Saturday August 23, 30.3mi/48.8km

Bengoechea cabin ruins (38.5/4590ft) to Jarbidge River Overlook (8.2/5600ft) (ID)

Another early morning to beat the heat, it started off nice and chilly like usual.

I was hiking pretty briskly to get warmed up, once I wake up and get out of my tent, these early mornings are pretty cool.

Sunrise is coming…

I paused to get a photo of the actual sunrise, since I’m not usually awake to get sunrise photos.

I crossed over a pretty large dirt road, it seemed to be the access point to the Bruneau River. I think this is where the rafters put in, for rafting trips. There was even a nice map & sign.

It stayed mercifully cloudy all morning and I was very thankful for the reasonable temperatures.

For this entire desert section, the trail is entirely on two-track dirt roads. I thought the maze of roads would be confusing but the trail is actually really well signed.

I stopped and had lunch in Poison Creek wash, which had the only tree I had seen since yesterday. Even though it was cloudy and cool, it felt like a special treat to eat lunch under a juniper tree. After lunch I climbed out of the wash and unfortunately the clouds started to disperse.

By 1pm the clouds were almost completely gone and I hiked under my umbrella the rest of the afternoon. By late afternoon the Jarbidge Mountains were coming into view.

It was pretty hot at the end of the afternoon, so I found a tall sagebrush and made some umbrella shade, taking a break for a couple of hours until 6 pm. I continued on for another hour after my long break, and I noticed these strange red tanks. I was pretty low on water and got my hopes up, but they were dry.

I’m not sure what animal those tanks would be used for, I haven’t seen any evidence of cows today. Perhaps antelope, I’ve seen like eight herds of antelope today.

At the end of the day I came to the Jarbidge River Overlook, and enjoyed looking 800 feet down to the river below.

There is an alternate route, which scrambles down the rocky talus fields to the river, but I had no interest in making some rattlesnake friends. I camped up on the rim nearby, with nice views of the Jarbidge Mountains to my South. Tomorrow I have about 7 miles to the ICT Southern Terminus, then I’ll backtrack a couple miles and head down to the Jarbidge River.