Bikepack - Lost Lake

Around 4:30 PM atCrystal Spring Snopark overnight non-motorized lot. Snopark permit with grooming sticker required.

Exact meeting time will be provided in the planning email a few days before the trip. 

This will be a snow camping bikepacking shakedown trip.

This trip is for  bikepackers graduates only who own or can rent/borrow a fat bike with tires 4 inches wide or wider, You must also have recent snow camping experience and appropriate winter camping gear. Bright headlamp AND bike lights also required!

We will do this in conjunction with a group of fellow cross-country skiers who will travel separately on skis but will camp with us by Lost Lake. Thir trip posting is here.

From Crystal Spring Snopark, we will travel northwest on the snowmobile trail that parallels the Palouse to Cascades trail till the Keechelous Dam, then take the snow-covered Forest Road 5480 which is generally groomed for snowmobiles late Thursday night or early Friday morning. There is no guarantee that this will be the case though. For grooming information go to: https://nordic-pulse.com/ski-areas/US/WA/Crystal-Springs. Snowmobile traffic is generally low on weekdays but we might encounter  snomobiles along the route.

Despite the short distance (a little over 5 miles each way) this will be a moderately strenuous trip due to the heavy winter gear load and due to a gradual (but occasionally steep) 800 feet climb. Variable grooming conditions on the road may make it even more challenging.  Expect to push your bike for some of the steeper sections of the  road found near the lake. 

If we are lucky, we will have an almost full-moon, clear skies and great sunset evening light over of Lake Keechelous on the way up the lake. When the skies are clear, Tinkham Peak is visible right across Lost Lake.

Upon reaching the lake we will build our snow camping living room and kitchen (a few shovels required), set tents, melt snow, have dinner and get comfortable for the night.  The next morning, after coffee and breakfast we will break camp and then return to the snowpark by mid-morning. Additional fat biking on mixed-used trails possible after unloading gear at the cars.

When you request permission for this trip - please outline your  fat biking experience (distance/duration & trail conditions), give details on the fat bike you will use (owned/borrowed/rented) & describe your most recent snow camping experience.