The trail up from the trailhead to the saddle was clear and easy, and we even got a glimpse of the sun on an otherwise-cloudy and foggy day. However, once we crossed the saddle and began our descent to Snow Lake, we encountered snow patches on the trail. The trail was easy to find because it's so heavily-tread, but beware of punching through the snow near rocks, trees, and streams. Everything was melting, and as the trail flattened out near the lake shore, meltwater pools and mud bogs surrounded us. Also, the entire basin was fogged in, and we couldn't see anything of Snow Lake except the icy water at the shore. After encountering larger snow patches on the way to the Rock Creek outlet, we turned around and had lunch on the rocks by the lake. We decided it would be futile to try and wait for it to all burn off and started heading back. Before the saddle, we took the 1013.2 spur trail to Source Lake Overlook. This side trail was barely used: There were no boot tracks to follow, and it was so over-grown that we lost the trail several times. We eventually ran into a wide snowfield where we lost the trail completely, and with the sound of a stream somewhere beneath the snow, decided to back-track to the saddle. We were surprised there was so much snow left, in August! On the bright side: The fog meant no sunburn and no mosquitoes. A decent day for our first real hike of the summer.
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