Lovely hike but pretty adventurous around the lake. I just love the feel of this area, such beautiful forest. Lots of water on the trail throughout and knee+ deep snow around the lake. The road up there is horrible as always but we found a place to park partway up and walked. The video at the bottom is from last year, the boardwalk is still berried so you can't do this yet, but maybe a few more weeks.
Road Walk: The road walk portion added about 1 mile and a couple hundred feel, pretty easy warm up with a couple mini waterfalls along the way. We reached the TH somewhere between 8:30-9AM and there were about 5 vehicles. No ice or snow, except a few piles. We saw several car parts on the walk up near the pothole sections :-(.
Trail: I would say that there was more of the trail with water than without. There were little waterfalls everywhere, more than I have ever seen up here and it was a lovely walk. There are also so many huge trees! Many are cut and some look like they have old faces on them :-D.
The trail has a few rocky areas that are a bit tricky to climb up and a couple minor water crossings with just enough water to get your feet wet, so it was nice to have poles. Only a couple small trees were down. The first mile was bare, then the snow was patchy for a bit, and close to the lake it filled in and got deep. There were a bunch of spots where the water had crossed the trail, melting the snow so you climbed down and back up the other side, about 4ft. We used spikes, but many managed with just poles.
Right around the lake it got a little sketchy, with deep holes around trees, uncertainty where the water was, and an unclear path, but we found the lake edge. Right as we came around the corner a small avalanche let loose on the far side of the lake! It was really cool and a good reminder why you don't want to venture on the far side until it melts. Most of the lake was melted, but there was a little bit of open water and the view was lovely.
We got down around noon and there were a few more cars, but still lots of parking.
Other Notes:
Bathroom was open and relatively clean. Bring your own TP.
We saw what looked like a tire chain tensioner (rubber strap with hooks) by one of the potholes. We left it there, but put it off on the side so if you think you might have lost one it is still there.
The usual spot we park in at the beginning of the road (looks like a 2 car parking spot) was where the plow was dumping snow this winter so it was not accessible.
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