From the signed trailhead (48.31082, -116.56842), Zosia and I followed the well-maintained Mickinnick Trail which starts with a preliminary flat section before rising steadily up the eastern slopes of the hill via seemingly endless switchbacks.  While the climb was pleasantly gentle, the trail did feel a bit long-winded at times.  As we climbed higher, we encountered increasing amounts of snow courtesy of a fresh dump just the night before, but thankfully, the trail was already mostly broken for us by previous hikers.  It took us about three hours to reach trail’s end which is marked by a scenic viewpoint and bench, but from there, we were on our own to find a way up to the high point.  Behind the bench, we followed what appeared to be a beaten path, but it was hard to tell under calf-deep snow.  The remainder of the ascent was a real adventure in route-finding as there are some big rock outcrops to circumvent and a few annoying dips to get across.  We lost the beaten path a few times only to find it again later, but for the most part, we simply tried to keep moving to whatever looked like higher ground.  The actual high point is on a large boulder in a glade, and scrambling up it was a bit awkward because of the snowy conditions.

With little reason to linger after tagging the high point of Mickinnick, Zosia and I promptly retraced our steps down the hill.  A few steep sections required some care to descend, but otherwise, we did not have much trouble backtracking to the bench at trail's end.  From there, we settled into a long but uneventful walk down Mickinnick Trail and eventually made it back to the trailhead by sunset.

	Zosia passes a vault toilet at the trailhead with "Mickinnick" visible in the background.
	Despite some overnight precipitation in the area, the lower parts of Mickinnick Trail are still relatively snow-free.
	Zosia gets a glimpse of Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille from this trailside bench located partway up the hill.
	Higher up, the trail is covered by increasingly more snow.

Zosia reaches a viewpoint at the end of the official trail.

 

	Zosia makes her best guess at route-finding through some challenging terrain near the top of the hill.
	Zosia stands on the true high point of Mickinnick (1403 metres).
	A break in the forest allows this view to the east of Grief Mountain (left of centre) which has a lot more snow on it than the day before.
	Total Distance:  14.6 kilometres Round-Trip Time:  6 hours 34 minutes Cumulative Elevation Gain:  730 metres GPX Data