I took my five year old son, Jeremy, on his first backpacking trip. There was only one other car at the trailhead when we arrived at 10:00. Within fifteen minutes a group of twenty passed us on their way to North Lake. Many only had shorts, T-shirts and no pack. I hope no one took a wrong turn and got lost. I, on the other hand, had a fifty pound pack with the gear for both of us, including the eleventh essential for a five year old: candy. Jeremy carried his stuffed animal and other such essentials. The trail was clear, dry and well-maintained. The big attraction was seeing a ""real spring"" with lots of water coming right out of a crack. We arrived at the south end of the lake after about an hour. We chose a site at the northwest end of the lake. Two guys and a black lab occupied the other. A couple with a rubber raft filled the third site at about 7:00 p.m. There were lots of mosquitoes, but the bug repellant worked well. We took a hike up the trail to North Lake and enjoyed the view down to the deep aqua-colored waters of Independence Lake. Fog rolled in around 4:00. It never rained, but it may as well have. All the vegetation became soaked. There were still a few patches of snow and lots of flowers. We managed to scrape together enough dry wood to enjoy a fire before bed. That was another highlight of the trip. We were awake at 5:30 a.m., but stayed in the tent until 6:30. After exploring some more, we broke camp and were back at the car by noon.

Today we hiked to the Lake, about 3 inches of snow on the ground. The trail was slippery but still alot of fun. It does take a 4-wheel vehicle to get to the trailhead. The lake was about 1/3 covered with snow & ice it was beautiful and very quiet. Also, there were an incredible amount of fresh mushrooms out - even in the snow!

The trail to Independence Lake is in good shape except for the short stretch just before the lake. It's steep and full of roots. The trail continues around the northeast side of the lake and begins to climb. The switchbacks have recently been re-built by the Northwest Youth Corps. I appreciated their work while I climbed switchback after switchback. Where their work runs out, expect some mud holes and just a handful of blow-down before reaching the highpoint of the trail. The trail passes by a small tarn to the left, then a rock field and continues down to a larger melt-water pond. This pond may be large enough to be called a lake; it has room for a two campsites along its shore and there are some great views to be had. I followed the trail around the tarn and down a steep, huckleberry covered hillside. The trail disappeared, but I worked my way down a little farther all the way executing picture perfect face-plants in the huckleberry bushes. The huckleberries were ripe and tasty so the time spent with my face in the bushes was not wasted. It eventually occurred to me that the reason there were so many ripe berries left there was that nobody goes that way! I checked my map and realized I had missed a turn. Returning to the rock field beyond the first small tarn I found a flag, a series of cairns and just about everything but a traffic cop in a smart uniform directing me up-hill to the obvious trail. Soon I hit the high point of the trail and started on down toward my first view of North Lake. I hadn't expected much from North Lake - I suppose since Independence Lake is an uninteresting, forest-bound pond, I assumed North Lake would be similar. Instead I saw a large, deep-blue gem of a lake. The trail down to the lake shore is long and loses 1500' of elevation, but is easily followed and in good shape with only three small blow-down. There's only one small campsite along the shore. The trail down cuts wide switchbacks near its top so I took a shortcut back up through boulder fields beneath the cliffs to the southeast of the lake to rejoin the trail near the saddle.

Encountered a trail crew at work during our visit. Trail is maintained to the valley head. The drop down to North Lake is boot-maintained only, but in good shape. The track becomes indistinct from time-to-time amid rocky areas and lingering snowpatches. Still several large snowfields in the basin and a few small patches around the lake.

Just thought fellow hikers would like to know that while my husband and I were sitting by our campfire with our dachshund at North Lake we heard an unmistakable big cat scream echo off the rocks above us.We presumed cougar as it sounded exactly like the car commercial. Never saw it, but our dog didn't appreciate the sound! Also, I would not recommend a hearty breakfast such as pancakes to hike up the boulder field out of there in the a.m. No fish --seen or caught, but gorgeous scenery.