Saturday August 2, 14.8mi/23.8km

Nip and Tuck hilltop (268.8/6450ft) to Stanley Lake Creek (254.0/6560ft) (ID)

It was very cold where I woke up on my little hilltop campsite, probably 35°F. But an excellent view of the valley and the Sawtooths!

I hiked the quick mile down to town, crossing a hot springs river along the way, which was steaming in the cold morning.

I got to the diner just as they opened at 7am and ordered a couple of breakfasts.

I have been seeing bears all week in the wilderness, and I even saw one today in the diner. Weirdly, this one had a saddle on it.

Stanley is a cool but tiny town, I walked a couple of blocks to the bakery to get some cinnamon rolls and tea, but the line was ridiculously long so I just left.

I’m meeting some friends for a couple of days off trail, so I decided to knock out some of the roadwalking miles leaving town.

Walking toward the Sawtooths is always pretty exciting, pretty soon the road shrank and I was in the forest again.

The road ended at the Iron Creek Trailhead, which was ridiculously crowded with probably 50 cars.

I entered the serenity of the Wilderness, on an extremely nice tourist grade trail.

There were a ton of people for the first couple of miles, and I kept leapfrogging with several different groups. Finally, I turned off the main trail on my route and all the crowds disappeared.

The section of trail was extremely burned. I think the fire was very recent, just last October.

But at least I had beautiful views of the mountains through the thinned out dead Forest.

It must have been a very hot fire. This is one of the most blackened forests I’d ever seen.

Finally, I exited the burn zone and entered a little meadow.

When I got to Stanley Lake, where my friends were picking me up, I got a little delayed by the lack of a bridge, apparently the entire bridge had burned.

Tory and Chelsea met me at the Stanley Lake Trailhead and fed me delicious foods. They are on a roadtrip honeymoon around the West, and the three of us drove down towards City of Rocks, to go rock climbing together for a few days.

A nice little break from the trail!