Mowich Lake Snowshoe — Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025

Started in fog and drizzle but ended up climbing out of it for a beautiful day. The road is full of potholes as always but there are some sections that are so very bad and you can't avoid them. I wouldn't recommend taking a car up right now. We didn't encounter any snow on the road until just before the parking area. We stopped for the restroom, which is open and clean, and then parked in a small area up by the gate.
Started out in just microspikes and poles and packed my snowshoes. The snow was a little thin and definitely firm. We took the grindstone trail cutoff, which is well marked and easy to follow. About halfway up the grindstone I needed to swap to snowshoes.
We opted to go all the way to the campground and take the trail down to the lake where we sat for lunch and to soak up the sunshine. It was so beautiful. It felt like spring as snow was melting and falling off trees.
On the way down the snow had softened and I kept my snowshoes on. I took the grindstone trail back and my husband was on skis. It wasn't the best ski day but he still had fun. He would meet me at the road crossings. I was glad I took the cutoff trail as it is a pretty long trek in snowshoes as the snow got wet and heavy on the way down.
Beautiful day and a trail I would definitely do again!