The hike starts from Castle lake, which was gorgeous by itself. The setting was simply magical. While asking for this unmarked trail head, we were told that the trail was covered in snow in most of the areas & finding the trail was a big feat in itself. You can get lost & Heart Lake is all frozen & covered in snow. So, we decided to try our luck, assuring to turn back if it got too rough(as Ganesh was carrying little S in her backpack). The trail climbed up almost immediately and gave us fantastic views of castle lake below. People down below warned us to stay right as turning left would take us to Little Castle lake & we did not want to go there.
So, I guess, we turned R too early & soon enough realized we were lost. We encountered more snow & it was becoming difficult to walk on it as this part was not frequented by many people. We started hunting for some footprints.

We climbed up & up(this 'up' was a long way, say about 30-45 min). A slip & fall could have been very close to fatal. So, we decided on a time within which we would turn back if we could not find the trail. We bushwhacked, walked along creek, rocks(all of this when we were not on at least 2 good ft of snow). We climbed up a hill to assess where we were. Thankfully, Ganesh spotted some people on top of a sharp peak above & they waved us to the right direction(God bless them to have seen us). We found other people who guided us on the right track. We climbed up. At least now, we knew where we were going.
We followed the tracks on the snow & finally climbed up to thank those people. Without them, we could have probably turned back.
And there we saw Heart Lake. The lake was frozen, alright. But it was in the shape of a heart. I turned back to see Mt.Shasta. The view was so much better from this high up the mountain.
We earned a good 45 minutes up there. The view was mind boggling. The breeze was much cooler. The Sun was much harsher.

We started our hike down & realized how easy it was to find the trail & get back in less than 45 minutes perhaps. We tried in vain to locate where we got lost on our way up.
In all, the hike & scene reminded Ganesh of Colorado. But it reminded me of the hike to Angora lakes in the Sierras.