On the trail again

One of my goals over the winter was to snowshoe up to Mills Lake. A favorite destination of mine, but I had never visited it in the winter. I thought I might be leaving it a bit late this year, yet, even though it is May, there is so much snow it felt more like February. Snow is up to the railings along the bridges, even at the trailhead. We hiked up to Mills Lake so quickly on the winter trail that we decided to keep going - what's another couple of miles? Crossing the frozen lakes certainly makes the route more direct than in the summer, but we were heading straight up the drainage, sometimes where the watefalls flow. The thick snow and the altitude slowed us, but finally through the trees, we spotted the far cliffs of the Black Lake basin, and could see McHenrys and Chiefshead towering in the distance. At the lake, we climbed up the mountainside to a rock large enough to be above the snow, sat out in our T-shirts, and enjoyed lunch at almost 11,000 feet. I've had many summer stops beside this lake that were not as warm.