Riverside State Park - Bowl & Pitcher — Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017

Eastern Washington > Spokane Area/Coeur d'Alene

I have been going crazy with the freeze/thaw cycle & lingering snow and its impact on my favorite running routes. Even though the conditions were difficult for a trailrun at Riverside with all this snow, it was worth it. As an aside, I tried Saltese Uplands a few days ago and found the conditions there so muddy I didn't even leave the parking lot. Snow-covered trails are much nicer than muddy trails, and I feel like I'm being nicer to the trail system by staying off the muddy ones right now. For Riverside, consider microspikes or other traction devices necessary. I encountered some other hikers close to the trailhead who were really having a difficult time on the snowy hill just beyond the bridge, and it looked as though that ended up being the extent of their hike. I made it up all the icy hills without issue since I had microspikes on, but it would have been very difficult if not impossible to run the loop if I didn't have the extra traction. I took trail 210 up and crossed Centennial Trail, and then continued out 210 until it merges with 201. That section (until I rejoined trail 25) hasn't seen as much traffic and therefore the snow is not so compact; I did a lot of post-holing until I got to the river. Trail 25 back to Bowl & Picture was compact but very icy. Some sections could be dangerous without extra traction. With traction, it was just a little slower going than when it's snow-free. The loop was 4.2 miles with only 280' elevation gain.