Doh! Forgot the camera! Words will have to suffice.

With a rare weekend reservation available at the awesome Snow Peak Cabin, three of us dusted off the snow-shoes for an early season winter trek. The cabin, reservable online at recreation.gov, is just shy of six-miles south of Sherman Pass. It's only $39/night, and is booked solid for most of the premier snow season.

The trail there is basically in three sections. The first part is a climbing switchback of about 1.5 miles from the (absurdly off the road) parking lot (Snow Park Pass REQUIRED after Dec 1). At the top of the switchbacks, you reach a junction for the Sherman Peak loop. The most direct path to the cabin is to go right (west).

This 1.9 mile section will traverse the west side of the Sherman Peak and do some pretty decent climbing. Later in the season, the trail will be a well packed snow-shoe highway; this weekend it was deserted and we had to slog through 18"-24" of pristine powder. The first two sections are generally easy to follow even if the trail is not recently trod or the weather is bad. Just make sure to stay inside the "tree corridor" and look for cut logs or trimmed branches in the open fields, as well as blue diamonds tacked to trees. The highest point of the hike is just before you reach the next junction at the saddle between Sherman and Snow Peaks. When you reach this junction, a right turn will take you to the cabin. A left will take you back on the loop.

Going to the cabin, you now begin the third leg of the trip, a shade under 2 miles. As you round the NW flank of Snow Peak, you will see a saddle directly south; that is your key landmark in case the trail is difficult to follow (the blue diamonds inexplicably stop after a short distance down this trail). The trail takes you down a bit through some open fields and tree fall and then ascends the saddle where it meets the marked Snow Peak trail. Keep on the Crest Trail and in a a hundred yards or so, you should crest the small plateau and see the cabin south and below you, perhaps another 1/3 to a 1/2mil farther.

After nearly six miles of plowing deep powder, we were thrilled to warm up around the new wood stove that had appeared since last year (thank you!) and made a rib-sticking pasta dinner in some of the new (BRAND new) cookware that also found its way to the cabin (thank you again!). Check out the cabin page online for a full list of amenities. Take care to leave it as good or better than you found it!

The trip out was snowy but uneventful.

Parking is supposed to be in a lot on the north of the highway and down an access road. Unfortunately for us, that access had not been plowed and we promptly got the Subaru stuck about 15' down the road. We were able to back out, and chanced parking on the wide highway shoulder (clearly marked NO PARKING). If heavy snow had been predicted, we would probably not make the same decision as that is where the plows dump they snow... so be aware of conditions.

During the summer, I believe no parking pass is required, but a Snow Park Pass is mandatory after Dec 1 and I have seen tickets (lots of them) in the past.

Snow Peak Cabin is straight out of a dream. (Reserve at www.recreation.gov) I went on Labor Day weekend, by myself, my very first overnight backpacking trip and was spoiled by this amazing little cabin. A new wood stove was flown in just a week ago and kept me toasty warm. There was tons of wood. The website says you have to chop your own wood, but the pieces are the perfect size already, so you don’t need to chop it.

The night sky was so thick with stars, it felt like if you scrambled to the top of Snow Peak you could reach up and touch them. There’s a thermometer in the cabin that said it was 31 degrees throughout the night and early morning. And it was crazy windy at night and even shook the cabin; I was so glad I wasn’t tenting it.

I heard from a local that the cabin is owned by mice, but didn’t see or hear any, so that was a relief. The only wildlife I saw were lots of little shrews and some hawks. Supposedly, the elusive lynx lives in that area, but I wasn’t lucky enough to see one, or even a black bear.

The cabin is at 6400ft and the weather varied incredibly. The hike in was perfect (sunny, breezy, puffy passing clouds in the blue sky); the hike out was feisty (cold, windy, cloudy, hailing). I was surprised to find a tiny spring along the trail a quarter mile from the cabin this late in the summer (with at least a dozen blue butterflies); and even more surprised to find a piped trough-like thing of water closer to the cabin.

From Republic, follow hwy 20 east a few miles, which becomes the Sherman Pass Scenic Byway. At milepost 309, turn right onto Hall Creek Road 99, go about 3 miles, then turn left onto Forest Road 2050100 (Snow Peak Road 100) and drive about 4 miles until you reach trailhead. The road is in excellent condition. (This is summer access. In the winter, you have to go in from the north, on the Sherman Pass trail, which is longer and harder.)

Snow Peak Trail #10 goes 2.7 miles east, 600ft elevation gain, and then connects to the Kettle Crest Trail #13 (which is also part of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail). To get to the cabin, turn right and go south for 0.5 miles. (Trail area map: www.fs.fed.us/r6/colville/2007-recreation/trails/trail-maps/sher_edds.jpg) The trail winds up and up through the site of the 1988 fire started by lightning on White Mountain on the south end of the Kettle Range.

The views are incredible the whole way. On a clear day, you can see west to the Cascades, east into Idaho, and north into Canada. It took me 4 hours in, 2 hours out, but I am a REALLY slow hiker. Even though it was a holiday weekend, I only saw one small group of four people and two dogs, and a two forest service people who must have been doing some trail maintenance.

We hiked from the southern trailhead for the Kettle Crest trail up to the summit of White Mountain; this was one of the hikes featured during Conservation Northwest's Rendezvous Weekend for the Columbia Highlands.

The trail is in excellent shape; in fact, we met the trail contractors who are working on bringing the Kettle Crest Trail up to forest service standards this summer.

Other than a few biting flies, conditions were perfect today. The snow lingering on the trail is at the very uppermost portion, so route-finding was no problem. The wildflowers are just starting on the upper section of the trail and are sure to continue for several more weeks. The views from the summit are spectacular--from the summit of White Mountain one can see nearly all of the major peaks in the Kettle Crest, as well as the Selkirks (Washington, Idaho, and Canada) and the Cascades. Learn more about protecting this area by visiting http://www.conservationnw.org/columbiahighlands

We reserved a night at the fabled Snow Peak Cabin for a nice winter excursion into the mountains via snowshoe. Snow Peak Cabin is off of the Kettle Crest Trail south of Sherman Pass (about 5 miles from the parking lot) and is reservable online. It features a three burner propane stove and ample propane for the season, a small mountain of wood ready for the fireplace, and kitchen pots, pans, utensils galore. It also has sleeping pads and cots, folding camp chairs, and a new LED Solar lighting system. All in all, pretty cush digs for a foggy and chilly weekend.

The trail south was well traveled (we took a right at the first junction onto the Sherman Loop trail) and easily traversed. Where the loop trail meets up again with the Kettle Crest Trail about 3 miles south from the TH, all the traffic for at least the two previous weeks had taken the left and the loop back to the TH, leaving us with an unbroken trail south (to the right at the junction) with only intermittent flags and marks on trees to guide us through about 24 inches of crunchy powder.

It took us a few hours of trail scouting to make the last 1/3 of the trip a our packs and snowshoes made for slow going. After following the hillside and crossing the saddle on the W side of Snow Peak, we could see the cabin off in the distance and made in there about 30 min before twilight. The register showed that we were the first visitors in over two weeks (accounting for the lack of broken trail and frozen cabin). We soon had a roaring fire and good food and settled down for a relaxing evening in the mtns.

The next a.m., we took a quick sledding trip up the open field below the Snow Peak summit and then packed up for the trip back home. Having broken the trail the previous day, the return trip took half the time.

For anyone considering this adventure, reservations can be hard to come by for weekends, so plan ahead. The hike is mildly strenuous but most people will have no problem with it. The cabin has lots of items already there, like shovels and axes and a plethora of well used but effective pots and pans. Feel free to bring along a "gift" for future users such as a bottle of dish soap, a game or crossword book, perhaps some extra knives and forks. Enjoy - its a great place for a winter excursion!