When trails get icy on the hills, we usually want to head up to higher elevations to spike-hike or snowshoe in the forests.    There is a shoulder season time when the valley hills are icy and the higher elevation areas have a series of mild days and cold nights, leaving poor conditions for either hiking or snowshoeing.    During this phase, we opt to do a valley bottom hike.    There are a few routes I call the “Winter Beaches.”   On a mild day near Christmas we drove to the trailhead off the end of Aviation Way to hike the Rivers Trail, and a loop route for variety.

The Rivers Trail splits early on and the left fork continues along a line of willows, then through the cottonwoods.

A single track trail follows an old fenceline on an old dike above the floodwater areas.

The trail winds down to the floodland sloughs which can be hiked from September through April.

There are lots of old rusting vehicles along one bank.    this is sometimes called “Dale’s Antique Beach.”    The name “Dale” comes from an early rancher/farmer on the lands adjacent to the slough.

The trail emerges out to the beach.    The wide, sandy beaches extend toward Tranquille.    I refer to this area as the West Beaches.

For this windy, cool day, we turned left and followed one of the river channels back upriver.     There are wide beaches there too, a favorite area for dog walkers.

We hiked along the beach then turned onto a single track to take us back to the Rivers Trail.    Our route for this day was about 5 km.   We are lucky to have the Rivers Trail.   We will be back a few more times to hike other routes along the Thompson River.