Monday July 7, 27.6mi/44.4km

Ulm Peak (812.2/6320ft) to Dixie Pass (784.6/5520ft) (ID/MT)

I slept in a little bit, but as soon as the sun came over the ridge, it got really hot inside the tent. At 7:30 I continued down the rocky road, soaking in the morning views.

After only a little bit of climbing, the road was blocked by snow.

It was easy to go around but a little surprising there’s still snow here at 6,000 ft. At the top of the climb, the road ended at some sort of radio communications tower.

It seemed like a perfect spot for a snack. From there I continued on the Stateline Trail, which was surprisingly easy to follow.

I only lost the trail once, when it became faint amongst the rocks on the alpine traverse. But it was easy hiking so I didn’t really care.

For most of yesterday and all of today, I’ve been hiking along the Idaho -Montana border. I had forgotten that they mark it with these little metal posts.

Those posts were all along the CDT as well, I remember. Once the rocky section ended, I easily found the trail again.

The stumps on this trail are so friendly!

I had been hiking in a little burn section, it was nice to get back into the shade of a green forest.

Even up here at almost 6,000 feet it was kind of warm, probably 70°F. After a short descent to Porcupine Pass, I was on a dirt road again for a while.

I like the variety of this route, it keeps switching between trail and road and I think that’s more interesting. I hadn’t seen liquid water since yesterday, so I was very happy to find this little roadside spring in the willow bushes.

The willows seemed to be very happy in their environment here, growing right up to the edge of the road.

After descending to Taylor saddle, I had to climb 900 ft all the way back up to the ridgeline, which meant this was another great spot for some snacks, and to cool off in the breeze.

It was a little creepy that somebody had decided to put a grave here, and kind of selfish too since this is public land. People are weird.

After summoning little Bloom Peak, I had a steep descent down to a road.

It started off fine but the final descent was steep on some loose gravel, one of my least favorite trail surfaces. For the rest of the afternoon I was mostly on trail, which hit these intermittent talus spots.

I actually don’t mind this type of talus, since the trail is so well built. They have stabilized the talus and put some flat rocks down so it’s easier to walk on. Aside from the talus, it was mostly pretty nice trail.

A couple times it disappeared under some lingering snowbanks. That was surprising.

As I crossed the final talus fields, I was excited to re-enter the forest. This forest was exceptionally green.

I was excited to get to camp, but unfortunately as soon as I got to the saddle where I had planned to camp, the green forest transitioned to a severely burned one. Darn. So I had to hike another mile and a half to the next saddle, which was near a dirt road. My day was a little longer than I had planned but I was still at camp by 7:30, and had a nice evening watching the sunset while I made dinner.