Snow Lake / Gem Lake

I went hiking for the first time in 2 months to Snow Lake / Gem Lake. It was actually a rather last minute plan and I ended up dropping everything I planned to do today to go (I guess hiking has the highest priority on my list. lol...)

The trail (with 2 alpine lakes on the way) is about 50 mins from my home. It's 10.6 miles long roundtrip and a total 2900ft of elevation gain.

The trail to Snow Lake was fairly clear (except some streams from the melting snow up the top of the mountain). We started to see snow once we hit the top of the mountain (before heading down to the snow lake). The trail from Snow Lake to Gem Lake was pretty much covered in snow (and very muddy) so it was a little harder to get to the Gem Lake. The Gem Lake area was very quiet and the snow was pretty fresh so it was very peaceful. It took us a total of 6.5 hours and I really enjoyed it. I totally want to do more hiking in the winter time now.

It was the first time I hiked in non-summer so I was actually a little nervous before I started. I have to say, my baselayer (long poly undershirt and underpants) really helped me a lot - it kept me very warm throughout the hike. I think I will invest on a few more. Extremely tired right now and hope I can get to work tomorrow.