Barclay Lake & Heybrook Lookout

Barclay Lake and Heybrook Lookout are only a few miles apart, and they share more than geographic proximimty. They are also both great hikes to take novices and your non-hiking friends on. They are short, easy trails with no signifigant obsticles but with wonderful scenic payoffs.
Barclay lake is an almost level (50' elevation gain), well maintaned trail that is as water & mud free as any trail in Western Washington can be in November. Since the old growth forest I remember walking through as a child was logged most of the way to the lake, you can use the walk to explain the difference between an intensively managed (i.e. clearcut) tree farm and a natural forest, which you encounter as you near and walk along the lake. Trees were replanted along the trail over 40 years ago, but the understory is still a biological desert, except for the wood fiber. Plenty of sticks, cones and needles carpet the "forest" floor, but little else. The almost total lack of understory diversity gives meaning to the otherwise oxymoronic phrase "can't see the forest for the trees".
As you are just about in sight of the lake you come across an area opened by a small rockslide and get your first real glimpse of the towering vertical wall of Mount Baring to your right. Look to your left for a view of Gunn Peak, source of the rocky rubble on which your stand. For the best view of the lake, keep following the trail to the lakes infall creek, then duck under some thorny shrubs to a small opening at the creeks mouth. Enjoy the trout jumping, rippling the glassy surface.
After this short hike, those who still have some ambition and energy should head to the trailhead for Heybrook Lookout, located about 3 1/2 miles west on Highway 2, just across from the "Leaving Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest" sign. It's only 1 1/3 miles to the top, but the elevation gain is 850', which can be challenging for those not used to walking more than the width of a Mall parking lot. Most of that gain comes in the first half of the ascent, so gently prod your novices with the occasional "one step at a time" or "we're getting close now", and as the grade becomes gentler they'll feel as if they've hit their stride. Before you know it you come to an opening with Mount Index and Bridal Veil falls to your right and the lookout rising from the peak to your left, just a few feet away.
There are seven flights of starirs (68') to the top of the observation platform, from which the views unfold. South is Index, east is the Skykomish River valley winding its way between the mountains towards Stevens Pass, and to the left of that are Mount Baring and Gunn Peak, flanking the valley you just hiked to get to Barclay Lake. Kids faces will light up when they recognize it, a satisfied "I did that!" look on their faces.