On a mild late-February day, we decided to stomp the new snowshoe trails at Stake Lake.   The Cow Creek, Spruce Canyon, and Rattler Lookout trails are top-notch routes to try.    In years past, I had explored this area on foot, but the terrain and the windfall was difficult so I opted to stay on the trails.     The new trails were cleverly designed (thanks to Tim) and were cleared of windfall.    We went along the edge of the lake, then worked our way down the Cow Creek Trail (Cowan Creek drainage), then followed signs to the Spruce Canyon route, a winding route through a narrow canyon.   At the north end of the canyon, we took the right fork to wind up to the top of the hill where there were wide views and a great place to have lunch.    We returned back to the start for a 7.84 km snowshoe route.

This will be my favorite snowshoe of the year and is highly recommended.    A few of the highlights are captured here in video:

We will be hiking this route in summer too.    Spruce Canyon is a bit of an unique route well worth your time.