Friday July 4, 29.0mi/46.7km
Roundtop Saddle (869.0/5710ft) to Dry Creek Canyon (834.8/2630ft) (ID) -5.2mi shortcut
I slept great in my quiet little camp spot and got moving at 6 am, continuing down the ridgeline trail. I could tell this was a well-built trail, since every time there was a talus field they had thoughtfully made a path through it.
Most of the morning was hiking along open grassy ridge tops with amazing views.
With all the bear grass around, it seemed like prime bear habitat so I made sure to make extra noise.
The view down to Lake Pend Oreille, 4000ft below, was simply stunning.
I was getting to the end of the ridge, it was almost time to start descending down to the valley.
On the initial dissent, I came across a water bottle, it would turn out to be Matt’s, they had hiked this trail just yesterday.
Lake Pend Oreille is huge, so views of it were around every corner.
On the west side of the ridge I could see down to Porcupine Lake, which is another alternate way to get off this ridge and into the valley.
I slowly began descending off the ridge on many switchbacks, somewhere near the bottom I came across a little spring which was cleverly set up into a bucket.
Once I got lower, I was back in the open Forest, with all the mosquitoes.
I hadn’t intended on arriving at the West Spring Creek trailhead, as the original trail had split off a mile back, but I couldn’t find the junction. The new rerouted trail led me here, but it was surrounded by private property with no realistic way to hike into town.
As I ate lunch I studied my maps and all the different mapping layers, and found a segment of public land that would get me almost to a road. Using Google satellite view, I also found some old roads that seem like they would connect me to a modern road. I had no idea if this would actually work but I decided to try it. So I followed some old logging roads, which started out pretty nice.
Even after they degraded they were still quite followable.
The old roads dumped me onto a modern wide gravel road, now surrounded by private property, but I simply followed it down the hill and into town. My detour around private property worked!
Clark Fork was a tiny town, basically only a post office, convenience store, and a couple of cafes.
I got some ice cream at the Clark Fork pantry, which is also an amazing bakery.
That I went across the street to a little bar/ restaurant, it had plenty of dank atmosphere inside, but it was threatening to rain outside so it was better to sit indoors. The food was just mediocre, and usually hiker hunger makes everything taste great. So in real life it’s probably not that good.
By now I had already hiked 21 miles, but there’s nowhere to camp in town, so I had to hike at least 8 miles out to get to public land again. I was delayed by a train.
I’ve actually had to wait for trains three times this week. It’s getting a little ridiculous. For the next couple of hours I had a pleasant hike through farm country.
Crossing the massive Clark Fork River on a separate pedestrian bridge was a nice treat.
Dry Creek was my destination for the night.
Ironically, it would start raining on me as I got closer to Dry Creek. During the roadwalk I was messaging with Justine and Matt, she offered a zero day at their house. I wasn’t certain for when, once it was clear the offer was for tomorrow, and it started raining harder, I accepted and got excited for a zero day tomorrow. I’m camped in a nice little pine forest, just over the National Forest boundary tonight, and they’ll come pick me up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. So generous!