The first 0.5 mile is paved. At 6am, Cabin Falls. 5 minutes later, Hole-in-the-wall Falls. Both are very pretty. Soon after, the pavement stops and trail starts going up a bit. Soon, the trail forks. I turned left for Starvation Ridge - Mt Defiance loop clockwise, because Starvation Ridge looks more open. The view of the river was also better in the rising sun. The only bad part is the power line.
I like the lower half of Starvation Ridge before it goes completely into the woods (~1 hour later). Quite a lot of flowers: shooting star, gold star, glacier lily, still some grass widow left, plectritis both white and pink. In the woods along the trail, a lot of calypso bulbosa. I may have seen silver crown (not flowering), endemic Columbia Kittentail.
Wasted a few minutes looking for the non-exist trail on my FSTopo GPS map. Read more carefully the description of the loop at oregonhikers.org again, and abandoned my search. At 9am, reached the junction of Michel Point trail. That's 3.6 miles in 3 hours: very slow! Warren Lake is signed at 1 mile. But took me 40 minutes. It's flat here, but couldn't go fast due to snow. The lake basin was covered with snow. The snow on the lake looked soft, melting. At this point, I realized that I wouldn't be able to make it back by 3pm, if I had to pick up Mary's phone. So, called the rental office, requested to drop the car at another office which closes one hour later. 
Large cairns marked the Michel Pt trail from the lake up. Plenty footprints too. 10:26, reached junction with Mt Defiance trail. 
25 minutes later, crossed the road. 20 minutes later, hit the road again. I walked on the rest of the road to the cell towers on the summit. Good view of Mt Hood. 11:07am, took me 5.2 hours!
On the way back, I followed footprints in the snow (lots of them shooting at all directions) and missed the junction with Michel Point trail. Quite open for awhile (~30 minutes). Too bad that the clouds were low, blocking the view of Adams. I started to meet hikers on their way up. Below the rocky section, the trail is in burnt forest. Orange ribbon tied on branches to mark the trail. 
Soon, I could see the reconstruction of the trail. Lots of small rocks, maybe due to the re-treading. My knees start to hurt. Quite steep. The lower half of the slope was covered with minor's lettuce, the tasty kind. I munched on a few handfuls.
After Lancaster Falls is the junction with Starvation Ridge, thus completing the loop. Passing again the Hole-in-the-wall Falls, and Cabin Falls, at 13:43pm, I finally reached the full parking lot. Almost 8 hours! My phone recorded over 39K steps. The large restroom with running water and drinking fountain is a welcome finish.Paul's house is marked by an amazing cherry tree in full bloom. Their garden is full of flowering plants. Because Paul is color blind, his wife is in charge of planting :)
