We were pretty excited to explore the newest sno-park in the system especially one reached from the west side without going over the pass. The weather was calm with temps hovering just above zero, it was a bit drizzly and the trees were drippy. Not the best conditions for snow-shoeing but fine for a short outing.
The unpaved forest road in (pictured) was basically plowed single track with pull outs. There were quite a few potholes and the covering was a combo packed snow/ice/slush, fine with our AWD. The lot itself was well plowed with large sections of black top showing. There is feet of snow starting right from the start of the trail. Snow shoes were a must. A few folks in just boots (mostly families looking for snow fun), were post-holing like crazy down to 12-18 inches, even with snow shoes we did not always stay on top. Most of the boot only people (just a few groups) headed to the nature trail. After exploring that loop (separate report) we headed up the lake trail. Although the trail was not too difficult to follow the recent rain has washed it a bit so it was not always distinct. Or perhaps I should say the rain has washed debris down into gullies making them look a bit like trails too. Nothing freaks me out more than being lost in a snowy forest so our group had Gaia and did check to make sure we were good after a few sharp climbs I did not recall from hiking here in the summer. That's a lot of detail considering we only went up as far as the power line crossing. We had hoped to get up to the Palouse-Cascade trail crossing but were running out of time. I'm not sure how much further up the lake trail I would go after the PC crossing as the avalanche chutes further up are not to be messed with.
Perhaps that's not enough for an outing but the bridge across always gorgeous Humpback Creek is highlight enough to make it worth while. Plus very few people. There is also a closed road that starts at the trail head and tracks showed that people had gone that route too, good to have a map.
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