[Saturday, January 7, 2017; Lily Pad Lake, near Silverthorne Colorado]. Dallas and I snowshoed to Lily Pad Lake. We have visited this lake several times before, but always snowshoed in from the south, starting from the Meadow Creek Trailhead, in Frisco. Today we park at the Buffalo Cabin Trailhead, in Silverthorne, to the north. This trailhead is accessed by the same parking lot, off of Ryan Gulch Road that we used a few days ago. Finding the trailhead sign was easy, for it was right by the road, but figuring out which of many tracks though a snowy field was the right one was more difficult. I navigated by map and compass and knew that I was on the right trail when it crosses a rivulet by a small footbridge. People just don’t put footbridges everywhere! The trail then headed south through woods of Lodgepole Pine, passing several beautiful wetlands. The day was only partially cloudy, and on occasion the bright sun would shine through and light them up. Several other groups were also heading for the lake, some on telemark skis and some on snowshoe. We encountered one particular group of six snowshoers several times, for they passed us, and we them, as we and they alternately stopped for breaks. The group took a turn that I did not believe was correct. I had to argue with Dallas that the navigation of the one (me) was to be preferred to the navigation of the many. She agreed after we had gone far enough to encounter a couple of blazes and a sawn off log. People just don’t saw off logs everywhere! After a while, the group caught up with us, having realized their error. We soon reached a trail junction with a sign that confirmed that we were on the right trail. The path then descended the flank of a hill on what may have been an old road bed, or perhaps a natural feature like an esker. We reached the upper of the lakes after descending a short but steep grade and the larger, lower lake a few minutes later. Unfortunately, they sky had turned grey and the air, without the sun, was rather chilly. I snowshoed around the lake while Dallas rested. The distance is no so large – a half mile or so - but the snow was deep and unbroken and I found the circumnavigation exerting. The view of Buffalo Mountain from the south end of the lake is pretty good. We then headed back, taking the way we had come. About three hours.