Needless to say, we saw nobody on the mile of the official trail before splitting off onto the winter route. Once we were off the main trail it was unlikely we'd seen anyone even on a bluebird day so with the pouring rain there was nobody there either.

Up through the talus fields, push through the dripping brush, and splash through the flooded trails onto the ridge. We connected back to the main trail, got a view of the usually crowded lake, but then turned back. I was far more interested in looking at future adventures on the way back than dropping a couple hundred feet to dip a toe in the lake.

And are there more adventures to be had up that way? Definitely. We found two additional trails/routes not shown on maps that demand further exploration and the terrain is open enough we could just pick a direction and go.

But not this time. We splashed our way back to the trailhead collecting trash as we went. We picked up a solid eight liters of trash. My Deuter Dirtbag was completely full and there was still trash I didn't get. Not that I need another reason to go back, but picking up trash is a good one. I guess I'll be back.