Road to trailhead: There are still downed trees on Mt Pilchuck road getting to the trail head. You can park about 1/2 mile from the trailhead and easily walk up to parking lot/trailhead. I recommend parking before snow starts on the road, I tried to go up through the snow and even with AWD and good winter tires, it was too slushy and deep to go further (and even if you can make it through the slush, there is a downed tree blocking access.)
Trail: Intermittent snow and streams from the start but easy to hike without micro spikes for first half of hike. I put mine on about 1.5miles in just before the bigger stream crossing. Lots of downed trees - none too hard to get around but just a little slower going in current conditions. As the trail flattens out and you start to approach the lake, the trail was a little hard to follow and I was happy to have a GPS map downloaded.
Lake: Snow is much deeper at the lake. You don’t need snowshoes to get to the lake, but if you want to explore off the main boot path, snowshoes will help a lot. I used mine (might as well after carrying them up!) and it prevented big postholing as I explored the lake a bit more.
With parking on the road, my GPS tracked 5.4 miles round trip and 1,235 ascent. Just under 3hours all together. Saw just 4-5 other hikers on this quiet Wednesday morning! (Started 10:30am and back to car by 1:15pm)
Between the full streams and deep snow, waterproof boots, wool socks, and/or gaiters will be helpful! I saw a couple hikers without micro spikes (not sure if they went all the way to the lake), but I would highly recommend traction especially for the way back down. Happy trails.
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