This is one of my favorite long snowshoe loops at Mount Spokane State Park. Today my friend & I started at the Lower Kit Carson Loop Road TH at the hairpin turn; it also works well to start from the Lower Selkirk SnoPark lot if the hairpin turn lot is packed.
There was another group leaving the parking lot as we started, but they headed toward Smith Gap and the Snowshoe Warming Hut, so we had first tracks up trail 110. This trail received a lot of traffic yesterday so the trail was fairly well packed down under a couple of inches of fresh snow that fell overnight.
At Saddle Junction we continued up trail 140 through fresh untracked powder that might not have seen snowshoers yet this season it was so deep. We only took 140 as far as the CCC cabin, then turned off to take trail 130 toward Bald Knob Picnic Area. I fully expected the area would have been busy but we still had fresh snow all the way across trail 130 and most of the way down trail 131, at which point we met a handful of groups just starting up the hill.
Once we got to the Lower Selkirk SnoPark Lot and turned off for trail 100, we were back to first tracks in deep powder. It was just gorgeous, and we didn't see another person until we were less than a mile from returning to the car.
Total distance on this one was just shy of 7 miles with 1500' elevation gain, making it an excellent route for a little more distance and challenge, including some lightly visited trails.
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