Basic Snowshoe - Lanham Lake

We arrived at the trailhead just before 8am and were the only ones in the lot. After introductions and briefing, we started out past the nordic center. This start was a bit confusing because the summer trail start (shown on Gaia GPS) is a little up the groomed XC tracks and the Nordic Center asked us not to go that way. They pointed us to a small boot path directly next to the creek. The trail starts out moderately steep, similar to the Chirico Trail to Poo Poo Point on Tiger Mountain. We took a break to swap out layers about 10 minutes in. The first part is in the trees, it follows the creek and the boot path is fairly obvious. When we got to the junction with the forest road, we had limited views of the surrounding hills due to clouds. It was also colder in this exposed area. Once back in the trees, the snow was softer and more pleasant to walk on. There were a few steeper sections that we took our time on. After an hour, we took a quick snack break before the final 1/2 mile push to the lake. We were glad we did because it was on the steeper side. At the lake, there was space at the shore to spread out and have some snacks. We saw boot prints going across the lake, but agreed as a group that this wasn't something we felt was safe to do. After a 20 minute break, we headed back the way we came. We hadn't seen anyone else until we finally crossed paths with a pair of skiers about 15 minutes from the lake. Later, we passed what appeared to be a boy scout troop. And down by the forest road we passed another pair of snowshoers. Close to the parking lot, there are a lot of intertwining, descending boot paths and it's not totally obvious which one to take. We followed one that took us to the summer trail start and then attempted to find our way back to the other trail start to avoid upsetting the Nordic Center. We were back at the cars right around 11 am.