Source Lake and Snow Lake overlook

We began from the trailhead just near the upper Alpental parking lot, dealing with somewhat muddy and snowy  conditions. We didn't have particular objectives in mind, but we're eyeing working our way from the Source Lake overlook spur across the valley to Pineapple Pass. Maybe from there, we would work  our way around to the front side of Alpental. 

As we started from the end of the Source Lake Overlook, we realized that we didn't have enough time or expertise to make it across the boulder field and to try to climb up the other side of the canyon. We had put on our showshoes  to stop postholing. 

Instead, we turned back and worked our way to the trail that headed back towards the Snow Lake overlook. We kept our snowshoes on and were grateful that we could stay on top of the snow and have plenty of traction as we climbed.

I can't tell you how many people we saw climbing the trail who must have never heard of the 10 Essentials. They weren't carrying  packs, they had fashonable shoes, some even wore cologne and perfume.

We made it up to the stunning Snow Lake overlook and took a couple selfies. Then we started working our way back to the parking lot. After  1pm, the snow on the trail had gotten a lot softer and a lot slicker. Several under prepared hikers were clearly struggling  to continue climbing, but they were also struggling to make it back down safely. We saw a lot of ad-hoc glisadding that only made the trail slicker.

Bottom line, this  is a great hike and we had a lot of fun. I think it's proximity to Seattle and I-90 probably makes folks think it's easy and safe. But this hike gets snowy and icy fast. Best to be ready.