What a fun hike: bagged three summits at Mount Spokane State Park in about five hours on a gorgeous late-summer day, with hardly anyone else around!

I arrived at the Lower Kit Carson Loop trailhead at about 10:30 to find only one other car in the lot. Making my way across the street and into the forest, I was a little confused about which way I need to go to get to my destinations since there are several trails (all numbered, rather than named). Fortunately there are several maps posted at junctions throughout the trail network, so I never did get too turned around.

Heading uphill on the 110 trail to Saddle Junction, I knocked out most of the elevation for this trip in the first hour. At Saddle Junction (the intersection of several trails and Kit Carson Loop Road), I encountered the only other humans I was to see the entire day: one cyclist heading uphill, followed by three more cyclists on their way down. I made a left turn at the well signed "Mt. Kit Carson" trail (#160), and followed it to the summit. From there, I kept on towards Day Mountain for my second summit and another great view. Rather than backtrack towards Kit Carson, I followed the #130 towards Saddle Junction again. This time, I headed up the #140 trail towards the summit of Beauty Mountain and the CCC cabin. I had thought about hiking up to the top of Mount Spokane as well, but by this point it was getting pretty warm out and I wasn't feeling up to the additional mileage and elevation (I did wind up driving to the top once I got back to my car though).

All together, I tracked about 10.5 miles and 2300 ft of elevation gain in a little under five hours with only birds and squirrels for company on the trail. What a great day :-)

On Black Friday, we chose to #OptOutside and have a white Friday. We started at the parking lot below Selkirk Lodge and hiked out trail 130 to the CCC cabin and back. It was snowing and blowing most of the way. When we started, there was no need for snowshoes, but around the cabin, the snow was deep enough that they would have been a good idea if there were not back at the car. We started a small fire in the stove in the cabin to warm ourselves for the hike back. If you want to use the stove, I recommend bringing dry newspaper or a fire starter. The paper in the cabin was just damp enough that it would not stay lit. Other than our group of 5 there were few other hikers on the trail.

I had a short window in my afternoon schedule, my trail running shoes were calling to me, and I needed to check out a few drainage issues along trail 130 following our record-setting rainfall in October. This is one weird fall. The summit road closed early this year when we had some early October snowfall. The snow is long gone now, and I did this trail run in shorts & a t-shirt on a gorgeous, sunny day. The rain knocked most of the golden larch needles off the trees, but there are still some fall colors out. Trail 130 is among the best in the park for views, with its south-facing open slopes, and my turn-around was at the aptly named Beauty Mountain (home of the CCC cabin, which has received a lot of sprucing up in the past year). The trail is a bit on the muddy side, but not too bad. Since the summit road is closed, trail 130 must be accessed from the very bottom at the SnoPark lot. It's 4 miles RT with 840' elevation gain, and a perfect trailrun, hike, or snowshoe (if we ever get some more snow!). Today I found wildflowers, so there's still a little bit of summer remaining, even in the mountains.

I decided to take a long break and get a run in on Mount Spokane. Running in the snow sounds crazy at first but the lack of fresh snow and packed trails made for perfect running conditions. Just strap some spikes on and go! My route started at Trail #110 just past the Ranger station, went up, up and up to Saddle Junction, along the loop road to the start of Trail #130, past Bald Knob campground and back down to Selkirk Lodge. 6.4 miles of beautiful scenery in all. Be sure to visit www.mountspokane.org for trail maps and information.