A few friends and I hiked the 19-mile loop in two days. The trail was in great condition. Our favorite way to hike this trail is clockwise by starting with the descent into the Salmo Basin and then slowly working your way up and out to the ridge between Snowy Top and Little Snowy Top. We found two logs down across the trail down in the basin. Both were pretty easy for a hiker to navigate around, but a horse might struggle to pass the second log since it was thigh high and pretty good size.
We camped at the base of Snowy Top Mtn in a dry camp (nearest water was .6 mile before the camp). It was pretty hazy but not smoky. Lungs and eyes felt pretty good up there at 6,300 ft but the views were definitely obstructed by fire smoke haze. On day 2 we got an early start and made it 4 miles up the trail in time to catch the WTA Volunteer Trail Crew still in camp on their last day of a BCRT. We shook the hands of the wonderful volunteers that had spent 4 days fixing tread, brushing and cutting logs off the trail.
The usual creeks were still running with water, which meant we didn't need to carry extra weight for much of the trip at all. Besides the WTA crew we only encountered 2 other parties along the trail. One group of 3 in the basin and a couple camped out along the ridge with their dog. What a wonderful place to hike away from the crowds. This outing was part of my 2024 Hike-A-Thon. If you are feeling generous please donate to my campaign at: https://give.wta.org/todd4trails
Comments
Loren Drummond on Salmo-Priest Loop
What an awesome way to kick of Hike-a-Thon! Heck yeah. Thx for the report. (Especially nice to know the creeks were still running.)
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Loren Drummond on Aug 07, 2024 11:56 AM