The last State Highpoint planned for the day was Spruce Knob at 4,863 ft. The top of the mountain is covered with Red Spruce trees, thus the name … This one caused the most amount of stress during the planning stages as to get to the actual highpoint required about a 9 mile drive on unmaintained State Forest roads. If the roads were snow-covered and inaccessible, that would mean an 18 mile round trip hike/snowshoe from the closest access point. I was getting geared up for that and planning to alter our plans to accommodate the hike. I was glued to the weather reports and web cams as another storm was predicted to hit the area. Both Dad and I made calls to the closest ranger station and got two very different answers – one was basically an honest “the roads should be open as we just stocked the lake up there” and the second was a CYA – “we don’t advise driving up there.”

HMMM … trying to find a neutral party to get more real information, I contacted a local climbing/guide service and they said that there was absolutely no snow left in the high country and I could leave my snowshoes behind! The roads were clear and dry all the way up to the summit and the closest snow we saw on the whole trip was a patch near the Eastern Continental Divide.

We took our time to hike the 900 feet to the summit tower and Dad celebrated his 5th State Highpoint (including AK, WA, and OR).