Mount Spokane State Park - Trail 130 to CCC Cabin — Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016

Eastern Washington > Spokane Area/Coeur d'Alene

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.