Snow was pretty nonexistent on south facing slopes around Jefferson Ridge. Snow along the ridge was shallow on south facing aspects (<3”) and sort of deep on other aspects (1’-1.5’). Travel was extremely slow because I was postholing so much (with and without snowshoes) and my trekking poles kept on getting caught under the corny slush. Kind of a miserable day for snow travel, but I got some views of The Brothers, Lena, and Washington. The road (NF-24) was too deep for me to drive in my CrossTrek (parked 1 mile from the upper Elk Lakes trailhead), and the trail was extremely waterlogged with sporadic low snow cover. Hamma Hamma River and Jefferson Creek’s waters were extremely high and there were a number of larger waterfalls nearby, which suggested a lot of upstream runoff and full lakes. Weather was bluebird in the afternoon, but started showering in the evening (the rain clouds off the Sound went west over the peninsula).