Day 78: Salmon River

Thursday July 24, 26.0mi/41.8km

Grouse Creek (476.6/4690ft) to Campbell’s Ferry Bridge (450.6/2410ft) (ID)

As I was packing up my tent I thought I smelled a little bit of smoke in the air. As I continued down the trail, I came to a clearing and saw the hazy mountains in the distance.

I wasn’t sure where the fire was coming from, but it didn’t seem very strong and I enjoyed the nice downhill trail all morning.

Maybe I had become accustomed to the brushy trails of the Selway Wilderness, but I was surprised at how nice this trail remained all the way down to the Salmon River.

They had even built a nice smooth trail through all the talus areas, which is quite a bit of work. And it was quite loud hiking next to a roaring creek, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hear a rattlesnake so I paid close attention looking for them.

The last few miles of the Bargamin Creek trail were in a little gorge.

Yep, definitely quite a bit smokier down here.

I made it down to the Salmon River!

It was hot and smokey down here, and I had lunch in the shade of some Ponderosa pines. In the past couple of days I noticed the climate had slowly been changing from a wetter to a drier one, I must be transitioning to Southern Idaho. There were a few private ranches along the river, it felt strange walking by someone’s front yard.

The smoke started to clear up, and I had amazing views of the Salmon River all day, as I continued to follow the popular River.

I kept my eye out for rafters and this is a very popular rafting river, and eventually spotted a couple from way above.

It was super hot down here at 2500 ft, so any shade was appreciated.

Occasionally the trail would dip down to the riverside, this little camping spot was occupied by some guides who were setting up for their group later that day.

The trailside snacks were delicious also.

I had been messaging with my friends Rich and Randi on my InReach, and received information the smoke was from a wildfire 20 miles to my East. So, no problem. And as the afternoon went on, the smoke seemed to clear away.

I was keeping alert for rattlesnakes and only saw one, but I did see almost a dozen regular snakes.

Towards the end of the day, I could look across the river and see my big climb out of the canyon tomorrow.

My goal for the end of the day was to make it to the Campbell’s Ferry Bridge.

The Salmon River is simply massive.

Campbells Ferry is a neat historic ranch that was used as a crossing point during a gold rush, and is still occupied today by some residential caretakers.

But most importantly to me, they allow hikers to send resupply packages to them. I followed the instructions in their email and retrieved mine from a little old shed.

There were a bunch of other historical buildings on the property too, like a blacksmith shop and a tannery, I spent a little time reading all the interpretive signs.

It’s private property and they don’t allow camping or anything else so I had to backtrack across the bridge to camp in a nice pine forest. Tomorrow, the big 4,500-ft climb back up to the ridgeline.

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