Mount Spokane State Park - Trail 130, Mount Spokane - Trail 110/140 Loop — Friday, Nov. 29, 2013

Eastern Washington > Spokane Area/Coeur d'Alene

Today I took Blaze for a nice long snowshoe loop. I like to think of this one as a tour of the historical highlights at Mount Spokane, as we visited both the CCC cabin (a former 1930's Depression-era public works camp) and the Vista House (built in 1934 of native stone & used as a fire lookout) on this approximately 6 mile hike. We started at the bottom of trail 130, where new this year, SnoPark permits are required for all parking lots ($40 non-groomed along the road & $80 special grooming permit in the big snowmobile lot or for Selkirk Lodge). I hiked up to the Bald Knob Campground & Picnic Area, then crossed the road to continue along trail 130 to the CCC cabin. There were a lot of people out enjoying this segment of the trail system today. From the CCC cabin, I took trail 140, and here is where I had first tracks! Last summer's reroute of the trail isn't complete yet, and in some places both the old trail and new trail are visible (and equally easy to follow). It hardly matters which one a person takes, as all routes lead to the summit. Watch out for the blue diamonds marking the route on the trees, or the pink ribbons marking the new route, and it should be fine for anyone to find. From the summit, do the side trip up to Vista House before taking the snowshoe route down along the edge of the ski area. The concession doesn't have chair one open yet, so the ski area boundary signs aren't up. However, once those are up, snowshoers need to stay outside the ski boundary. This winter-only trail rejoins trail 130 at Bald Knob, and then I just had to finish up the easy downhill back to the car. A note about trail 140--this trail crosses into the Proposed Alpine Ski Expansion Area. The ski concession wants to expand its footprint into this old growth forest on the back side of the mountain. If they do so, winter access to trail 140 will be blocked for all but alpine skiers/snowboarders(and the year-round view will be irreparably changed, as a chairlift and seven runs will be installed). The Lands Council has won two important court cases to block the timber harvest and to require that the State Parks Commission complete an Environmental Impact Study prior to re-classifying this de-facto Natural Forest Area. Check out the links to read more about the issue, and please consider sending a public comment by December 12th. State Parks info & contacts: http://www.parks.wa.gov/plans/mtspokane2/ Save Mount Spokane Coalition info: http://www.savemtspokane.org/Mt_Spokane_2020.html