Wednesday August 13, 21.6mi/34.8km

SF Payette River at Pinchot Creek (225.8/6150ft) to MF Boise River (204.2/6270ft) (ID)

My campsite was surprisingly comfortable and peaceful, I packed up and continued to follow the South Fork Payette River upstream. Even this far uphill, it was still a big river.

After hiking up hill for a little while, the trail flattened out in a meadow where the stream temporarily became in Alpine Lake. I think this one was Elk Lake.

The trail continued its gradual uphill climb, I could tell this was a popular trail, it was wide and well maintained.

Oh, hello mountain!

As I continued further and further up the valley, the stream shrunk in size, and flowed over these huge slabs of rock. It looked like a water slide!

As I sat there having a snack break, I was extremely surprised to see a large fluffy white goat just walk by. At first I thought someone’s dog was off leash, but it was a goat. They’re usually up in the Alpine, not down in the forest.

Eventually the stream ended in Benedict Lake, which looked beautiful but marshy so I couldn’t figure out a way to swim.

The next higher Alpine Lake, Rock Slide Lake, was perfect for swimming.

I had lunch on the nice warm rock slabs, and took a swim out to one of the little islands. Really a perfect lunch spot! After lunch I finished the uphill portion of the day, when I got to Ingeborg Lake. From there I descended to Spangle Lake, which I was planning to swim in, but for some reason it was much colder.

At this point I left the popular Sawtooth loop, and continued South. From here it was all downhill to the old mining town of Atlanta, along the Middle Fork Boise River.

Down….

Looking down the valley that I would be descending through all afternoon.

There wasn’t much forest or shade, for some reason this valley was mostly meadows.

But that meant I had more views to enjoy!

As I followed along the MF Boise River, across many of its tributaries. For some reason this little one was raging.

The trail did cross over the MF Boise River itself a few times, and while I managed to keep my feet dry for the first couple of crossings, eventually the river became too large and I had to ford it with wet feet. I decided to camp after the last ford of the river, so I could have dry feet for tomorrow’s hiking. I camped at a little trailside spot that the guidebook suggested, it’s right next to the loud river.