In shoulder season when hiking conditions are variable and hard-to-predict, its nice to have a few routes that are reliable.    One of these is the Rivers Trail, starting at Aviation Way.    The trail follows the top of the dike.    The dike has compacted gravels so it drains well.    It can be snowy or even icy, but it is rarely muddy (except in late winter when the frost is still in the ground).   The route we usually hike is along the dike, down a single track side trail, then out to the West Beaches.   The sandy beaches tend to dry out and are also rarely muddy.    On this Almost-Winter Day, we hiked this route, but kept the hike on the beaches a little shorter for a loop route of about 90 minutes.

The Rivers Trail splits off into two with some yellow-twigged willows in between.

The single track follows an old fence through the cottonwoods above the flood channels.

We took an unsigned trail down through a dry flood channel, past an area of old car wrecks, then out to the beach.   The beach area continues on to the Tranquille Wildlife Area, but we curled over to the edge of the Thompson River, then turned east, following the water’s edge.

There are some well-trod trails going from the beach to the Rivers Trail and we hiked back on one of those to the start.   This is a favorite route that we do a few times in the year, especially when trails are muddy, icy, or buried in snow.   We will be back at the end of February.

An Instagram reel of this hike can be seen at this link – Almost Winter Hike