[flatsqwerl]

you can drive to the Middle fork Snoq. river campground ...the last several miles you may want a jeep or high clearance vehicle though. We parked at the campground gate and walked in from there. Its about 5.5 miles to Marten lake. We also hiked a couple of miles up the Taylor river trail after returning from Marten making this a 15 mile trek in the snow. Half of the miles were in snowshoes. We generally followed the trail up to the lake. This is a nice snowshoe trip to a lake that looks great in a blanket of snow. Full moon was out too. we had about 3.5 hours of headlamp travel. We didn't start hiking until about 10:45. This was intentional. I come from Tacoma and this way I beat traffic at both ends, plus, I love night hiking in the snow! Who would've thought that would be so fun. You get to see sunsets as well this way. Unfortunately, for my body, I can't hardly rest or stop for very long because my hands get so cold so fast...so winter hikes like this are especially exhausting.

[Bernardo]

Very nice. I saw that moon last night and was thinking it would be fun to be out on the snow.

[RichP]

I keep hearing that this is quite the bushwhack in summer with the overgrown trail. Was it easy in snow?

[flatsqwerl]

Rich, the brush/boulders were covered enough to make travel very pleasant. You could barely make out the trail-bed at times under the trees. More snow will make this route even better. looks like a fun lake to walk around and explore. If we had more time, we would have traveled around the edge of the lake to the back and poked around. We occasionally saw old tracks buried in the fresh snow...they were hard to spot most of the time. The bridge at the bottom that crosses the outlet stream is the perfect marker for knowing when to go up, leaving the Taylor river trail. Stay on the left side of the stream. The route finding is straight forward.

[RichP]

[some names]

Nice pictures!Really pretty spot.

[mbravenboer]

Nice photos! Love the one with the snow fingers.

[Bedivere]

Well that's cool. Heckuva trek in the snow. In summer that lake is way too brushy to travel around unless you *like* serious bushwacking. The far end is really swampy. I recommend a raft. The route up gets occasional user maintenance. Guess I got lucky the last time I was up there (years ago), someone had done a good job of trimming the brush through the worst areas near the lake.

[puzzlr]

Thanks for the report. It's the first time I've seen winter photos, except from Rooster Peak. In 2010 the route was brushy but could be followed except for one short section. In summer it's worth checking out the creek just below the outlet and just above the Taylor River trail crossing for interesting water features. Step falls just below outlet

Water chutes just above the trail

[flatsqwerl]

cool video!

[Mikey]

flatsquerl You wrote: "Unfortunately, for my body, I can't hardly rest or stop for very long because my hands get so cold so fast". You might consider using hand warmers such as Hotties or a Handwarmer which uses lighter fluid (naptha) for fuel. I dug out my old lighter fluid handwarmers to see how they functioned and they do work. Here is a thread on Hand and Toe Warmers.

[flatsqwerl]

Thanks Mikey. I'll check it out.

[Bernardo]

Well, in the meantime, I went to the lake and saw some fantastic snow crystals on the shoreline which was a bowl of cold in the lap of Rooster Mountain. Some of the fun was lost because we had nice tracks to follow. The route laid down was perfect however and we met a friend of Lopper. My only caution to anyone trying this is that there is a very counter intuitive turn up hill and away from the apparent outlet after you cross an open area about a quarter mile from the lake. You think you are done but then you have to climb about 200 feet in what appears to be the wrong direction (climber's left). I'm not sure what would happen if you just headed toward the low point on the horizon but the stream is in a very deep ravine. The terrain up there is treacherous near the stream and it is necessary to stay away from the stream most of the way. There are high cliffs above the stream and there is some small chance that an avalanche could sweep a hiker over these cliffs. So, not really a straightforward trip for the casual hiker trying out snowshoes.

[flatsqwerl]

Thanks Bernardo, I agree on your last point...so its not a bad idea for me to clarify the general level of expertise required when writing trip reports. I felt the steep ravine on the right and the cliffs above on the left help channel a traveler to the lake....so routefinging is simplified in that regard. More snow would make the lower forested portion easier but may add avalanche hazard higher up. We were fortunate in that the snow was not to that depth level yet. I peeked into that stream ravine at one point and yes,it was a REALLY steep drop!.