare for wet/muddy. And I would bring poles and/or microspikes, as they are needed at about 2900 ft elevation - onward just before the creek crossing. At first the snow is on-off-on-off but then it is constant, so you can discern when to put them on. There were sections of the trail that felt narrow, when I had to brush away some tree limbs. Perhaps overgrown? Or maybe just weighed down by snow? Maybe 100 ft elevation from  the very top (just as you come out of the trees) there is what appears to be a cornice (and someone commented on it being one earlier), but if you know this hike in the summer it is just a sort of berm of raised earth that you climb up and continue up to the true summit. The snow is compact and I didn't have issues postholing, though I would have slipped around without spikes and poles. 

When I returned to the car, there were about 25 cars in the lot and still plenty of room to park/maneuver. Overall I probably saw no more than 25 people! Nice day out. 

Oh, and if you were the one(s) to pick up after your dog and leave the bag on the side of the trail, please remember to TAKE IT HOME WITH YOU and throw it away. It's a two-part job, since it is actually LESS biodegradable if it is sitting in a plastic bag...ok rant done.

This was the first hike at Twin Falls in over a year for my group.  We arrived at the TH and were on the trail at 9:30. Much of the parking areas Southside was filled with a huge mud puddle limiting parking unless you didn’t mind wading. Two other groups of 4 to 6 people were gearing up and on the trail just in front of our group.  The trailhead vault toilets were open for use with supplies.  Limit your visit as they were quite smelly.  This was a perfect day to beat the crowds and feel as if you had the trail mostly to yourself, trail traffic was super light. Perhaps that was due to weather and it being a mid week hike. It was 40 degrees with 100 % humidity and mostly cloudy skies.  The entire trail was saturated with a few real muddy spots in the first half mile. We took our first break after climbing the switch backs to the falls view area bench.  One member of our group was celebrating a birthday and we were serenaded with the Happy Birthday song. Thank you awesome, cheerful hiker!  Continuing on we descended to the viewing platforms below the falls as 2 other groups were hiking back up - perfect timing.  We took several selfies and group shots with the falls as a back drop.

  To extend our hike we continued across the upper falls bridge and went up to the Cascade Palouse Trail and hiked the first 3 switchbacks of the Mt. Washington trail.  That made round trip a 6 mile out and back hike. The trail here had several blow down trees that have not been cleared yet making it harder to navigate.  One hearty hiker passed us here and said he was aiming for the summit.  We found a nice open lunch spot under evergreen tree cover down a swale that blocked out the constant car noise of I-90 traffic around noon.  We all chilled down after grabbing a bite to eat and celebrating a birthday so packed up and started back at 12:40.  Skies were starting to clear, but the forest was so dense we did not feel any warmth. On our return we took the side spur down to the Big Tree and beach on the rivers edge.  We arrived back to our vehicles at 2:30 and other cars were pulling in to take our spots.  Another fantastic day to be out in nature with friends.

Perfect conditions today to hike to the top.

Down low, lots of loose rocks and few blowdowns but all were easy to go over, under, or around.  Since most of this trail is an old logging/mining road it doesn't have step-ups.  Instead it's a continuous incline.

Snow begins in earnest as you hit the Ollalie trail, in the bowl.  Spikes very helpful and I would not recommend doing this hike without them.  Trail is continuous snow and is narrow in places.  Well consolidated and no postholing at all.  Lots of friendly hikers and dogs today.  The birds at the top were fat from hiker crumbs but were not aggressive like I have seen in other similar places.