Mount Spokane State Park - 9/5/2025
This past Saturday I headed up to Spokane for another long day hike. I've been trying to find peaks with good elevation gain, and tackling three peaks in one day seemed like a good idea. On my way up to Spokane from Lewiston I started to realize I may have made a bad choice. The entire time I've been here in Lewiston, week three so far, the air has been smokey, and getting worse each day. The drive to Spokane made it very clear that the wildfires were coming from the North, and very near where I was headed. I almost turned around, but I figured I'd like to at least check out the trail head.
When I arrived there were two other cars, and a ranger had pulled up the same time. He told me that the smoke yesterday was worst he's seen so far, and that I should hike only if I felt comfortable. There was no danger of fire, just a constant smell burning wood in the air. I decided to just go for it.
The hike was very easy, and I made it up to the summit in what felt like record time. The forest was really amazing, it reminded me a but of Humphreys Peak back home, but on a much grander scale. The trees were enormous, and it felt like I was in a different world. I saw very few people, probably because of the smoke, and also because it was a Friday. I saw a few deer, and squirrels, but sadly no bears yet. The smokey air was definitely not great, and I decided to cut the hike short, and just focus on Mount Spokane as the summit. The other two peaks would have to wait for another day when the AQI wasn't so extreme.
After reaching the summit I decided to do some trail running, and ran down from the summit for about a mile, or two, I wasn't really keeping track. The run made the overall hike feel much shorter. Usually long hikes, 12 plus miles, tend to feel like they're taking forever to complete, especially the last couple of miles. I don't know if I'll do this hike again, not because it was bad, but because there are so many other amazing trails in the Pacific Northwest to explore.
