I am not a good planner for cabin trips, but I seem to manage to get lucky every once in awhile! This marks two times in the same calendar year where I managed to log onto the reservation website and find a perfect-for-me opening: the first back in January and on a full moon night, and now this awesome Winter Solstice opening, and my first time finding two back-to-back nights open in the reservation system!

I did invite a couple of friends this time, but neither could make it so I decided to go on a solo adventure again, at least human-wise. Jasper pup is always happy to be my buddy for winter trips. The snow pack is still looking incredibly sad. I could see a few tracks from folks who had been out on some rock skis, but I actually ended up just hiking all the way from the trailhead to the cabin in just my boots on the 21st, carrying both microspikes and snowshoes but never needing to stop to put them on. The hike in is majority uphill and the snow was neither deep nor icy. I did end up hiking out in my snowshoes since it snowed a few inches while I was at the cabin, plus I wanted to prevent slipping on the majority downhill hike out.

So it was an easy hike in on the 21st, and I found the stove still had a few embers from the exiting group so it was also super easy to get the fire started back up and make the cabin cozy and warm, plus start melting snow for water.

Kind of important note/moment of disgust: the people before me also hiked with multiple dogs and hadn't bothered to pick up any dog poop around the cabin. Everyone who stays here in the winter needs to melt snow for drinking water, and with the low snow coverage it was extra tricky to find "clean" snow. There's an outhouse for the humans, so that is good. But it's important for the humans with dogs to remember to pick up after their pups. Jasper loves coming to this cabin with me, but honestly I think I would support a no-dog policy considering how most people don't bother to pick up after their pets. I had to hike pretty far from the cabin in order to find a patch of snow that looked undisturbed so I wasn't afraid of discovering any gross surprises as I melted it for my drinking water, and I can tell there are going to be quite a few landmines unearthed as the snow melts in the spring. The nearby spring is currently frozen solid, so snow melt is the only option for water in the winter. (Jasper has a doggie backpack and is responsible for carrying his own "ins & outs," plus he carries out most of my trash for me. I would hope that others who want to come to the cabin with dogs would also consider how they are going to deal with pet waste, or else leave the dogs at home.) 

On Monday the day started with a beautiful sunrise, and it definitely proved true that it was an indicator of some incoming interesting weather. I started my day by hiking the Kettle Crest South with a loose goal of maybe making it to the Edds Mountain Trail, or maybe Barnaby Buttes, or maybe even White Mountain. But I didn't want to have to stop to cut any trees along the way, and as I approached the junction for Edds Mountain I found a spot where alder were sideways over the trail. I decided to just turn around an hike back to enjoy lunch inside the cabin and then continue hiking elsewhere, rather than try to get around the alder patch.

After lunch I started up Snow Peak. It's not the thing I'd normally do on a winter trip where I'm solo, but considering the lack of snow I was not concerned about any avy danger. In fact, I decided to turn around a little shy of the summit due to exposed rocks that made travel tricky, plus some incoming weather. The clouds were moving in fast and it was getting increasingly windy, so I retraced my steps back to the cabin and got inside just before it started to snow.

When I wasn't exploring outside, I spent a lot of time reading by the fire and just having a very nice relaxing couple of days! By Tuesday morning the snow had stopped and it had warmed up considerably, although it was still a little below freezing until I got back to Sherman Pass. It was an easy hike out, where someone had actually come in from the SnoPark lot and cut most of the downfall trees, too! There had been perhaps 10-12 trees across the trail on the hike in, some of which were tricky to get around. On the hike out there were still 2 that were easy to get around, and one where I stopped long enough to remove branches so it was an easy step-over on the west side of Sherman Peak. On the lower portion of the trail, someone had removed the rest of the downfall making the hike out every easy.

This is a fantastic overnight trip when it's possible to snag a reservation for Snow Peak Cabin! I also like snow camping on the Columbia Mountain side when I don't get lucky with reservations. The Forest Service recently re-did the entire SnoPark lot, really expanding it and adding even more parking. It's a great easy-access location for year-round hiking.

We hiked the Snow Peak Trail #10 on August 6th and stayed at the cabin.  There is a washout on the gravel forest service road leading to the trailhead but we made it over in a Rav4. There’s also random cows here and there so just keep an eye out. The hike itself is around 3.2 miles one way and on the way up it is unsurprisingly mostly uphill. Estimated 800 feet elevation gain in the first 2.5 miles so be prepared for that. It was raining/overcast for the duration of our stay but absolutely stunning anyway. Lots of flowers blooming and we got a few peeks through the clouds at the surrounding mountains. No wildlife sightings (but scat present) and saw not a single person our entire stay! There is a trough near the cabin with a trickle of water but we had a hard time finding the elusive stream others have mentioned to fill our filters. The cabin is well stocked and very cozy. Couldn’t have asked for a better adventure! 

Really beautiful but the snow was a challenge as it was at an angle so snowshoes were useless. Prone to sliding sideways and sinking a bit. Snow melting also made the trail very wet and a bit slippery. Very warding to get to Snow Peak Cabin though!

We enjoyed an overnight at Snow Peak cabin this week – such a special place! This was the first time we’d stayed, though we’ve visited on day hikes before. We were glad we knew the trail well this time! We came in from Sherman Pass, opting to go clockwise around Sherman Peak for fun. Type 2 fun, as it turned out. There is still significant snow on the north side of the mountain. The trail up to the loop was fine, though there is plenty of water on trail and several blowdowns to navigate. Trail work had been done to clear some of them – others are still waiting for some love. Intermittent snow provided interest. After the turn onto the loop, we ran into more and more snow until the trail was completely covered. Because the snow is melting so quickly, boot tracks from other hikers weren’t always obvious, though they did provide some guidance. There was much post holing as we worked our way up the mountain. Though we were carrying snowshoes, we didn’t end up putting them on due to steep slopes and slushy snow. It seemed wiser to stay in our boots – boots were pretty much required. Microspikes wouldn’t have helped the first afternoon, though would have been helpful (not necessary) in places on our way out the next morning. We honestly had fun, though worked very hard through slow going. After we took the turn off the loop toward Snow Peak cabin, water was abundant. No need to carry in water right now – or likely for at least the next couple weeks. Runoff has created some nice (likely seasonal) streams and we filled up about half a mile from the cabin. Again, snow was the largest feature and required some navigation and decision making. Trees are flagged so we never lost our route. Finally, about half a mile from the cabin, the snow abated and dirt path reasserted itself. We were quite happy at that point. We navigated 27 downed trees on the way in.

Note: as you get close to the cabin, there’s a sign on a tree pointing to a trail to the right that says “Cabin”. Don’t take it right now. Go straight. That trail will lead you around a mostly clear trail directly to the cabin. The “Cabin” trail is snow clogged and all the small trees get in the way of seeing the cabin. We wandered around there for several minutes before we found our way to the cabin.

The cabin itself is lovely, well stocked, and comfortable. It was warm enough that we didn’t need to make a fire and actually had the door/windows open for a while to cool the place off. It was about 70 degrees the afternoon we arrived. We were lucky to have a tiny crescent moon and the hint of northern lights (there was a magnetic storm, but it was still too light during the most severe part of it). We loved the masses of stars and saw a few meteors, too. Did not choose to summit Snow Peak because we were worn out from the hike in and weren’t sure what the hike out would be like.

Once we got back up to the Snow Peak trail junction and were on the south side of Sherman Peak trail, life was pretty good. There was intermittent snow once we’d descended a bit, but the upper mile or so was clear and made for relaxed hiking. Again, plenty of water available. We navigated 18 downed trees on the way out.