Our planned Columbia Gorge trail was closed due to a rock slide, so we decided to do an early season hike into Marion Lake and beyond if snow allowed. The day was sunny and cool as we started our hike through the beautiful forest. We reached Lake Ann without encountering any snow. But large snow patches on the trail occurred immediately beyond the lake at about 4,000 ft of elevation. The outlet stream was flowing over the trail.
We soon reached Marion Lake and took the scenic route along the western lake shore with a nice view of Three Fingered Jack. As soon as we crossed the bridge over the swift flowing outlet stream of Marion Lake, we were met by deep snow as far as the eye could see. We gingerly walked a short distance over the soft snow, but turned around after breaking through numerous times. We retraced our route along the lake shore and climbed up to the peninsula to enjoy lunch overlooking the lake with a view of Mt. Jefferson. We enjoyed a long lunch in what had become a summer-like day. Hikers were Rick Cooper, Nancy Rockwell, Mary Liepins, and leader Roz Shirack.