KNF breaking new trail to Snowshoe Lakes
<p>Montana Conservation Corps crew members clear fallen brush from the new Snowshoe Pipeline Trail Thursday. (Photo courtesy of Micah Miller)</p>
Trail work expected to wrap up by Monday
The Kootenai National Forest is working this week to clear a new trail route to a historic site in the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness.
Micah Miller, head of the Libby District’s Recreation Department, said Thursday that crews are currently breaking a new Snowshoe Pipe trail heading toward Snowshoe Lakes on the east side of the Cabinet Mountains, redirecting a route that will connect with the original trail.
“The Forest Service is accommodating the access to the wilderness and a historic site,” Miller said. He said the trail work was initiated to accommodate a private landowner, whose property overlaps the original trail. He expects work on the new trail to be done by Monday.
The new trail to Snowshoe Lakes will be a two-mile hike, Miller said, adding one-and-a-quarter miles to the route’s original length. Miller and J.R. Johnson, trail maintenance leader with the Kootenai Forest Libby District, have been working with a handful of members from the Montana Conservation Corps and Youth Conservation Corps to break the trail this week.
The Snowshoe Pipe trail was first established in the 1890s, Miller said. The water from the ponds above the trail would feed into the Snowshoe Mine when it was still in operation.
“The historic part is what makes it cool,” Johnson said.
Miller said the new route will be a Class 1 trail; Class 1 being the most primitive designation, while Class 5 would be the most developed. For now, he said, the trail will be more of a corridor than a well-cleared trail.
Miller said the rugged terrain is just one reason he enjoys the area so much.
“The Snowshoe Lakes area is cool just because there’s no (clear and developed) trail,” Miller said. “That’s a nice feature of the Cabinet Wilderness area.”
Miller said as time goes on, the recreation department will assess the popularity and use of the trail to determine if it should become a higher priority.
Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.