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!

Friday August 1, 22.2mi/35.7km

Marsh Creek Camp (291.0/6480ft) to Nip and Tuck hilltop (268.8/6450ft) (ID)

Because I got to camp so early yesterday, I actually fell asleep at sunset and got like 10 hours of sleep. It was a quiet little camp spot and it rained a little bit overnight.

Within a half mile I passed the big orange sign that meant I was leaving the Frank Church Wilderness.

The massive Frank Church Wilderness is like 2.3 million acres, and despite its reputation for being difficult, I thought it wasn’t that bad. And definitely easier than the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The rest of the morning was on the same Forest service Road.

I passed by the very upper part of Marsh Creek, it’s tiny up here by the headwaters.

For a mile I hiked a private ranch, with this cool zigzag fence.

About halfway through the morning I got my first look at the Sawtooth mountains!

Even through the morning haze/ mist, they looked pretty impressive and rocky. And there were more little markers today for the Idaho Centennial Trail. It’s kinda funny that I only see them on roads.

Eventually the forest service road ended and I had to hike on a paved highway for about half a mile, which had a little roadside interpretive sign for the Sawtooth National Recreation area.

There is also a Sawtooth Wilderness, which is not the same as the National Recreation area, though they are contiguous. All day was walking on dirt roads, farm tracks, and gravel roads.

Eventually the haze cleared and I got a better view of the Sawtooths.

They really are huge mountains, I can’t wait to get in there and go explore. It was an easy day of hiking, flat and fast, but I was still thankful for the clouds. Much of the hiking was through farm pastures which would be shadeless and hot otherwise.

That’s probably the best portrait that horse will ever have.

There was nothing super special about today, just pleasant scenery and easy hiking.

Just a couple miles before the end of the day, I got my best view of the Sawtooths yet.

As I got closer to the town of Stanley, some of the dirt roads became larger, and they started naming them. The last one was called Nip and Tuck Road, ha! I followed that road for a couple of miles, and just before leaving it, grabbed some water from the nearby creek. Then it was a quick half mile up a small hill to my camp spot overlooking town.

It was a surprisingly scenic camp spot for being only a mile from a town. Tomorrow I’ll get up at my usual 6am and be in town in time for 7am breakfast.

Thursday July 31, 17.2mi/27.7km

Sulphur Creek (308.2/5640ft) to Marsh Creek Camp (291.0/6480ft) (ID)

I didn’t get to sleep until after 10pm so I woke up a little later, and as I was packing up, I noticed a few buildings nearby. I must have camped at the edge of someone’s ranch, oops. I quickly left and continued down the nice trail.

The forest was still all burned but since I wasn’t looking for a camp spot right now I didn’t really care. A couple miles later I arrived to the Boundary Campground area, where there were buildings and Forest rangers and cars and lots of river guides launching their rafts into the river.

It was a hectic place but I poked around to find a forest ranger to report the new forest fire I had seen the night before. He had actually just received reports of it earlier that morning, one of the guide services had messaged their headquarters who called it in. So I went to the nearby pavilion to have a snack and sit on a nice big bench. Leaving the camping area, I noticed I was back in a green forest again.

Pretty soon I crossed the Middle Fork River, just above the famous cataract called Dagger Falls.

The middle Fork of the Salmon River gets about 11,000 people rafting down it every year, all of the trips start just below Dagger Falls, since above it would be unsurvivable. Leaving behind all the development, I was back in the wilderness and hiked along the remainder of the Middle Fork River for the rest of the afternoon.

So much of this area had burned in the last decade, and without any shade it felt pretty hot.

Finally after an hour of hiking, I was back in a green forest again.

The temperatures are actually quite pleasant when there was a forest with some shade. Sometimes the trail was high above the Middle Fork.

And sometimes right next to it on little rocky ledges.

Towards the end of the day, I got to the point where the Middle Fork ended, and split into Marsh Creek and Bear Creek. Marsh Creek was still pretty big, and it didn’t look easily crossable either. The guidebook says in low water, I could cross Marsh Creek to get to a Hot Springs, but the crossing looked questionable. So I continued upstream following Marsh Creek on the trail.

After an hour of hiking along that creek, it dwindled smaller and smaller, which was neat to see. Eventually I crossed it on a little bridge and hiked through my last burned area of the day. This was an old burn area and clearly the trail crews had done a lot of work.

At the very end of the day, I exited the Frank Church Wilderness and arrived at a little trailhead, called the Marsh Creek Transfer camp.

There were a couple little campsites nearby which had picnic tables, and best of all they were free. I setup my tent before the next round of thunderstorms came through. It was still early, just after 5pm, but the next possible camping spot isn’t for another 5 miles, and I was already ahead of schedule after last night’s bonus miles. Now that I’m out of the Wilderness, the hiking should be a little easier tomorrow.

Wednesday July 30, 25.3mi/40.7km

Indian Creek (333.5/4700ft) to Sulphur Creek (308.2/5640ft) (ID)

With a later bedtime I slept in later, enjoying the warm morning by the river. After I ate my breakfast and packed up, the rafting guides offered me some coffee and pastries. Nice people. After breakfast they were all scurrying around to pack everything up and get ready for their clients later that day.

As I was hiking out to leave, I crossed the landing strip again, and noticed another rafting company had dropped off some supplies by plane. They had a cool logo.

The trail along the Middle Fork was pretty nice, a few small hills and heaps of views.

For just over a mile, I walked through a strange private land inholding, called Pistol Creek Ranch.

Of course they had their own airstrip, complete with a funny sign.

It felt awkward and very artificial to have a dozen little cabins, with sprinklers and green grass lawns, owned by people in California in the middle of Idaho. As I exited the property on the other side, I noticed an Idaho Centennial Trail marker. I hadn’t seen one of these before!

Even through the talus fields, the trail was very well constructed.

Much of the forests along the Middle Fork have burned in recent years, but I still enjoyed the views.

In early afternoon I arrived at the Sheepeater Hot Springs, they were quite hot and it took me a few minutes to get used to the water.

I’m excited that the hot springs are back. Northern Idaho didn’t have any at all. As the usual afternoon clouds started to gather, I decided it was time to pack up and continue on. Lots of river views all afternoon.

At one point, I hiked by a random grave site. A little creepy.

And half-mile later, a little shack called The Joe bump cabin.

I don’t think the two artifacts are related, but there’s no signage explaining either one. The usual thunder and lightning storms passed through, and it even rained for 10 minutes. Of course, right after it rained I passed through the only overgrown section of trail the entire day, lots of tall wet grass. Ugh.

And then back up onto the hillside above the river.

At the end of the day, I noticed a little bit of smoke up on the hillside on the opposite side of the river.

There was a bunch of lightning a couple hours ago and that’s probably what started this newest wildfire.

I came to Trail Flat Hot Springs, which is where I intended to camp.

I soaked in the hot springs for a while, watching the wildfire and trying to figure out whether it was safe to camp here or I should continue onwards.

Ultimately, I decided to continue as it was only 6pm and I still had several hours of daylight, and I didn’t know if it was going to be windy tonight. So I climbed back up the hillside onto a nice trail.

I hiked up on a plateau above the river for several miles, through a severely burned forest.

I kept looking for a spot to camp but everything was burned and all the trees looked like they wanted to fall over. It rained again for a few minutes and then a nice rainbow!

I had intended to continue on for only another mile or two past the hot springs, but this entire area was so burned, I ended up hiking into the evening, getting out my headlamp for the first time this hike. It was nice trail so that made night hiking easier but I still didn’t like it. After six extra miles from the hot springs, it became clear that the burned forest wasn’t really ending anytime soon, but I saw a meadow marked on my map, near a landing strip. So I left the trail and hiked directly over, and setup my tent amongst the few live trees bordering the large clearing.

Tuesday July 29, 20.0mi/32.2km

Confluence Marble/Grays Creeks (353.5/5130ft) to Indian Creek Campground (333.5/4700ft) (ID)

I was surprised to wake up with a dry tent, usually when camping next to rivers, everything is covered in dampness. It was a chilly morning and unfortunately the first thing I had to do after packing up was ford the creek. Brrr. With cold wet feet, I slowly inched through the burned forest, looking for signs of the trail.

It must have been a high intensity burn, as many of the stumps had burned all the way down to their roots, and left big holes and hollow spots in the ground.

I found the trail and was able to move a little faster, but weaving around and stepping over burned logs still took me awhile, the first two miles took over an hour. After that the trail got better.

I think I found another historic mining site, a bunch of metal items were in the charred remains of the forest.

As I continued to descend along the creek, the day was finally warming up, and it was pleasant walking along the creek.

There were little pockets of burn areas, I had never seen a tree burn quite like this.

There was a cool little section with a canyon and I descended from high on the hillside down into the gorge.

From that point the trail quality improved noticeably and there were only two more Creek crossings, which were pretty easy. And then the last big descent, which was down to the Marble Creek airstrip.

Just as I started to walk the airstrip I heard a plane overhead, fortunately it wasn’t trying to land, just circling for a view. After a nice lunch under a big shady tree, I continued down the last 3 miles of Marble Creek. This part felt very different since it was out in the full sun with lots of sagebrush.

Felt like being in the desert again, sagebrush and now Ponderosa pines everywhere.

Finally, I arrived at the confluence of Marble Creek and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

It’s a popular river for white water rafting and kayaking, and I saw frequent camps along the river.

I talked to a couple guides and they set these up for their clients just before they get there in the afternoon. I hiked downriver a little ways and enjoyed a swim during the hot afternoon.

Just after I came out of the river and dried off, two hikers arrived and we started chatting. I hadn’t seen other people with backpacks on in many weeks, turns out that Kelly and Michelle are hiking the Idaho Centennial Trail in long 100-mile sections every summer. We are hiking in opposite directions, so we had lots of trail information to exchange. I wished them luck going up Marble Creek, and gave them all of the camping waypoints that I had recorded. The rest of my afternoon was a pleasant walk along the Middle Fork.

Always fun to see kayakers out, this group was pretty excited and loud, shouting at all the rapids.

As usual, the clouds came in late afternoon and threatened to thunderstorm but also kept the valley nice and cool.

I got to the Indian Creek guard station, which is where my resupply package was sent.

Even though the woman told me she was open till 5pm, a handwritten piece of paper on the door said 4pm, so I would have to wait until the next morning to get my box of food. I wandered over to the camping area and setup my tent, and checked out the launch area for the river.

After I made my dinner I went down to the river to refill my water bottles, and a group of guides had arrived, getting everything ready for their clients arrival tomorrow. They were all super fun and friendly and offered me a cold beverage.

I stayed up a little later than I normally would, it was great to get some real conversation and human interaction. A bunch of them joked that they wanted to see if they could turn a hiker into a river rafter, and they kept offering me food and beer, “see how nice this is?” Haha. So we did all the usual river guide things, and then finally around 9:30 I went to bed.

Monday July 28, 21.9mi/35.2km

Lookout Mountain ridge (374.9/8090ft) to Confluence Marble/Grays Creeks (353.5/5130ft) (ID) +0.5mi missing junction

I love camping on ridgetops, the air is dry and breezy and the sunrise hits you early. The view to the east, The Frank Church Wilderness is massive.

I finished the short climb up to Lookout Mountain, which the trail doesn’t actually go to the summit. But great views in all directions nonetheless.

I know that’s wildfire smoke down in those valleys, but it makes a really cool photo nonetheless.

I had a couple hours of forested ridgeline walking, after I left Lookout Mountain there really weren’t any more views.

Again, I was impressed with how nice the trail was, until all of a sudden it wasn’t. The last half mile before leaving the ridge was full of blowdowns, I probably went over at least 50. And worst of all, the junction with the trail that descends off the ridge was nowhere to be found. Of course by now I’ve learned that in Idaho, maps are only suggestions and the junction is anywhere within a quarter mile of where it should be. So I searched a quarter mile further ahead on the trail, which took over 10 minutes with all the blowdowns. Fortunately I found the junction, which wasn’t signed, but there was a piece of faded orange flagging tape on the ground, and on the hillside far below I could see a cut log, signifying a trail. Eesh. At least that trail quickly improved, as it left the burn zone, and then astonishingly transitioned into an old road.

The view down into the Marble Creek Valley where I would be hiking the rest of the day.

The old road was for a mining operation that is now defunct and predates the Frank Church Wilderness.

After just sending a thousand feet into the valley, I was back on a regular trail, which went right by these old mining ruins.

The guidebook warns of dozens and dozens of stream crossings, but the upper part of the valley was mostly nice trail.

And it generally stayed a little ways above the valley bottom where all the swamps and bugs were.

I’m always impressed by the amount of work trail crews do to build a trail, especially through a talus field.

Most of the afternoon I cruised on a very gradual downhill, enjoying the sights and the little canyons that the creek would pass through.

Then later in the afternoon the frequent creek crossings started, it’s a shallow creek and only 12 ft. wide but every half mile you’re getting your feet wet.

When the trail wasn’t crossing and re-crossing the creek, it was up on the hillside, which is where I ran into this creature.

Bears! There were two bears on the trail, and for a moment none of us could decide what to do, since the trail was built into a steep hillside, going downhill was not an option. They scurried up the steep rocky slope, one of them started climbing the tree. The trail passed uncomfortably close to their tree, but I couldn’t leave the trail, so I just did a lot of loud talking as I walked slowly by. Bye new friends! After that ursine excitement, I entered a burn zone.

Which was a bit of a bummer since it was nearing time to look for a campsite, but everything looked blackened or dead or like it wanted to fall and crush me.

The burn zone didn’t look like it was going to end anytime soon, and after checking my Caltopo info, that was confirmed. So in one of my more clever moments, I found a spot safe from trees, alive or dead. Trees don’t grow on gravel bars!

I set up my tent on a gravel bar in the middle of Marble Creek, well away from any dead trees. It was basically like setting up camp in a wash, one of my favorite desert campsites.

Sunday July 27, 22.6mi/36.4km

WF Crooked Creek (401.3/5830ft) to Lookout Mountain ridge (374.9/8090ft) (ID) +1.6mi missed turn, -5.4mi main route

This was a hard day, lots of elevation gain, along with some bonus elevation that was partially my doing, with the help of some missing trail signage. I finished off the last mile along Crooked Creek, and then had a quick 600-ft climb up to a pass, to drop into the drainage for Coxey Creek. The pass had a nice view.

And I’m still surprised at how good most of the trails are out here in the Frank Church Wilderness.

While the trails are pretty good, the signage and mapping is decidedly poor. There was a trail junction which was not shown on any of my maps, and there was no sign at the junction, so I continued unaware on the good trail, until it started climbing more and more. Sometimes trails side-hill above a valley, but after it climbed 400 ft. and had a switchback, I decided that was very wrong and retraced my steps. I eventually found the correct trail back in the valley bottom, which had a less prominent trail tread and had turned off abruptly. Looking ahead to Big Creek Ridge which I would be climbing soon:

I followed Big Creek for a couple of miles, it was another well-maintained trail and I enjoyed the views of the water.

The creek was very quiet, but judging by this massive pile of logs, it’s deceptively powerful.

I had to ford the creek, which was about 60 ft wide at the crossing point. It wasn’t difficult, and it was just under knee deep, but the force of the moving water was still surprising.

Safely across the creek, I attempted to dry out my socks and shoes while having lunch under a shady pine. After lunch was the big big 3,800-ft climb.

I left the river at elevation 4300 ft, and hours later topped out on the ridge at 8100 ft. Overall it was very nice trail and I only lost it once in a boggy meadow. The top had good views mostly because all the trees had been burned away.

The usual afternoon clouds moved in and kept things nice and cool.

And it seems the new normal weather pattern is for thunderstorms to start forming around 3pm.

I spent a couple hours traversing the ridge, enjoying a surprisingly good trail given all the standing dead trees around.

At one point I even hiked briefly through a live forest.

After traversing the ridge for a few hours, I felt like I was getting pretty tired after each little up and down. And I checked my watch and noticed I had hiked almost 6,000 vertical feet today, mostly from the big climb, plus the two smaller ones this morning and then the ridgeline with its up/downs. So I stopped early and set up my tent at a nice flat spot on the ridge just north of Lookout Mountain.

I made dinner and relaxed for a couple hours reading my book and watching the sunset.

Saturday July 26, 26.7mi/43.0km

Stonebraker Ranch (428.0/5610ft) to WF Crooked Creek (401.3/5830ft) (ID)

Camping at the ranch was convenient, but the resident deer kept coming by the night and loudly munching grass near my tent. They let me charge my powerbank overnight so I went into one of the cabins to grab it, it was so cozy inside.

For most of the day the trail was immaculately maintained and I was again pleasantly surprised.

A mile later I came to the Chamberlain airstrip, which was a confusing mess of trails, buildings and a couple of airstrips.

It was pretty cool though to see a woman just hanging out at her campsite making breakfast having arrived in her plane.

There are lots of airstrips scattered around the Frank Church Wilderness, having been grandfathered in before the Wilderness was created. This is one of the larger ones, it has two airstrips and each is about 2,500 ft long.

Much of the rest of the day was hiking on surprisingly nice trails through burned areas.

And the wind must have shifted today because the smoke from the Big Bear fire has traveled over this direction.

There wasn’t much distant scenery today, just dense pine forests or burn areas.

The one viewpoint I got was from the top of Moose Point looking down into Moose meadow.

I had an early lunch on top of Moose point, enjoying the breeze which kept the flies away but also brought the wildfire smoke. I descended into Moose Meadow and topped off my water, since I would be on a dry ridge most of the afternoon. I was reminded how increasingly dry Idaho was becoming as I hike South, since I saw sagebrush for the first time since leaving Nevada. Weird.

Even when hiking through these massive dead forests, pretty much all the blowdown had been cut away. Impressive.

The ridge tops actually had some decent views since their trees were all burned away, but I felt a little exposed when there was a thunderstorm coming.

The contrast of this photo is simply stunning, young and old trees.

Yep, a storm is definitely coming, time to get off the ridge.

I was three switchbacks down off the ridge, and the thunderstorm swooped over, dumping rain for about 20 minutes. Good timing, and the umbrella saved the day. I continued down a drainage for Sliver Creek, which eventually became Crooked Creek, looking for a campsite. For much of its length, the trail was benched into the hillside or directly in the swampy bottom, but after an hour I found a flat and dry spot to camp, amongst trees that were not dead. Some days it’s hard to align all those circles of the Venn diagram. It was like 3 more miles than I had planned to hike, but at least it was easy downhill hiking.

Friday July 25, 22.6mi/36.4km

Campbell’s Ferry Bridge (450.6/2410ft) to Stonebraker Ranch (428.0/5610ft) (ID)

Yesterday a rafting guide told me that once I crossed the Salmon River, I will officially be in the mountain Time zone, so I changed my watch and phone to match. I never set my alarm but this morning it’s set for 5:30 am, so I can be hiking up the big 4500-ft climb before it gets hot. Across the Campbells Ferry bridge again, I walked through their property and then started the big climb on a very nicely graded trail.

I put on some music as I hiked beautifully maintained and nicely graded trail, it almost felt like hiking the PCT.

There aren’t many trees in the lower half, but I’m in the shade from the hillside, it’s the perfect temperature to be hiking, about 60°F.

Several hours later as I was in the top half of the climb, I noticed the wind had shifted and brought in the wildfire smoke, from the Big Bear fire 20 miles away.

An hour later the smoke had mostly cleared out, but I could see down in the Salmon River canyon it was still lingering.

It took me almost all morning, but after 10 miles I had climbed 4,000 ft. That’s not a complaint as climbing 4,000 ft should take 10 miles, anything much shorter and the trail would be awkwardly steep. Once I was on top of the ridge, I was in a nice shady forest.

Lunch was a splendid affair, since I was now freshly resupplied with my food from Campbells Ferry (thanks Nathan!) and I gorged cheese and tortillas and chocolate and wonderful things.

All day the trail had been wonderfully maintained and I noticed in this section there were many very freshly cut blowdowns.

Just chill hiking all afternoon.

I followed the West Fork Chamberlain Creek the rest of the afternoon.

Much of that valley had been burned years ago with spooky standing dead trees, certainly no place to camp here.

I decided to hike until I got to Stonebraker Ranch, a little property owned by Idaho Fish and Game.

When I got there at 6:30, I met the caretakers who were relaxing on the front porch, Beth & Dave. They were super nice and offered me a cold lemonade right away.

We had a nice evening, just sitting on the front porch and chatting, watching the clouds and talking about the history of this place.

Apparently Friday evening is their leftovers night, so I was offered a huge portion of macaroni salad along with something they called deconstructed egg rolls.

It was a ton of food and for the first time in a couple weeks I actually felt full. Lately I’ve been so hungry that my dinners just make it so I’m not hungry anymore. Life is good.

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.