Brown Mountain Winter Shelter

The Brown Mountain Shelter Trail is a fantastic 4 mile out-and-back perfect for a few hours of snow shoeing.

Driving 

– Drive up Dead Indian Memorial Road towards Howard Prairie Lake. Pass the right turn to Howard Prairie and you are now heading towards Lake of the Woods. In a few miles you will pass Elk Creek Road on your left and if the snow is high, there should be some Sno-Park cars parked there. But continue on and before you get to Lake of the Woods, just before Clover Creek Road, you will see a large pull-out plowed clear on your rilght.

Parking

– Officially Pederson Sno-Park. There will be a large wooden sign and there is room for dozens of cars but it’s kinda a free-for-all. It’s hard to know whether to park nose in or diagonally or sideways… you’ll figure it out.

The Adventure

– From your car you will cross Dead Indian Memorial Road and climb the snow bank where you will see the blue sign declaring you are on the Pederson Trail and South Brown Shelter is 2 miles. You are actually on the PCT here and there are not many of the Blue Diamond winter trail markers to help out like there are on x-country skiing trails. But the trail is popular enough that you should be able to make it out. If you are the first up after a big snow you need to be comfortable breaking trail and eye-balling the route.

The first 1/2 mile is slightly uphill and then you head gently downhill for the next 1 1/2 miles. You shouldn’t miss the Shelter/Water sign on your right that points you to the left. You are now 100 yards from the shelter. It is awesome in there. Bring some fire starter so you can get a fire going in the stove. Bring a lunch and a book or some excuse to hang out for awhile. Now back the way you came and that gentle downhill will feel like it got steeper, right?