Every once in a while, we get a summer day in March, with fluffy snow and views to forever and a great group of grumps to boot. We started at the Snopark at Salmon La Sac. Before leaving the car, our illustrious Trailcat noticed he left his snowshoes in the garage. C'est la vie. Not long after, our illustrious team of professional trackers lost the trail in the snow and managed to head up the wrong drainage. But after a half hour of corrected orientation, we found ourselves in the clearcut where the trail is located. It climbs gradually, then traverses for about 85 miles (give or take 84 miles) until it breaks out to glorious views ranging from Mt Adams to Glacier Peak, with nearly the entire Alpine Lakes peaks arranged in between. We took advantage of steps stomped in the snow and struggled to the summit. There we met the legs of iron that plowed the trail. Thanking them profusely, then enjoying views of Mt Stuart and environs, we finally turned back. Descending is so sweet! Traversing ain't. But we managed to get back to Salmon La Sac as darkness reigned.

Saw this trail in my Mtn. Bike Washington guide. It was a gorgeous day! I recommend talking a friend into providing you a shuttle service from 903 up FR 4310 as far as you can go. There was snow blocking the road at about 5.5 miles up the road from SLC campgroud where we started. There were at least 4 down road blocking trees after the snow blocks. The snow blocks got more frequent as we climbed past 5000 feet. The trail you take at the end of the FR is mostly snow covered by about 4-6 feet deep snow & the trail is very easy to lose. The views are fabulous & bring the sunscreen and camera!

I must know a lot of masochists, since five of my friends joined me for this trip. We started at the Hex Mountain trailhead - or more precisely, at the gate on the logging road about 20 yards from Salmon La Sac road. Accidently took the left fork of the logging road (not on map) about a mile in - should have gone right. Bonus mileage and altitude gain... We continued up to the junction with the Sasse Mtn trail and dropped our packs for the short trip to Hex Mtn. Then we headed north on the Sasse Mtn trail - lots of up and down getting to Sasse. The weather was perfect and see didn't see any snow. I was disappointed that there were no larches along this ridge crest. We crossed two logging roads and started running into hunters on motorcycles as we neared the Jolly Mtn trail. We continued on to Jolly Mtn - great views and snow for the last 1/4 miles. Then we returned back to the junction of the Jolly Mtn trail to descend down to the Horse Camp close to Salmon La Sac. I told my friends that this trip would be about 15 miles and 3500' of gain. I lied - but not purpose! Guess I'm just an optimist - cumulative gain was 7180' (including bonus 700' due to early screw-up on logging road) and 19+ miles. This was a great trip on a rolling ridge, and some part of it might make a nice snowshoe trip. The views were very good and the trails pretty good. Be sure you have the latest copy of green trails - my six year old map was missing some logging roads near Jolly that have significance. The pizza in Rosalyn was great - we'd earned it!

I decided to do this as a loop hike -- up the Jolly Mountain trail, cut over to Paris Creek on the Jolly Mountain Spur, come down Paris Creek, and back down on the road to the starting point. I was a bit nervous when I saw that both mountain bikes and motorcycles were allowed on the Jolly Mountain trail, and feared for the worst. However, this appears to be largely a theoretical rather than real hazard. It turned out to be a lonesome hike, even though it was a sunny Saturday in the middle of July; I ran into only one other party, and that was on my way down Paris Creek. Not only did I not run into any bikers, there is no sign of any actual bike usage (motorized or not) that I could detect. And frankly, the trail is steep enough that I'd be impressed by any mountain biker who went to the effort. I can't say the same about horses; the Jolly Mountain trail shows signs of significant use by horses, with the tread pretty chopped up in some areas. A significant stretch (1 mile+) of the Jolly Mountain trail is through an area that has been logged a while ago, with regrowth just starting. It makes for a shadeless hike, but with nice views back across the valley. Other than the horse wear, the trail is in excellent shape. The Jolly Mountain Spur does have a few minor blow-downs. All are easy for a hiker to pass, and probably wouldn't cause any trouble for a horse either. This is good, since several of them appear to be years old, and given the scarcity of users, I doubt that any blowdowns will be removed in the foreseeable future. Note that this trail is *very* steep, with only half-hearted switchbacks, in sections on both sides of the ridge -- no matter which direction you come from, you're going to pant heading up and trash your knees going down. This trail is starting to get a little overgrown in places, but not enough to pose any difficulty in finding the trail. The final crossing of what I believe is the middle fork of Paris Creek is bone dry today, but it clearly gets a rapid torrent at some times that would be difficult to cross; the creekbed looks almost like a bobsled run with rocks and dirt piled up on both sides. If approaching from the Paris Creek side, the turnoff to the spur is not very obvious; there are rocks and branches pointing *away* from the spur (and on up the Paris Creek trail), almost as if the spur is abandoned. There is a sign nearby, but it only points up Paris Creek and back to the road, with no mention of the spur. The Paris Creek trail also passes through a logged out area (again with regrowth now starting). The trail itself follows an old logging road for a goodly stretch, though that's not clearly marked. If coming up Paris Creek, just follow the road the trail dumps into, taking the right (downhill) road where it forks; when the road comes to an end, look around and find the trail continuing on. If coming the way I did, follow the road through the fork and look for a trail branching off to the left when the road heads up shortly past the fork. There's a flimsy sign now, but I wouldn't count on it being there. Other than the road stint, the trail is very pleasant, with Paris Creek rushing along below. All in all, this makes for a good loop hike -- strenuous enough to get some good exercise, lonesome, with a mix of forest, logged areas providing vistas, a rushing creek, and even a few meadows with wildflowers.

A very nice snowshoe route near Salmon La Sac. This trail is open to motorcycles in the summer so I've never thought to hike there before. The trailhead is at the end of the plowed portion of the Salmon La Sac road. Walk on the road marked ""closed to public"" a couple hundred yards to the signed trail. Nice snow requiring snow shoes the entire way. The trail opens onto a large clearcut after about 1 mile with view out to the Cooper River Valley. We didn't see anyone else on the trail. Thousands of snowmobiles faintly buzz in the distance.