Thursday June 26 & Friday June 27, 0mi/0km

The train arrived in Salt Lake City, and I took a quick Uber to the airport. Unfortunately, my 7am flight had been canceled due to lack of flight attendants, and I couldn’t wait another 24 hours for the next flight. So with my refund plus my “denied boarding” compensation, I rented a one-way car to Spokane airport.

I was on the road at 6am and had a nice scenic drive thru Northern Utah and Idaho. A quick stop at the Idaho potato museum was warranted, and it was just as quirky as I imagined.

The gift shop had a bunch of ridiculous t-shirts and other junk, and the cafe had potato-based cupcakes and ice cream which were interesting.

From there, I drove all day through Idaho, into Montana, and I stopped at the Costco in Missoula to pick up some bear spray.

The northern few hundred miles of this trail are in grizzly territory, so I will be hiking with the appropriate gear. I bought a fuel canister at REI, and then hit the road, heading west towards Spokane. I ended up camping at a nice free little camping area behind the 50,000 silver dollar Cafe. Breakfast there the next morning was typical greasy diner food which definitely hit the spot.

After a couple more hours of driving, I dropped off the rental car at the Spokane airport, grabbed some lunch, and then got on a local community shuttle bus from Spokane to Newport. I did some resupply shopping at the Safeway in Newport, checked into my motel, and then grabbed some dinner at a local pizza place. Pizza in the rural West is never that great, I’m always comparing to New York Pizza which is hard to beat. Tomorrow morning, I’m meeting a local guy I had connected with, who offered to give me a ride to the Northern Terminus, which is like a 3-hour drive, much of it on slow dirt roads. That’s amazingly generous of his time. I’m pretty excited for the Hot Springs Trail in Idaho, which mostly coincides with the Idaho Centennial Trail. I’m actually using the guidebook for the ICT, since it’s more comprehensive and also newer and more up to date.

Wednesday June 25, 3.6mi/5.8km

Lamoille Canyon (1082.3/6410ft) to Lamoille (1085.9/5890ft) (NV)

I slept in later, since I only had an hour to hike and nothing in town was open until 8am. It was a pretty quick roadwalk on a warm sunny morning.

There’s only two restaurants in town and only one of them is open for breakfast. The cafe is a rustic little place.

It was actually a pretty good breakfast and I love any place that has rye toast.

I hung out at the cafe until almost 10am, since that’s when the post office opened. I went next door and got a couple of packages, my new insoles and also a food box.

The third box was not there however, and when we checked the tracking number it apparently had been misdelivered to the location in Elko. So my new darn tough socks were at the PO in Elko. A guy in line behind me overheard my dilemma, and offered to drive me into town, about 30 minutes away. Amazing. I was planning on heading into Elko anyway since that’s where the Amtrak train is, and now I didn’t have to hitch. He dropped me off directly at the Elko post office, I got my socks, and then walked the downtown area.

The first time I was in Elko it felt a little sprawled and crappy, but this time I was in the downtown area, which is actually pretty nice. Lots of artwork everywhere.

Many people I talked to had recommended the Star restaurant, so I went there and was amazed by the quantity of food.

Basque food is quite delicious!

My change of plans was to continue my hike in a different direction. I was basically finished hiking Nevada, and if I continued hiking North through Idaho, I would probably hit wildfire season in the most remote forests of the state. So I decided to hike Idaho in the southbound direction, which means I’m taking various means of transit to go from Elko, Nevada to the Canadian border of Idaho. I’ll hike all of Idaho southbound and then reconnect to my steps here in Elko, probably by late August. After dinner, I walked a mile across town to the Amtrak station.

The train arrived at 9 pm, and it will take me to Salt Lake City at 4am, where I will then catch a flight to Spokane WA, and then a bus and a ride to Idaho.

Goodbye for now Nevada, I’ll be back.

Tuesday June 24, 19.6mi/31.5km

North Furlong Creek (1062.7/9900ft) to Lamoille Canyon (1082.3/6410ft) (NV)

It was cold camping at almost 10,000 ft, and I woke up a little later to let the sun warm the valley. Llama and I seemed to be on the same schedule, as we finished packing up our tents at the same time.

It was an easy little hike out of that valley.

After an easy climb to a low pass we dropped into the Favre Lake basin.

The trail didn’t really get near that lake, but fortunately it went directly near Liberty Lake, where we took a long snack break.

From there we said our goodbyes, as our routes would split as I would continue North and he circled back to his car. I started to climb above the lake, I loved watching the morning light reflect off the surface.

Climbing up to Liberty Pass.

From high on the pass, the lake looked like a postcard.

And of course there were snowfields up on the pass.

Goodbye, wilderness of lakes.

Pretty soon I passed by the wilderness sign, which meant I had officially exited the Ruby Mountains wilderness.

From the top of the pass, I could see ahead down into the Lamoille Canyon.

At this point I was only a couple of miles from a popular trailhead so the trail quality improved noticeably.

And I had one more alpine lake to explore, Lamoille Lake.

Despite all the snow, I saw a couple people trying to fish in it.

As approached Lamoille Canyon, the snow started to disappear and everything became green again.

There were still a few large patches of snow, and many of the dayhikers were struggling to understand how to walk on summer snow.

I wasn’t using my hiking poles so I helped them out and gave two of them each a hiking pole for balance. I chatted with the family for a mile, turns out they are from Mocksville NC, and the Seats family have lived there for many decades. Pretty soon after that I arrived at the trailhead parking area, said goodbye to my new acquaintances, and then continued on the roadwalk.

It was a very easy gradual downhill hike, and despite my late start this morning and many long breaks I had covered 20 miles by 5 pm. I couldn’t continue further as I would be entering private property, so I camped at the last possible minute next to the Lamoille Creek. Tomorrow I will have only 3 miles to get to the little town of Lamoille, where I will pick up a few boxes from the post office.

Monday June 23, 24.7mi/39.8km

McCutcheon Creek (1038.0/8750ft) to North Furlong Creek (1062.7/9900ft) (NV)

I started off the day with a little more hiking in the aspen forest, everything has been so green lately, I’ve forgotten I’m hiking in a desert.

After climbing a little higher I get above the forest and get some views!

The trail goes up and down over a series of hills and every time it enters a drainage it gets a little overgrown. Fortunately there were cairns to mark the way.

Even a few stream crossings.

In many ways, the Ruby Mountains feel like a smaller version of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

There were so many little creek crossings and water sources, I never had to carry water for more than a couple of miles.

After climbing up out of the drainages, I was back on top of the ridgeline where it was nice and sunny.

I enjoyed a nice lunch up there and figured I’d have an easy afternoon. But after rounding your corner, I saw that there were still many lingering cornices and snowfields on the North- and east-facing slopes.

The snow was quite soft, so it was easy to kick little steps. Definitely not steep enough to be dangerous, it was just energy intensive.

I crossed over a pass and then had an absolutely ridiculous view down to these two Alpine lakes, the Overland Lakes.

The upper lake was mostly thawed and was tempting for a swim.

And given how far I was from a trailhead, the trail was surprisingly well maintained up here.

I went down to the lakeshore to get a better photo and dip my feet in the water. It was definitely refreshing.

After carefully getting down some more snow slopes I was at the lower Overland Lake.

It was a very peaceful little lake. I didn’t hear any animal sounds, and even the scattered campsites were deserted.

Yep, it definitely feels like hiking through the Sierras.

At the outlet end of the lake was this mysterious little abandoned cabin.

Also at the outlet end of the lake, much to my surprise, was another backpacker. I haven’t seen another hiker on this trail since California, which was about 500 miles ago. I met “Llama”, who was up for a weekend backpacking trip. Even more coincidentally, he’s one of the very few people who’ve actually thru-hiked the Hot Springs Trail before. Amazing. I had a fun afternoon hiking and chatting with him!

I mostly forgot to take photos that I was excited to be chatting with another human, but it did capture a few. Like this mysterious object next to the trail.

We did have to surmount a few more small cornices, though most of them we were able to easily go around.

I believe this was near the summit of Wines Peak, over 10,000 ft.

Neither of us wanted to camp up on a high ridgeline, so I hiked a little later than I normally would. We watched the sunset as we descended into a little valley to camp.

We made it down to North Furlong Creek just after sunset and set up camp near each other. I haven’t camped with anybody yet on this entire trail! We took pre-dinner selfie before retiring to our respective tents.

Fun day!

Sunday June 22, 8.0mi/12.9km

Harrison Pass (1030.0/7250ft) to McCutcheon Creek (1038.0/8750ft) (NV)

I got pretty lucky for picking a random hotel, the Holiday motel was pretty decent for $79 and even had free laundry. In the morning I went down to the Maverick and got a couple breakfast burritos, then after doing laundry and shower I packed up and went to lunch at the only place nearby, Dairy Queen. After lunch I started hitching back to trail which I knew would be a tough hitch. I started hitching at noon and took a couple hours to get the first ride which got me 5 miles out to Spring Creek. From that crossroads I waited another hour to get my second ride down a rural road, to the tiny hamlet of Jiggs, which is basically just a bar and community Center.

The driver Jay was really nice and agreed to drive me all the way down to Jiggs when I offered to buy us a round of drinks at the bar. He’s a local but hadn’t been there in years and thought it would be nostalgic. I let him order for both of us, and I was surprised and a little frightened that he ordered us shots of Fireball. But a deal is a deal. After washing the taste out of my mouth with a Coors beer, I stood out front and started hitching for my third and final ride to the trail at Harrison pass. Within 5 minutes a guy working at the silver mine picked me up, and Franklin said he could drive me halfway there before his road split off. But after being my usual friendly self for 5 minutes, he agreed that he could drive me all the way to the pass since he had some extra time. It was 5pm and I was back on trail!

The hike started off easy enough on an old 4wd road, with some cool rock formations to look at along the way.

After a couple miles the old road ended, and I was at the official trailhead for the Ruby Crest Trail.

This seemed like the most useless sign I’ve ever seen, since there was no junction nearby. Yup, it’s a trail!

The weather has been a little chilly the last few days and once I rounded the mountain I was in the wind again. But I could see for miles!

The old road got more and more overgrown, and it felt more like a hiking trail.

I love these little Aspen forests.

The Ruby Crest Trail is a National Recreation Trail, but some of the signs looked like they could use some maintenance or replacing.

Great views to the Northwest all the way back to Elko, where I had come from.

Once I rounded to the north side of the mountain, the vegetation changed and became almost all aspen forest.

Since I got a late start hiking, I only covered about 8 miles before ending my day at McCutcheon Creek.

It was a beautiful spot, and there was even plenty of running water nearby to fill my bottles. And falling asleep to the sound of a creek is always a wonderful end to the day.

Saturday June 21, 15.7mi/25.3km

Mitchell Creek saddle (1014.3/8570ft) to Harrison Pass (1030.0/7250ft) (NV)

This was my little patch of dirt camp spot, which was somewhat protected from wind by the trees. But it was still the windiest night of camping I think I’ve ever had.

Of course I didn’t sleep that well, so I was thankful to have some more easy old roads to hike this morning.

It was a quick thousand-ft climb up and over a pass.

And back down the other side, where there were still little patches of snow!

So far it was a pretty easy ridge walk, and quite scenic as well.

Just cruising along the ridgetops, there wasn’t even any wind!

Looking down into the valley, at the Ruby Lakes.

Eventually the old road ended and things got a little rockier. And slower. Looking ahead to Pearl Peak, my high point for the day:

On the Summit of Pearl Peak it started to become quite windy and the clouds were moving in. I could see ahead to the next two bumps on the ridge, the last of which was named Red Cone.

As I made my way down to Red Cone, the wind really started to increase. I hurried my way across the Ridgeline and pretty soon I was standing in front of Red Cone.

The rocks seemed to be red from some type of lichen that was growing on them. I hurried up and over, as it was becoming increasingly cold and windy.

The ridgeline was pretty rocky but I was making good time, motivated by an incoming storm.

Way below me to the West, I spotted a little alpine lake! So cool.

This was one of the last photos I took as my hands were starting to get pretty cold. It shows the storm moving in, and the amazing ridgeline I was descending.

Once I finished traversing the ridge I had to descend steeply, I opted for the scree express route.

The guidebook map shows a route going straight down the center of the ridge, but that was just a series of impossible looking 20-ft cliffs. So, no thanks! Besides, scree-surfing is fun! After losing a thousand feet of elevation in 5 minutes, I noticed the storm was getting pretty close.

For the next hour I was moving at full speed, descending and moving into the relative safety of a valley.

It was certainly much less windy, but now it was snowing on me. It was a beautiful valley, though the wildflowers didn’t seem to appreciate the snow either.

I just kept moving, which was a great way to stay warm since it was now 35ºF and lightly snowing. I made it all the way to the dirt road at Harrison pass, while trying to think of a plan of what to do. There were no trees nearby to block the wind, and since it’s a pass, all the wind gets funneled through the area. It was 4:30pm, so I didn’t have a lot of time to make it much further today. I decided to try and hitch to town. It was a long shot since it’s a very remote road, and in 1 hour I only saw 2 cars. They both stopped to chat with me, the first car was going the wrong direction. The second car picked me up and took me to Elko, where the two ladies were heading to see a rodeo tonight. It was a long drive, and an hour later I was in town in a warm dry restaurant. Spicy food is the best when you’re cold!

Downtown Elko is fairly compact, so I was able to walk a couple blocks and get a cheap motel room for the night. I’ll figure out what to do for tomorrow, and how to get back to the trail.

Friday June 20, 23.7mi/38.1km

Jacob’s Well Station (990.6/5960ft) to Mitchell Creek saddle (1014.3/8570ft) (NV)

I had a nice easy morning of hiking across the valley on the Pony Express route.

Apparently this route is also part of the California Trail, used by emigrants in the 1800s. This sign described the Hastings cut-off, which I believe was a shortcut to California.

As I approached Overland pass, I noticed someone had cut down an entire forest of juniper trees.

It was very sad to see but also very curious, since it looked like it was very haphazardly and hurriedly done. Maybe there was a wildfire and this was just a fire break? And this mysterious roadside device got my attention as well. It must have something to do with water but I have no idea what that could be.

At the end of the roadwalk, it was about lunch time so I stopped to enjoy my few remaining snacks. I don’t usually get too excited over peanut butter and crackers, but these ones are actually pretty good.

For most of the afternoon, I climbed slowly up into the Ruby mountains on a series of old roads.

It was easy and enjoyable hiking through some surprisingly scenic meadows.

As I gained elevation I noticed it was starting to become more windy.

And of course, once I was high enough, the trees disappeared and I was exposed to the full force of the wind. I could see ahead to Mt Sherman, one of the first Ruby mountains I would pass by.

Eventually the old roads faded out, and I followed a very nice sheep trail along the ridgeline.

I was very intrigued by the view to the East, I was seeing all this water. I believe these are the Ruby lakes.

A mile later I came to the creators of the nice trail I was using. Sheep!

They didn’t seem too concerned with my presence, and this one even continued to feed.

I continued on the very nice sheep trails as I meandered around the ridgelines, on my way to dry Burro Lake.

More views of the Ruby lakes, way down below.

Around the corner I came across more sheep and an entire hidden alpine valley.

This little patch of dirt is Burro Lake. Yup, it’s definitely dry.

I had a nice long break on a patch of grass next to the lake, sitting near these red and yellow wildflowers growing next to each other.

I had one more small uphill section for the day, as I climbed up a small gully.

It was pretty easy travel with all the sheep trails everywhere, and it wasn’t even too steep. At the top of the pass it was quite windy, and the trees seem to have grown in a way that reflects this.

My short little XC hiking section for the day was quite simple, walking through little tufts of grass and bushes that were ankle high.

I crossed Headwater Creek, and filled up my bottles since this would be the last water source for about 14 miles. The water was very cold!

I hadn’t seen Mormon crickets all day, but there were definitely plenty of piles of dead ones in the creek.

I continued on a flat spot identified on the map as a campsite. It was definitely flat, but it was also very windy.

I continued on another half mile to a thicker forest, hoping it would block some of the wind. And it did help with the wind, but it was so strong that I still couldn’t setup my tent. Definitely one of the windiest days I’ve ever hiked in. After struggling to cook dinner in the wind, I finished my meal and crawled into my bivy sack to sleep.

Thursday June 19, 18.0mi/29.0km

Peak 9023 (973.4/8950ft) to Jacob’s Well Station (990.6/5960ft) (NV) +0.8mi spring

The wind had stopped overnight, and I woke up to find hundreds of mosquitoes waiting for me to exit my mesh fortress.

It’s strange that there’s so many mosquitoes around, there isn’t even any water here. I packed up camp and headed out at 6 am, I still had 10 more difficult miles in the Diamond Range before I would drop down to the valley below.

It was beautiful walking the ridgeline all morning, and often I was able to find some horse trails to link together and make hiking a little easier.

It was amazing seeing little patches of snow. I filled one of my empty bottles with the snow, and stuck it on the sunny side of my pack so I would have water in a few hours.

Looking ahead, I could see the next pass I would go over had another snow patch, but also some creatures moving around nearby.

As I got closer, I was astonished to see that there was a pack of horses walking on the snow!

They didn’t hear me until I was pretty close and then they all scared off and ran up the hillside.

So far the hiking today had been difficult but I was able to keep a steady pace, with the help of all the horse trails. The last 3 miles were exceptionally slow, due to the craggy terrain. My energy bars always have a timely message for me.

Enjoying the last of the horse trails, while surveying the upcoming terrain.

I spent awhile studying the upcoming ridgeline, and after concluding I couldn’t stay on top, I decided to try to hike along the back side.

So I crossed over the top where it was a little rocky…

…and started scrambling the back side where it was definitely rocky.

It took me an hour to go a mile, and it was pretty scrambly with a couple of class 3 sections where I was carefully planning my hand and foot placements. Looking back on the really slow rocky section:

It took me 3 hours to go 3 miles, and the scrambling was kind of fun, but I was relieved to be done with that part. I started dropping down the ridgeline to the pass below.

I bombed down the descent, losing 2,000 ft in just a couple of miles. When I got down to a dirt road, I was surprised to see a little historical sign. Apparently this road used to be part of the Pony Express route. Cool!

By now it was 1pm, and I would have stopped for lunch but I wanted to get to the water source in another mile. It had been 33 slow miles since I had seen flowing water. Corta spring was a little tricky to find, and it was small but I was able to get all my water refilled.

When I first got to the spring area, I thought it was dry. I had to follow the drainage almost a quarter mile upstream to find tiny pools of water. They’re actually located exactly where the USGS maps mark them, so any future hikers should have that map set downloaded. After enjoying a blissful hour of drinking lots of water at the spring, I continued on the Pony Express Road.

Looking ahead, I could see the Ruby Mountains, where I would be for the next few days.

I made it halfway across the valley before stopping to camp. There were plenty of signs reminding me I was on the Pony Express route, which was fun to imagine how that system worked.

The Diamond Mountains were beautiful, but quite difficult and I’m glad I have a few easier days coming up.

Wednesday June 18, 20.7mi/33.3km

Diamond Spring (952.7/8330ft) to Peak 9023 (973.4/8950ft) (NV)

I got an early start at 6am since I wanted to get up to higher elevation before the heat of the day came. I started off with a very steep 4wd road for half a mile, which is a great way to wake up.

Looking back to the South at what I just came up:

And looking ahead, north, to Diamond Peak:

The old road disappeared and for the rest of the day I was hiking XC, usually on horse trails but sometimes just walking straight through the sagebrush. And for most of the day the trail was either going steeply uphill or down, almost never flat.

I loved walking the rocky ridgelines, this one was heading to the summit of Diamond Peak.

After a couple hours I made it to the summit of Diamond Peak!

I signed the trail register and spent awhile looking through it, the entries went all the way back to 2004 which was pretty cool. The view ahead, departing the summit:

The ridgeline departing the summit was the most enjoyable all day, it was pretty flat and relatively rock-free making for easy hiking.

Sometimes the ridgeline would become quite rocky and I would be slowed to a crawl pace.

As the morning progressed it started to get quite warm, and I was glad I was up here at 9,000 ft elevation.

Lunch time was my usual affair of cheese and summer sausage on a tortilla.

After lunch I dropped down a bit in elevation, and the ridgeline started to become a little bit rockier.

I’m not sure, but I think this is a horse skeleton since I had seen a herd of horses earlier today.

When there were horse trails, they were pretty nice, and I was very thankful to have them.

At one point, the guidebook instructs hikers to “save energy” and avoid a 700ft climb, and instead travel around one of the ridgelines, side-hilling for 6 miles. Umm, no thanks. I tried that for a mile and it’s exhausting when there is no trail. To anyone reading who is planning on hiking this, just hike up onto the top of the ridgeline, like I eventually did anyway. And when I was on top of the ridgeline, I found lots of nice horse trails, and also a massive square cairn that somebody had built. It was very strange.

I noticed as I hiked further north in the diamond mountains, the bugs increased. I was surprised at how many mosquitoes would swarm me every time I crossed over to the east side of the ridgeline, where there was no wind. I was even more surprised to see these disgusting bugs make a return, I hadn’t seen them since the Toiyabe mountains.

It was an exhausting day of hiking, and after moving for almost 14 hours, I had only covered 21 miles. It was time to look for a campsite and I was too depleted to continue, so I found an awkward little spot between some boulders, which helped block the wind. I made my dinner while watching the sunset, counting down the minutes until I could fall asleep.

This was probably in top 5 hardest days of hiking, and after finishing my dinner I could barely keep my eyes open and passed out.

Tuesday June 17, 9.8mi/15.8km

Eureka (942.9/6460ft) to Diamond Spring (952.7/8330ft) (NV)

I had a relaxing morning at the motel, first going down to the lobby to enjoy their free breakfast, which had pancakes and fruit and yogurt and even real juice. Then I went back to my room and had a final shower, and then making second breakfast in the little kitchenette room. Totino’s pizza rolls with applesauce and chocolate milk, those are breakfast foods right? I got my new shoes from the hotel manager, corporate policy didn’t allow me to ship them to the motel, but she nicely offered to ship it to her personal address and brought them into work.

There’s quite a difference in the rubber tread!

The previous pair I got in Ojai, which was over 600 trail miles ago. I checked out of the hotel at 11am, walked back down the Main Street to the Owl Cafe for lunch. Most of what they had was hamburgers, but I managed to find a chicken sandwich on the menu. Afterwards I went to the library to update my journal, and do some research on the upcoming Idaho Centennial Trail (in Idaho, the Hot Springs Trail basically follows the ICT). Once I get to the Idaho border, I might flip up to the northern border and then hike southbound through the state, possibly avoiding some hot weather and/or wildfires. I said goodbye to the librarian, who seemed very nice but not very educated, she hadn’t even heard of the upcoming Juneteenth holiday, which I think we’ve been celebrating for 6 years now. On my final walk through town I passed this fascinating vending machine, which sold USB chargers, snacks, and sodas…but warm sodas.

It was an easy walk out of town on a series of dirt roads, and even a really faint two-track road that I had to squint to see. But it was there!

That I was back on a decent two-track road for the rest of the afternoon, gradually climbing up to 8,500 ft elevation.

Once I got above 7,500 ft the trees disappeared as usual.

I arrived to Diamond Spring and confirmed it had water flowing, and then backtracked a minute to a flat-ish spot to camp. I had a pretty good view from my campsite.

I will fill up my 6 liter capacity at the spring in the morning, and then I have a 33 mile dry stretch of trail. And based on reading the journals of previous hikers like Buck30 and Krista/Eric, I knew this upcoming 33 mile stretch over the Diamond mountains would be tough and slow. So I’ll be fine, just a little thirsty by the end.