We waited for the early morning fog and low clouds to begin clearing to start this hike. The road is in great shape, but there are some bumps/potholes/rocks in the5 miles on FS road 13 that require some caution. There were less than 10 cars at the large parking area when we arrived at the trailhead 11 AM to a mostly sunny sky.
The flat trail through Schrieber's Meadow is very muddy. Fall colors, berries, and mushrooms are over, but the decaying vegetation against the evergreens still makes for a beautiful sight. There's a small wooden "bridge" (see picture below) over the Rocky Creek, where you then turn right then switchback left up through the boulders to stay on the trail. The trail remained snow free and in excellent condition until after the second junction with the Scott Paul Trail (~4400 ft) where there was a slush/frozen mud mix on sections on the trail from here to the Railroad Grade trail junction. Mt. Baker was visible in all it's snowy glory through this portion of the trail as we headed toward the Bell Pass Junction. Those boggy meadows had water running through sections of the snow with the trail a slushy/muddy mix. There was also a number of bugs/mosquitos flying around us during this section and above at the tarns...in November? Once the trail starts to ascend on the other side with the boulder fields full of pikas, then snow cover begins in earnest where we put on our microspikes.
As we ascended to the tarns, we saw the clouds quickly thicken as they were moving in, obscuring the view of Mt. Baker. Due to the time of day, we decided to stop here on a snowy rock to eat some food while watching Mt. Baker play peek-a-boo through the clouds. We quickly descended back down to the boggy meadows with microspikes although much of the trail was slush so I'm not sure how much the spikes actually helped. We were back at the car at 4 PM.
So in general, expect mud in the flatter areas, a frozen mud/slush mix from 4400 ft to the railroad grade junction then slushy deep snow from ascent up out of the boggy meadows to at least the tarns where we stopped for the day. I'm sure the views from the lookout are stunning on a clear day, but we were happy with the views we got along the trail before the clouds moved in and the stunning interplay of clouds, the setting sun, and the mountain. We'd love to come back every season.
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