Day Hike - Pratt Lake Trail

Northwest Forest Pass is needed, restroom is open, and kiosk is available for purchasing a parking pass. Trash receptacles are once again open; I found one poop bag and one discarded snack bag but otherwise the trail appears to be trash free. We saw two coming out as we started around 6:40, but mostly day hikers coming up as we descended. Maybe 15? No doggos.

Snow starts off trail just past the first boardwalk where boards are falling through and footing can be treacherous now - watch your step. And the hole in the parking lot just keeps getting bigger but driving in slowly for me is now automatic.

We put on traction just before "upper falls" beyond Olallie/Talapus junction, but experienced on-again, off-again and mostly kept them off. Here's a snippet from a "be aware" incident report I filed:

<< On the way down to Pratt Lake Basin early Friday morning we had highly variable snow conditions with some icy crust on top; while we all had microspikes, we chose NOT to use them as the dirt-snow-dirt-snow was causing us to have to take them off and on so we just went slower on the snow.

A few of us slipped with zero injuries or scrapes. Coming BACK, the snow was starting to get slushy anywhere the sun hit, icy in the shade. Nobody put spikes back on, and we ended up laughing anytime anyone postholed - which was all but two of us. Funny story to share at the end and a great learning experience, but with less experienced folks this could have been unnerving or ended in strains or pulled muscles.

As it was, everyone was completely fine, no first aid or stops needed, just WATCH OUT this spring as a) we were able to go farther than expected (I thought there'd be more snow that would turn us around) and b) get buy-in on comfort zones for all participants. Great teaching moment - I pointed out that areas closest to rocks melt faster and to NOT step close to rocks or risk postholing even more. We took an alternate route vs. going across a ravine that was melting fast - I could see that potentially being disastrous. Snow skills are highly beneficial right now for Pratt as the snow melts off in the boulder field. >>

Olallie is still mostly frozen over; Pratt Lake is completely free of snow and ice except in the shade right near the camp site. We had some frost on the trail leading to the camp but next to no snow on that east trail, I'm guessing the later afternoon sun has been strong enough to melt it all. But there's plenty in the woods.