Thursday July 17, 8.1mi/13.0km

No-see-um Meadows (589.3/5890ft) to Gateway Campground (581.2/2105 ft) (ID)

I left camp at 6:30 and packed up my backpack which seemed to have only a few more miles of life left in it.

The Sherman Creek Trail was over 7 miles all downhill to the Lochsa River, and it was barely brushy at all.

It actually stayed pretty high above the river and frequently had good views to the South, of the mountains I would be hiking tomorrow.

There was one little meadow that was completely overgrown and in the morning dew felt like a cold wet car wash.

Mostly the trail went through an enjoyable, mature Forest.

I got one last glimpse of the upcoming mountains, before I made the final descent to the trailhead parking area.

I crossed highway 12, made it to the Wilderness Gateway campground, and immediately started trying to hitch a ride into Missoula, over 90 miles away.

After only 20 minutes the sixth car stopped to pick me up, Rob & Angie were on their way to a music festival up in whitefish MT. They were super nice and generous people, and I had great conversation with them the entire 2 hours I was in the car. At one point it came up in conversation that I was only stopping at Lochsa Lodge to pick up a resupply box, and then immediately continuing to Missoula. They very generously offered to pull into the lodge while I got my package, and then we all continued on, even stopping for lunch at a charming little bar, the Jack saloon.

After 8 days of backpacking food, the burger and beer really hit the spot. They dropped me off directly at the REI where I immediately went shopping for a backpack. Not finding one in my size, I got an Uber to downtown Missoula to the other camping store. I didn’t find the pack there either. But I did find ice cream next door.

Walking through downtown Missoula and Higgins Street is always entertaining and there’s lots of good people watching and interesting artwork.

At this point I was getting low on options to get a replacement backpack today, I even scoured the local Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist ads. I got a phone call from the very helpful guy at REI saying he didn’t find a men’s small backpack, but he found something of equivalent size, so I went back to REI and bought a bright yellow backpack. By now it was getting late in the day and my plan to hitch back to the Wilderness the same day was not going to happen, so I got a local motel. It was brand new remodeled, but in an old-timey way.

Inside my food resupply box my parents had included a birthday card, that was very nice. The little things.

It was time to eat again, so I went a couple blocks away to Gary’s Local Burgers which had $6 burgers and actual good Coke, the kind from Mexico with real sugar.

And then I went to the grocery store to pick up a couple extra things like more wet wipes, new water bottles, and I found a 50% off birthday cake. Nice little motel celebration.

I did a bunch of phone chores and then watched some Stephen Colbert, it’s a shame that they will be canceling one of the best comedians for some pretty shadowy reasons. Tomorrow is back to trail!

Wednesday July 16, 19.4mi/31.2km

Monroe Butte (609.3/6350ft) to No-see-um Meadows (589.3/5890ft) (ID) -0.6mi skip Liz Cabin

I woke up in a damp meadow to a wet and cold tent. I spent a few minutes trying to dry out the inside but knew I’d have to dry everything out at lunch. I had a nice trail for the first half mile of the day.

As soon as I turned onto the Windy Creek Trail it became a little overgrown, and I could tell it was maintained and used far less frequently than the nice Windy Bill Trail I had been on.

At the higher elevations it wasn’t so bad, as there were just fewer plants available to reclaim the trail. But after I descended a thousand feet, the trail became more overgrown.

But at least it was still easily followable 99% of the time. Only a couple times in big meadows did I lose the trail tread and have to find it on the other side.

There actually weren’t many blowdowns, and I could walk at almost my usual pace when the trail wasn’t approaching a little stream or waterway. When it got within 100 ft of water, the plants grew like crazy and I just had to wade slowly through the entangled ferns and bear grass.

Finally, after 4 hours of effort I had made it the 9 miles to Weitas Creek bridge. Down here the trail seemed to be a little better used and I followed nice tread for a half mile until I stopped for lunch on the bridge.

It was pretty hot down here at 3,000 ft, so I sat in the shade on one end of the bridge while my tent and gear dried in the sunny part of the bridge. I took up the entire bridge with my stuff, there’s nothing like a good ol’ bridge yard sale. Plus there’s no way anybody was coming through here, I was hours from reasonably good trail, and even further from a trailhead. After lunch I packed up and quickly found the junction to the Yokum Creek Trail.

The distances on those signs are often full of lies, as they don’t account for the many switchbacks. Turns out it was closer to 3.5 mi to the Liz Butte Trail, and 6 mi to the top of Liz Butte. I wish I had taken a photo of the trail junction, it was comical that the trail I was turning on to was almost non-existent, and the trail tread was blanketed in thick moss. It cleared up considerably as I climbed higher on pretty nice switchbacks, and above the riparian plants in the valley. After a couple hours I made it to the junction, where the sign was being swallowed by a tree.

As I got higher up I was traversing meadows more frequently, which were beautiful to walk through with all the paintbrush growing this time of year.

The downside of meadows is that they sometimes make a faint trail impossible to follow, but I only lost the trail once and found it after only 5 minutes of searching the forest. This was probably the strangest piece of trail trash I’ve ever encountered.

The last mile was through an area that was severely burned, so there wasn’t much brush but there were plenty of downed trees.

Finally, at 4pm I arrived at a dirt road, with much relief and fanfare. I thought it was cool, and also a little ironic, that the only sign I’ve seen for the Idaho Centennial Trail is on the brushiest trail I’ve hiked yet.

The roadwalk was pleasant and easy, apparently it’s also the Nez Perce National historic Trail, and the Lewis and Clark Trail.

I arrived at a trailhead at 6 pm, and it seemed too late in the day to continue down 8-mile Sherman Creek Trail, which descended 4,000 ft down a steep valley, and probably had no camping options. So I set up my tent at the edge of the forest, and afterwards noticed this sign. Eek.

While the meadow did have a few of those bugs, it had far more mosquitoes. I enjoyed a couple hours of relaxation protected in my tent, and looking at maps for the next section in the Selway mountains. I also made a plan to deal with my rapidly deteriorating Durston backpack, one of the hip belt straps was slowly ripping off of the pack frame. It definitely wasn’t going to last another 300 miles to Stanley (the next town), so when I get to Highway 12 tomorrow morning, I will hitch almost 90 miles East to Missoula, which has an REI. What a pain.

Tuesday July 15, 26.4mi/42.5km

Kelly Creek Trailhead (633.8/3170ft) to Monroe Butte (609.3/6350ft) (ID) +1.9 Windy Bill trail

I packed up from my damp little camp spot down in a meadow next to the river, basically the worst camp spot possible, I spent a few minutes drying out my tent but I’ll have to dry stuff later in the full sun. I crossed Kelly Creek on a huge bridge, it’s funny they call it a creek, it’s basically a river at this point.

The first task of the day was to climb 3,000 vertical feet up to Scurvy mountain. The first half of the climb was easy on a gradual dirt road.

I saw some large canine prints in the mud next to the road, I was very curious what made them.

And 5 minutes later I saw the creature.

I was a little delayed in getting out the camera and taking a video, so I only got him running away. But he was large and very fluffy. Cool. The second half of the climb was on a trail, but it was a multi-use trail so it was wide for ATVs.

I was glad that the morning stayed cloudy and cool, so I didn’t have to do all this climbing in the hot sunlight. Plus the clouds gave the photos an interesting perspective.

Once I got to the top, I skipped the little side trail to the firetower since it was locked anyway, and continued on the Windy Bill Trail, basically following this ridgeline for the rest of the day.

So I went down 1400 ft….

And then hiked right back up that same amount.

Right to the top of Switchback Hill, which was very appropriately named.

I had lunch at the top of Switchback Hill, and checked my watch. I had hiked 5,000 vertical feet before noon, I’m going to feel that later in the day for sure. The rest of the ridgewalk was much flatter, and occasionally through these eerie feeling areas of dead forest.

There was supposed to be another 800-ft climb, but the trail had been rerouted to go around the mountain instead of over it, much to my relief. The guidebook recommends taking the old abandoned trail up and over the mountain anyway, but that was written in 2020 and five more years have passed, and by now nature has thoroughly reclaimed the old trail. I searched and couldn’t find where it had split off. The new trail was quite delightful other than a short half mile section of blowdown trees.

I continued through more of the eerie half-dead mossy forests.

And then finally a mature forest.

This was a confusing trail junction for several reasons.

It was not located where the map indicated, which actually has been happening a lot recently on the ICT. But also the trail numbers were slightly different, the sign says #167 but the map says #164. On the assumption that one of those was a typo, I continued on, and was eventually able to confirm I was correct. The last hour of the day was easy hiking on a nice trail, and I stopped to camp at the last moment before leaving the ridgeline.

I knew from here it was a 2000 ft descent, where there would be no camping options for a long time. But I’m camped at a pretty high elevation so it’s going to be a cold night!

Monday July 14, 27.6mi/44.4km

Unnamed Alpine Lake (661.4/6070ft) to Kelly Creek Trailhead (633.8/3170ft) (ID/MT)

I had a quiet night at my little Alpine Lake, which looked even better in the sunrise than it did in the evening.

There were some mosquitoes hanging out but I quickly left them behind after only a half mile of uphill hiking, when I came over a small pass and into a new valley.

I hiked this neat ridgeline for a little bit, with views down into two valleys at once.

The section of the Stateline Trail seemed to be less used and was a little brushy.

Pretty soon I could see down into Kid lake.

I thought about swimming in Kid Lake but it was still too cold this early in the morning.

After many days on the Stateline Trail, I would finally be leaving it. At Kid Lake, I turned onto the Kelly Creek Trail, leaving the Idaho/ Montana border and entering the depths of Idaho.

I started the long gradual descent down into the Kelly Creek Valley, where I would be remaining for the rest of the day. It always fascinates me when trees grow like this, I have no idea why and it was funny to see so many at once.

The Kelly Creek Trail seems to be well constructed and had a nice trail tread, though much of the time it was a little buried in the short brush that was trying to take over.

I’ve been up high on a ridgeline for so long, I forgot that crossing tributaries was a thing.

I managed to keep my feet dry, although after a few more such crossings I gave up trying. After only a few miles, I could hear the creek next to me getting louder and louder as it gained more tributaries. By lunch time I had made it down a few thousand feet, and arrived at an outfitters camp. It was the only spot where the trail was wide and not brushy, so I had lunch on a little bridge.

There wasn’t anyone on site at their outfitters camp, but I explored the area and found a clever way to keep their beverages cold, a metal box in a cold creek!

Soon after I left that spot I came to a very large wooden bridge, probably constructed by the Outfitters to get their horses and mules across these little tributaries.

The rest of the day I followed Kelly Creek downstream, as it slowly gained size.

The trail steadily improved too, as more people used it lower in the valley where it was closer to the trailhead.

After a couple of hours, I came to another Outfitters camp where I ran into two guys taking a break on their camp chairs. Chuck and Jackie were up here for the week on a fishing trip, and had driven all the way from the Boise area. They were really entertaining to talk to, and even though I know very little about fishing, we had much in common. They knew about the Idaho Centennial Trail, and were more familiar with the sections further south near Atlanta Hot Springs, closer to where they live. I lost track of the time but eventually continued on, enjoying all these nice little bridges.

The valley went into shade pretty early, which was nice as it instantly cooled down.

The trail stayed a little above Kelly Creek most of the time, with nice views of a pretty large river.

I had planned to stop after 22 miles, but couldn’t find any spots in the thick riparian brush. So I kept hiking to the trailhead where I knew there would be a large flat clearing. It was a long day but I made it there by 7:30. It feels very damp, I hope I don’t get too much condensation in the tent tonight.

Sunday July 13, 26.0mi/41.8kmGraves Peak saddle (687.4/7220ft) to Unnamed Alpine Lake (661.4/6070ft) (ID/MT)I had a great little camp spot and when I woke up this morning there were no mosquitoes, surprising, but I’ll take it. Walking along the ridge in the morning light was a great start to the day.Looking down at St Joe Lake:These Bitterroot Mountains are a huge range. I have been hiking through them for days, and can still see endless mountain ridges in the distance.In mid-morning I crossed over Hoodoo Pass, and I was surprised to see a wide gravel road almost like a highway. And I was more surprised to see over a dozen cars in the trailhead parking lot. The guidebook says this would be a difficult hitch to a town in Montana, 25 miles away, but it seems like it might be rather easy, and a great place to break up a long section. There was a short climb after the pass, where I talked to two ladies for a while about the ICT / HST, they had so many fun questions, and at one point even offered me a ride to the town. That might have been fun but I’m not backtracking 2 miles, and also I already have all the food I need for this 175 mile section. Pretty soon I was back up on the ridgeline, and looking down at alpine lakes all afternoon.That was Heart Lake, though I think it should be called Kidney Lake, due to its shape.Yup, definitely kidney lake. Around this time the bugs started to become pretty bad, I hadn’t seen so many different types of flies all swarming at once. They only bothered me when I was stopped or trying to take a break, when I was hiking/moving there was almost nothing. Weird. I came around a switchback corner, and heard some hooves. Usually this means deer or maybe an elk, I was incredibly surprised to see this big fluffy white goat standing there staring at me.It did not move. Like, not even 1 inch. So I carefully walked in a circle around him. Further down the ridge I came to Dalton Lake, which seems like this should be called Heart Lake.Just lots of beautiful ridge walking on the Stateline Trail again today.I never figured out the pattern with the bugs, I tried taking breaks in Sunny spots, shady spots, forested, grassy, nothing seemed to help. The first minute or two after I stopped was fine and then somehow they would all discover my presence and just hang out with me. Ugh. This part of the ridge had a little more wind and kept most of the bugs away but not all of them.More alpine lakes:One of the two Siamese lakes:The last part of the ridge walking was a little easier, as the trail decided to go around the bumps instead of over them.There had been some recent trail maintenance done in this section so it was a nice cruise down to Fish Lake. Fish Lake must be a popular camping area as there were about a half-dozen campsites, all numbered with posts. I stopped at one to sit on the bench and take a break, and noticed that some idiot had left their campfire still smoking a little bit. So I poured a bunch of water on it.It was a nice little break spot, I filled my water bottles in the lake, ate a bunch of snacks and waited to make sure the campfire was really dead.Fish Lake:It was only 5pm so I decided to push on another couple hours to camp at another lake. The Stateline trail climbed up to a saddle, where it split with another trail. That was the “original ICT”, but the guidebook recommended an alternate that stays on the Stateline Trail so that’s what I did. The old trail markers were neat to see.After climbing to a second saddle, I descended through an ancient burned forest, down to an unnamed alpine lake.There was a beautiful little camp spot near the outlet of the lake, perfect. By now the flies had disappeared, only to be replaced by mosquitoes. But surprisingly, the mosquitoes weren’t too bad given that I was camped next to a swampy lake.

Saturday July 12, 29.3mi/47.2km

Ridge above Square Lake (718.0/6240ft) to Graves Peak saddle (687.4/7220ft) (ID/MT) + 0.5 to Illinois Peak, -1.8 skip Joe Lake

Today was more hiking on the Stateline Trail, which transitioned from a road to a singletrack trail halfway through the day. It was pretty dry up on the ridgeline so I was happy to see a little roadside spring.

It was just nice easy walking all morning, and I had an occasional view when there was a burned area or clear-cut.

Occasionally I would cross a dirt road coming up from the valley, which meant some signage for the drivers. Apparently I’m still in Idaho Panhandle National Forest…. The same forest I started in up at the Canadian border.

This bird was cool, it was just strutting around the road, I think it was guarding some young chicks or something.

A preview to one of my upcoming climbs, I even saw a little bit of snow up there.

The road mostly contoured around 6,500 ft elevation, and the wildflowers were in full bloom here.

By late morning the road had ended and I continued on a nice single track trail.

Which climbed up and up onto a ridgeline over 7,000 ft.

From way up there I had views down to some nearby Alpine lakes on the Montana side. I think those are the Cliff Lakes.

Aside from the bugs being kind of bad, the day was generally quiet and enjoyable on a nice ridgetop trail.

Lots of little Alpine lakes today, they were only for viewing, most of them had no trails or were not easily accessible. These are the Bonanza Lakes.

It definitely wasn’t hot up here at over 7,000 ft, but it did feel nice to be out of the strong sunlight.

I came to Cascade Pass, which seemed to be a popular crossroad and trailhead, there were half a dozen cars parked there. And more signs.

Looking down to Missoula Lake, I wish one of these lakes was closer to the trail so I could go for a swim. I crossed the road and continued on the Stateline Trail, which apparently is a National Recreation Trail.

Looking below to the Oregon lakes:

I had been steadily but slowly climbing since I left Cascade pass, and now I could see my high point ahead of me, Illinois Peak.

The wildflowers, and the monarch butterflies, were really quite the spectacle today.

Somehow a trail goes up that mountain.

Then a half hour later I stood at the top of Illinois Peak, the back side of the mountain was actually gently sloped and had a nice trail to the top. I took a little break on the summit and enjoyed the strong breeze which kept the bugs away. As I was signing the summit register, I noticed the name on the pen.

Pretty nice views from the 7600 ft Summit.

As the sun dipped lower in the sky it started getting a little chilly, I continued another mile down the main trail and set up camp in a protected saddle.

I’m camped pretty close to the trail but there’s no way anybody is coming down this trail other than ICT hikers, and there are only like a dozen of us in any given year.

Friday July 11, 30.6mi/49.3km

Ridge above St Regis River (748.0/5730ft) to Ridge above Square Lake (718.0/6240ft) (ID/MT) +0.6mi to water

I was on the Stateline Trail all day today, which started off as a singletrack trail and then transitioned to a dirt road for the rest of the day. It was easy hiking, the scenery was nice, and I wasn’t really present in the moment for any of it.

I got news on my inReach at 7am, that Denali had gone to doggy heaven. She was my dog a long time ago, and then my parents adopted her 10 years ago. She had a good long life, and yet 16 years wasn’t enough time for all the head pets she wanted. At least now she’s above the clouds, where it will never rain on her… she absolutely couldn’t stand rain.

I used up all my mental energy from this morning’s news and then accidentally hiking 30+ miles today…so here’s my photos from today.

Thursday July 10, 8.5mi/13.7km

Mullan (756.5/3270ft) to Ridge above St Regis River (748.0/5730ft) (ID/MT)

It was hot in that low elevation Valley, but with the fans on all night I slept comfortably. In the morning I packed up my food into my bear canister, with some food also going into a box to be mailed into the Frank Church wilderness.

I left the Airbnb before the checkout time, since I wanted to get to the post office before they closed for lunch at 11am.

I mailed a small box of food to the Indian Creek Guard station, and despite me verifying the address from three different sources, the PO still couldn’t find it in their computer. But I know it’s right, so it should get there. Afterwards I went a couple blocks to a little bakery, and was doubly excited when they had sourdough toast with peanut butter and honey.

I got on the bus and went back to Mullan, which took almost an hour. I noticed the library was open so I decided to do some quick updates to my journal and my maps, and also top up my phone charge while I was there. After that was the road walk out of town, fortunately it was cool and cloudy today.

That billboard looked weirdly out of place behind all the trees, but then I figured out this must have been the main highway through the valley before they built Interstate 90 in the late 1970s. And I could hear that Interstate nearby, and I crossed over it a mile later. It looked pretty empty.

Once I was south of the interstate, the road turned to dirt.

After a mile it ended at the Willow Creek Trailhead where I saw just a few vehicles, weirdly one of them was the Shoshone county Sheriff. Now I was back on trail and happy to be making uphill progress and in the nice cool weather. I really had pretty good luck with the weather today, the one day I have a huge 3,000-ft climb and it’s cool and cloudy.

I was almost to the lake when I saw a couple people hiking downhill towards me, without backpacks and wearing uniforms. Once I got closer I realized they were two county sheriffs, they said they were looking from somebody that wrecked their car “up at the lake”, which sounded ridiculous given that you can’t drive anywhere near these lakes, it’s just narrow hiking trails. They said not to worry and the person isn’t dangerous, but if I see a car or a lost person to call 911 and they’ll come sort it out. Interesting. I pondered that for quite a while and then when I passed a waterfall it pushed those thoughts out of my brain.

Within a few minutes I was at lower Stevens Lake, which looked pretty sweet. Lots of campsites, no mosquitoes, and swimmable water.

But the afternoon was getting late and I wanted to cover some miles, so I went past it towards Upper Stevens Lake.

And from the upper lake, I took a series of faint herd trails to hike/ scramble up to the ridge, 600 ft above the lake.

This routing is an alternate recommended by the guidebook, I’m not sure I agree. It was quite steep, and very different in character from the rest of the trail so far. Looking at Stevens Peak, my destination at the top of the climb.

Once I was on the ridgeline it was quite rocky, though there was a nice herd path. The last bit just before the summit was definitely steep, and while I have fun with these little rocky scrambles, I think most hikers would be happier taking the original route, which is a more gradual ascent on dirt roads.

The view from the summit was pretty epic. Looking West toward the other ridge, where the original routing is located.

Stevens Peak is 6800 ft, which is the tallest in the Northern Bitterroots. It’s always nice to look down on the area I just hiked up, feels like an accomplishment. The Stevens Lakes:

From there I dropped off the summit and followed a ridgeline for the rest of the day. Since I was on the highest terrain in the area, I had tons of good views, including this cool spot of sunlight.

I knew I would be following this ridgeline for a couple more days, and once I noticed it was almost 8pm I decided to stop and camp. Of course there weren’t any convenient spots nearby so I just camped in the middle of the wide trail.

I didn’t cover many miles today but it was a big 3,000-ft climb to get back up onto the ridge.

Wednesday July 9, 10.4mi/16.7km

Upper Glidden Lake (766.9/5910ft) to Mullan (756.5/3270ft) (ID)

I was visited in the night by an elk or a moose, I heard a large hoofed animal walking by, and then in the morning saw some big branches broken off nearby. The mosquitoes were still having their annual gathering so I packed up faster than usual and hiked uphill away from the lake.

The trail was very nice, but it was a little confusing that it didn’t appear on any of the several different maps that I had. After a mile of climbing I was back up on a ridgeline, and could see down to upper Glidden Lake.

And once I crossed over a small pass I could see the valley I would be descending into, including Interstate 90 and a small ski resort in the distance.

The endless rows of mountains here are just amazing to see.

Continuing my big 3,000 ft descent on a very nice trail.

I had a couple of enjoyable hours gradually descending down to the Little North Fork valley.

I emerged from the forest at a fish hatchery ! That was surprising, usually trails emerge at trailheads. The last couple of miles were along a paved road, but at least it went by a little town park where I could sit and take a break in the shade.

As I got closer to town, I passed by a huge operation for a mining company, and then a large State DOT maintenance facility with lots of beeping trucks. Finally I was in Mullan.

It was 10:30am, nothing was open yet and my bus didn’t come until 12:30. I killed some time wandering the little town, and when it was 11:00 I went to the only restaurant open in town, the Outlaw Bar and Grill.

Their pork chop burger was pretty good, and I’m surprised at how many places here have tater tots. After an early lunch I got on the bus and went down to Kellogg, which is a bigger town with a grocery store. I was staying at a little Airbnb room, and was pleasantly surprised to see all these stickers on the front door.

I had my own little part of the house, a bedroom, bathroom and TV room. The laundry room and kitchen are shared, the host was very nice and mostly gone all day at work nearby. I walked into town and did some quick resupply shopping and spent a couple hours planning out the next few legs of the trip. I’ll have one town stop in a week and then after that there won’t be any phone signal for a couple weeks…so I have to download everything and figure it out now. There wasn’t much of anything on TV, it seems like it’s mostly reruns during the summer, even Colbert’s late show. I went to bed a little later than usual, with a bunch of fans turned on high, there’s no AC here and it’s pretty warm down in the low elevations.

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.