Spence Closure 8/5/21

Spence Trail Building Season is Here

The Spring trail building season at Spence has arrived and Dirt Mechanics is hard at work. they are building a trail that connects the east side of Queen of the Lake up to the mid portion of North Star. the new trail will be around 3 miles in length and will climb from lake level (~4150 ft) at Queen to the high point on North Star (~4650ft). It will be intermediate difficulty and will allow for loops involving the new portion of Queen of the Lake completed last year. We will also finish Chinquapin trail this year. This trail is about 2 miles long and is an intermediate difficulty flow trail (lots of jumps, berms, and fun) that starts on Captain Jack above Junction 6 along with Nighthawk (black). It ends at the Shoalwater Trailhead. We will also start on the construction of Eagle Ridge Tr starting at the east end of Queen of the lake. This will be a traditional singletrack that will eventually cross most of the length of Eagle Ridge along the east side of Spence.

Trailhead Improvements at Spence Mountain

We have been improving both trailheads at Spence Mountain recently. The trailhead parking at Hwy 140 has been increased in size. This trailhead gets a lot of traffic and could use the improvements. The trailhead at Shoalwater bay has been almost doubled in size. This will allow much more parking for events and casual users. We will also install a vault toilet at Shoalwater later in the year.

New Spence Trails Open

The Spence trail building is complete until the fall. We have a new 1.6 mi technical black trail called Nighthawk. This trail is a mix if rocks, flow, jumps and drops and will be a challenge for all but the best riders. The second trail is partially complete, called Chinquapin (a bush growing at Spence that is bane of trail builders). This trail is blue-rated and has 0.4 mi complete at present (scheduled to be complete in the fall). The trail ends at a skid road close to Rock Spur road and a short climb back to Jct 6. The route is signed. Even if it is short, the trail includes jumps, drops, flow and a few rocks. It gives a nice taste of what the complete 2 miles will be when complete.

Other ways to get updates

trail routes + conditions

Head over to trailforks where you can get detailed trail conditions and suggested routes according to your needs.

Driving conditions

We recommend viewing the live webcams from Tripcheck  on Highway 140 at Doak Pass for Spence Mountain and Lake of the Woods for Brown Mountain and surrounding areas.