"I would probably recommend this trip to a friend."
I did this trip on the first sunday in March 2001. I parked at about the 3.5 mile point on the Miller river road. There was about a foot of snow on the road at this point. The road cruises very gently up the river valley with occasional nice views of the river. At about milepost 5 a stream crosses the road on a ford and I had to doff my skis to cross the concrete ford. (The flow of water over the ford was maybe 1/4" deep) The snowpack thickened as I progressed deeper into the valley and at about milepost 6, fresh snow from last Friday's storm appeared. By the end of the road at milepost 8.5 the fresh snow was about 5 inches deep. A very pleasant road cruise to this point.
I then started up the hiking trail and conditions quickly became sketchy. The snowpack this year is fairly thin and with the extra tree coverage resulted in bare areas of trail alternating with powder caches. Skis came on and off several times. As I neared the lake, the trail passes some rock outcrops, beautiful masses of icicle on several of these.
At the lake I enjoyed a great view up valley of Big Snow Mtn. and of the snow covered frozen lake. (I didn't attempt to ski the lake, the ice looked a little too thin for my taste)
Returning down the trail was even more sketchy than coming up, since the snowpack wasn't deep enough to cover the brush, logs and creeks I had to sidestep down many sections (fish scales only work one way) and the skis came on and off many times.
Onnce back to the road the easy cruising resumed, but the road isn't steep enough to stand and clide down, I had to double pole and skate to maintain a good pace.
A deeper snowpack would have made the hiking trail section much more pleasant. Wearing climbing skins both up and down this section would have also helped.
Note: This is backcountry wilderness travel. You are responsible for informing yourself of the hazards and taking the necessary precautions.
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