Tuesday July 8, 17.7mi/28.5km

Dixie Pass (784.6/5520ft) to Upper Glidden Lake (766.9/5910ft) (ID/MT)

It was a pretty relaxing day since I’m a little ahead on miles and had a few lakes to visit and possibly swim in. The day started off pretty easy on an old dirt road for an hour, and then some very nice single track trail.

Overall it was pretty densely forested, but I had frequent views every time there was a talus field to cross.

Looking to the West:

It seemed like in every direction I looked there were just endless rows of mountains continuing in the distance. Pretty cool. And I continued to be pleasantly surprised by the good quality trails in this section.

I’m pretty sure that will change further south, but for now I’m enjoying the nice trails. I came to a pretty busy trailhead, and since I hadn’t looked at my maps closely, I was surprised to see a paved road cutting through the area.

Blossom Lake is pretty popular, though it seemed strange that it would have two separate trailheads. Segregation for horses?

I passed two large groups that were hiking out as I was heading into the lake, and I kind of figured that the lake would be empty, since the five cars in the parking lot would be matched up with those 10 people. But when I arrived, there was still a large group there, nine women were having their annual weekend at the lake. I picked a quieter spot further along the shoreline.

It was indeed a nice spot to have lunch as well.

I went for a swim right after lunch, definitely not waiting 30 minutes, pretty sure that’s just an urban myth. The large group nearby had a friendly yellow lab who kept swimming over to deliver a large stick he had found in the lake. Apparently it was the dog’s first day ever seeing a lake, and it was probably the best day of his life. I left the busy lake and headed uphill another 30 minutes to the next lake, Pear Lake.

I attempted to swim at this one, but quickly aborted once I realized there were too many hungry mosquitoes. The previous lake had a bit more wind which I think was enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay. So I continued on and just enjoyed the views of Pear Lake as I climbed above it.

Once I got to the top of the ridge I could see ahead to the next valley, and upper Glidden Lake, where I would be camping tonight.

The amazingly well maintained trail continued all day, I’m savoring it now while it lasts.

Upper Glidden Lake was fairly large, and seemed to have enough wind to keep away the bugs so I could go swimming.

This water was much colder, so the swim was very brief. Which worked out well anyway, because it seems everyday at 7pm the mosquitoes come out in force. Usually when the bugs are really bad I would make dinner in my tent, but I can’t use that strategy in grizzly country. So I made dinner down by the lake, wearing all my rain gear as bug protection. Ugh. Tomorrow should be a short day as I only have 10 miles to town.