Started out at the Norway Pass TH, headed East to check out Ghost lake and to get out of the Mt. Margaret Wilderness zone so that I could spend the night. I spent the night just east of the ridge a few thousand feet up from the trail. The trail was in mostly good shape this whole way, with a few blowdowns but nothing not manageable.
The next morning I headed west over Norway Pass. The NE slopes throughout had a good amount of snow as well as downed trees from avalanches on those slopes. They were sometimes difficult to manage, and overall I was happy to have my ice axe with me for support. A pole would do too. Given the state of the steep slippery NE slopes I decided to traverse over the pass NW of Grizzly Lake and down to Boot lake. This was probably not the best idea because the NW slopes of Boot Lake were very gnarly: not recommended.
Back on the Lakes Trail I encountered lots of brush and sometimes difficult trail between Panhandle and Obscurity lakes. The ridge above Shovel and Panhandle was maybe the nicest part of the trip, though I wished I would have been going West to East to hike with the views.
From the pass between Snow Lake and Shovel lake, there are some snowfields you need to work through to get to the ridgetop trail (I don't know the name, but it's the one that goes to Mount Whittier). That trail was in fine shape for a goat's trail and I saw many a goats on it (this day I saw 40+ goats overall). Holmstedt lake was still frozen over, though it is beginning to thaw at the edges.
There were a few more snowfields to cross on the way to Mount Margaret once I was back on the Boundary trail, but they were low angle so they were not as scary. The snow did allow me to get some much needed water on the SW and NW slopes of Mount Margaret. The rest of the trail to the Dome was nice, which is where I turned around and headed back to my car.
Overall there were many animals, including 40+ goat, a herd of 12 elk (and one male elk I saw hanging out far below, near Spirit lake), plenty of birds, and footprints.
The wildflowers are also out in full beauty!
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