I started west on Lemei trail from FR24, and made a good time on the mostly snow-free 2.5 miles in the beginning. Having read the stories about mosquitoes, I packed a mosquito headnet, but ended up hiking without a shirt (it was hot!) and only got a couple of bites. Soon I met a family group; they said there's deep snow ahead on the trail. I didn't see anyone else on the trail the entire day.
There were on and off snow patches for a while, then just before a junction to Wapiki Lake I lost the trail in consistent 2-3 feet of snow. All tracks soon ended, so I just went up a small ridge where the trail was supposed to go.
I slowly followed along the ridge for a good 40 minutes, going around snow drifts and the brush. Thinking it was well above the trail, decided to go down and find a flatter ground, and to my surprise soon came to a big lake! It was quite a surprise since I thought I'm going around the hill east of Lemei Rock and expected to come to the foot of the Rock soon. However, the lake was really nice; it just began to thaw but the water had some of the emerald blue color I remembered from last year. Took a lot of pictures and didn't want to leave this place and go anywhere else. Wished I brought a tent there. Some spots of the shore has melted out; it was neither hot nor cold there, blue skies, great views, and no mosquitoes.
Remember last year's joke about finding something on the shore of mosquito-free lake in July in Indian Heaven (meaning there's no such place in nature)? It's the one
Strange ice
After a lunch, I went along the south side of the lake and then SE, trying to find an ascent in the cliffs that circle the lake.
There was another bowl-like tiny lake near Wapiki. Went up the avalanche path above it to the saddle.
Decided to call it a Big Slide Lake at this point, because it was a big slide down to it (in the case of a misstep) in the couloir where I went up. The climb started easy but was steeper and steeper towards the top, so I had to kick steps in the snow.
At the saddle, it was a great view of Mt. Adams
From there, we hiked along the melted-out side of a "snow bowl"
Snow Bowl from above
Another small lake @5,550' near Lemei Rock
Got to Lemei Rock at the bad time lighting-wise (here I was covering the lens to avoid sun flare)
Note a huge cornice near the top of Lemei Rock
Snow bowl under Lemei Rock was impressive, as was amount of snow near the side of the rock. How much could be there - 20 feet? 30 feet deep? It can easily be even more. It was beyond my level to try and climb the steep snow bank at the rock (at least not with the amount of time I had), so I admired it from the distance. It doesn't look steep here because of my camera angle.
Strange snowmelt pattern
Finally, went over to Wapiki Lake upper viewpoint
Surprisingly, some short spots of the trail has melted out near the viewpoint, but typical snow conditions were like this - note my oversized skiing poles (on the right) which are about 4 feet long
On the way down I went in the direction of Mt. Adams while I could see it, but then decided that I went too much SE and "corrected" the course, then followed a large creek for an easy route. This mistake brought me back to the road west of Hidden Lakes, way from my car. The last 4 miles or so were on the road, and it was the only place where mosquitoes became noticeable.
My offtrail mistake was made up by finding one of the largest waterfalls in Indian Heaven @ about 4 feet high
. Indian Heaven is on my list again this year (as always) - and I even bought a mosquitoe hat in anticipation. Now it looks like I'll have to swap out the netting for microspikes and extra batteries for the GPS 
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