Heather Lake Snowshoe — Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022

Hiked Heather Lake starting at 2pm. We had done Deer Creek Rd prior so my feet were pretty worn out with snowshoes so I stuck to micro spikes or just hiking shoes. Parking right now is about .5 miles from the trailhead and covered in packed snow/slush. From the trailhead, you only cross a couple snow sections for the first mile and a half with several flowing stream/water crossings. The last mile or so is very deep snow and I was postholing for a short section close to the lake up to my hip. My partner had snowshoes and he was slipping and sliding in snowshoes and having difficulty navigating down trees, very hard and icy snow, and rough terrain. He ended up taking snowshoes off for majority of the way down. We made it to the lake in about 1.5 hours and down in 1.25 hours. It was beautiful and worth it right now but heavily trafficked causing very packed and icy conditions. I would recommend bringing both micro spikes and snowshoes and definitely hiking poles which helped greatly.