Monday July 7, 27.6mi/44.4km

Ulm Peak (812.2/6320ft) to Dixie Pass (784.6/5520ft) (ID/MT)

I slept in a little bit, but as soon as the sun came over the ridge, it got really hot inside the tent. At 7:30 I continued down the rocky road, soaking in the morning views.

After only a little bit of climbing, the road was blocked by snow.

It was easy to go around but a little surprising there’s still snow here at 6,000 ft. At the top of the climb, the road ended at some sort of radio communications tower.

It seemed like a perfect spot for a snack. From there I continued on the Stateline Trail, which was surprisingly easy to follow.

I only lost the trail once, when it became faint amongst the rocks on the alpine traverse. But it was easy hiking so I didn’t really care.

For most of yesterday and all of today, I’ve been hiking along the Idaho -Montana border. I had forgotten that they mark it with these little metal posts.

Those posts were all along the CDT as well, I remember. Once the rocky section ended, I easily found the trail again.

The stumps on this trail are so friendly!

I had been hiking in a little burn section, it was nice to get back into the shade of a green forest.

Even up here at almost 6,000 feet it was kind of warm, probably 70°F. After a short descent to Porcupine Pass, I was on a dirt road again for a while.

I like the variety of this route, it keeps switching between trail and road and I think that’s more interesting. I hadn’t seen liquid water since yesterday, so I was very happy to find this little roadside spring in the willow bushes.

The willows seemed to be very happy in their environment here, growing right up to the edge of the road.

After descending to Taylor saddle, I had to climb 900 ft all the way back up to the ridgeline, which meant this was another great spot for some snacks, and to cool off in the breeze.

It was a little creepy that somebody had decided to put a grave here, and kind of selfish too since this is public land. People are weird.

After summoning little Bloom Peak, I had a steep descent down to a road.

It started off fine but the final descent was steep on some loose gravel, one of my least favorite trail surfaces. For the rest of the afternoon I was mostly on trail, which hit these intermittent talus spots.

I actually don’t mind this type of talus, since the trail is so well built. They have stabilized the talus and put some flat rocks down so it’s easier to walk on. Aside from the talus, it was mostly pretty nice trail.

A couple times it disappeared under some lingering snowbanks. That was surprising.

As I crossed the final talus fields, I was excited to re-enter the forest. This forest was exceptionally green.

I was excited to get to camp, but unfortunately as soon as I got to the saddle where I had planned to camp, the green forest transitioned to a severely burned one. Darn. So I had to hike another mile and a half to the next saddle, which was near a dirt road. My day was a little longer than I had planned but I was still at camp by 7:30, and had a nice evening watching the sunset while I made dinner.

Sunday July 6, 21.1mi/34.0km

Dry Creek Canyon (833.3/2990ft) to Ulm Peak (812.2/6320ft) (ID)

I was awake at 6:30, and we had planned to leave at 7:30, but I think we’re a chatty bunch and we ended up leaving after 8am. After a 30-minute drive back to Clark Fork, I made a quick stop in the convenience store to get a milkshake.

I was also surprised to see Montucky beer, but I guess we’re pretty close to Montana so it makes sense. It was too early for beer though.

The other two hikers on the hot springs trail, Krista and Eric, had been weeks ahead of me. But since I had flipped up to the Canadian border to hike the trail southbound, I was bound to cross paths with them at some point. And that was today, in the little town of Clark Fork ID.

It was a super fun little reunion over breakfast, we exchanged some quick trail beta, they’re only a few days away from finishing Idaho. I was itching to make some miles today so we said our goodbyes and got a final photo.

It’s kind of amazing that for a trail that almost no one seems to hike, we were able to gather together 100% of the hikers on the Hot Springs Trail together at the same time this year (all three of us!). Matt was very kind and generous with his time and dropped me off back at the spot I had left off from yesterday, about 10 miles out of town. The rest of today was an easy roadwalking day.

Up at the higher elevations, I saw groups of people pulled over standing around in the bushes, and I noticed the huckleberries were getting ripe.

I definitely ate fresh berries and walked most of the afternoon, it was a delicious section of trail. It looked like the Indian paintbrush was out in full bloom as well.

As I got further down the dirt road, I could tell it was less traveled and got narrower and rougher but was still quite pleasant to hike.

The views from this ridgeline weren’t quite as spectacular as a couple days ago, but it was neat to see the endless ridges of mountains in the distance.

I arrived at the Idaho/Montana State line, which the trail will be following for the next few days.

It was a very relaxing afternoon as I followed the relatively flat road along the ridge, constantly weaving between the two states. Camp spots were becoming a little more scarce, but I finally found one at 7 pm.

Just as I had finished setting up camp, a couple rides by on an ATV, and their very friendly golden retriever.

We chatted for a while about what each of us are doing out here, they’re actually pretty fun to talk to and have plans to travel the length of Idaho as well, but on dirtbikes instead of on foot. They offer me some water which is a nice top-off of my dwindling supply, as this ridge is quite dry. It gets quite chilly up here at 6,000 ft, and it feels nice to crawl into my warm tent.

Saturday July 5, 1.5mi/2.4km

Dry Creek Canyon (834.8/2630ft) to Dry Creek Canyon (833.3/2990ft) (ID)

Matt and Justine had planned to come and pick me up at 6:30, as I packed up my wet tent after the good rainstorm last night, I noticed a big dry square where it had been. Funny!

They were a little delayed in arriving, and since I was already packed up, I decided to hike to stay warm, as it was still a little rainy and cold. I love seeing the fog in these little forested valleys, reminds me of the Oregon coast.

I covered about a mile, before I heard a vehicle driving up the road, and I knew it was them since nobody else drives this road. We stopped at the bakery in Clark Fork, which had so many amazing looking things.

Usually I would get a cinnamon roll but the Huckleberry danishes looked irresistible. It was a solid half hour drive to Sandpoint, and they gave me a tour of their house, I kept getting distracted by all the cool little pieces of artwork hidden throughout.

And the dog, Red was simply adorable.

We had a fun time discussing all sorts of various topics, mostly involving hiking in different trails, and I could stare at maps for hours.

I have the guidebook for the ICT on my phone, but it’s just easier to read a print book, so I did a little bit of planning too. The day flew by just chatting, and before I knew it it was mid-afternoon, so I went downtown to check out all the little shops and the Main Street.

Sandpoint even has a legit outdoor store!

And it had several ice cream shops, I found the one with all the clever slogans like “Bad to the Cone” and funny ice cream themed artwork.

Justine’s store was fun to visit, I especially loved the sign out front with all the Idaho factoids.

The three of us picked up some takeout Thai food and then went back to the house and had dinner, it was the perfect level of spiciness and I’m sure I won’t be getting Thai food again for a very long time. After more delightful conversation I was ready for bed, it was only 9pm but that’s basically hiker midnight.

Friday July 4, 29.0mi/46.7km

Roundtop Saddle (869.0/5710ft) to Dry Creek Canyon (834.8/2630ft) (ID) -5.2mi shortcut

I slept great in my quiet little camp spot and got moving at 6 am, continuing down the ridgeline trail. I could tell this was a well-built trail, since every time there was a talus field they had thoughtfully made a path through it.

Most of the morning was hiking along open grassy ridge tops with amazing views.

With all the bear grass around, it seemed like prime bear habitat so I made sure to make extra noise.

The view down to Lake Pend Oreille, 4000ft below, was simply stunning.

I was getting to the end of the ridge, it was almost time to start descending down to the valley.

On the initial dissent, I came across a water bottle, it would turn out to be Matt’s, they had hiked this trail just yesterday.

Lake Pend Oreille is huge, so views of it were around every corner.

On the west side of the ridge I could see down to Porcupine Lake, which is another alternate way to get off this ridge and into the valley.

I slowly began descending off the ridge on many switchbacks, somewhere near the bottom I came across a little spring which was cleverly set up into a bucket.

Once I got lower, I was back in the open Forest, with all the mosquitoes.

I hadn’t intended on arriving at the West Spring Creek trailhead, as the original trail had split off a mile back, but I couldn’t find the junction. The new rerouted trail led me here, but it was surrounded by private property with no realistic way to hike into town.

As I ate lunch I studied my maps and all the different mapping layers, and found a segment of public land that would get me almost to a road. Using Google satellite view, I also found some old roads that seem like they would connect me to a modern road. I had no idea if this would actually work but I decided to try it. So I followed some old logging roads, which started out pretty nice.

Even after they degraded they were still quite followable.

The old roads dumped me onto a modern wide gravel road, now surrounded by private property, but I simply followed it down the hill and into town. My detour around private property worked!

Clark Fork was a tiny town, basically only a post office, convenience store, and a couple of cafes.

I got some ice cream at the Clark Fork pantry, which is also an amazing bakery.

That I went across the street to a little bar/ restaurant, it had plenty of dank atmosphere inside, but it was threatening to rain outside so it was better to sit indoors. The food was just mediocre, and usually hiker hunger makes everything taste great. So in real life it’s probably not that good.

By now I had already hiked 21 miles, but there’s nowhere to camp in town, so I had to hike at least 8 miles out to get to public land again. I was delayed by a train.

I’ve actually had to wait for trains three times this week. It’s getting a little ridiculous. For the next couple of hours I had a pleasant hike through farm country.

Crossing the massive Clark Fork River on a separate pedestrian bridge was a nice treat.

Dry Creek was my destination for the night.

Ironically, it would start raining on me as I got closer to Dry Creek. During the roadwalk I was messaging with Justine and Matt, she offered a zero day at their house. I wasn’t certain for when, once it was clear the offer was for tomorrow, and it started raining harder, I accepted and got excited for a zero day tomorrow. I’m camped in a nice little pine forest, just over the National Forest boundary tonight, and they’ll come pick me up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. So generous!

Thursday July 3, 24.9mi/40.1km

Calder Mt (892.9/5410ft) to Roundtop Saddle (869.0/5710ft) (ID) + 1.0mi Roundtop Mt

I had a great night of sleep at my cozy little spot in the ridge. The trail exceeded my expectations today, both in scenery and in ease of hiking. For a such a remote location such as this, it was surprisingly well maintained.

I had great views all day, and enjoyed the fact that the trail went around most of the bumps instead of over them.

Much to my surprise, there was even a large pond way up here near the top of the ridge.

I wasn’t expecting to see water most of the day, so I grabbed another liter. And just around the next bump, there were even a few little remaining snowfields.

Mt Pend Oreille, My highpoint for the day, was gradually getting closer.

When I passed through a saddle, the trail would be directly on top of the ridge, and it was amazing to have a view to both sides.

Once I got to the shoulder of Mt Pend Oreille, The trail contoured around the summit, so I made my own XC route directly up to the summit.

It was actually pretty easy, I just had to skirt those little snowfields. It was quite windy on the summit, but I still lingered to enjoy the 360° view.

I think that’s Lake Darling down in the distance. The view back over the summit ridge, to the west:

I poked around and even found a little benchmark to identify the summit spot.

I retreated from the summit, and quickly was back down on the main trail, and out of the wind.

It was just such a nice trail all morning. I could enjoy the views all around me without having to stare at my feet watching for rocks.

Around noon, I came to a little summit called Lunch Peak, which seemed way too convenient. So I stopped and had lunch at its little fire tower lookout.

The main part of the fire tower was locked (but it can be reserved for overnight use!), but could still get pretty epic views from the balcony all around it. Looking North to where I would be hiking all afternoon:

After lunch I had an hour of easy roadwalking, to connect to the next ridgeline trail. This trail passed through a burn area for a couple miles, always sad to see such a high intensity fire.

After an hour in the burn zone, the forest started to return.

It was just such a pleasant afternoon of hiking, there weren’t even any bugs up here. As I gradually climbed along the ridge I started to get views of Lake Pend Oreille.

While I was having a snack in a talus field, I was being chirped at by this little critter.

I took a quick side trip to the summit of Roundtop mountain, which for some reason had a little underground shelter on the summit.

I found that a little creepy but I lingered on top for awhile admiring the views of the lake Pend Oreille, far below.

Since I had a phone signal, I updated my maps and a few other things, and then continued another mile to camp in a saddle just past the mountain.

Wednesday July 2, 22.0mi/35.4km

Round Mt State Forest (914.9/2250ft) to Calder Mt (892.9/5410ft) (ID)

I left camp at 6:15 aiming to be at the General store at 7am when they opened. I was a little delayed, however.

The General store is also the post office, the coffee shop, and the ice cream shop. I decided to get a creamsicle flavor in a large cone.

The store’s employee was super friendly, and she correctly guessed that I was hiking the Idaho Centennial Trail. She let me charge my phone while I sat at the table in the mailroom area, while I ate my breakfast of microwave burrito, ice cream, and delicious grapefruit juice. I bought food and snacks for a couple more days, though I could have done a full resupply here, it was a pretty well stocked store. I finally hiked out just before 9am, and had a couple hours of uphill roadwalking.

This was a strange sight. Not only did somebody paint an entire boulder, they must have used a bulldozer to lift it up onto the stump. Why?!

As I continued further and further uphill, the dirt road gradually diminished, until eventually it was just a single track trail.

I wasn’t sure what type of trail I was expecting to find, given that it’s not shown on any of the maps that I have. But it was surprisingly nice, sometimes it went through meadows.

And sometimes through dense forest.

Every time the trail went through a formerly wet area, I saw tons of large hoofprints in the dried mud. I couldn’t tell if they were from elk or moose. But I could see this being prime Moose habitat.

By mid-afternoon I had finished the climb up to Kelly pass, and now it was time to descend a little bit to Boulder Creek. I was pretty confused when the trail junction was not where it was supposed to be, I spent 20 minutes searching before I figured out they had moved it a quarter-mile uphill. It was newly constructed trail so that was nice, probably only four or 5 years old. Unfortunately, about half a mile was covered in many fallen trees.

It took me 30 minutes to cover that half mile where the forest decided to be horizontal, ugh. But once that cleared up, the trail went back to being perfectly nice again. It even had wooden bridges over the wet sections!

I don’t know the name of this big leafy plant but it makes a cool noise when you hike through it.

I stopped for a break at a campsite near Rummy Creek, and it had the most interesting picnic table I’ve ever seen.

The day was getting late, and I had lost some time throughout the day, looking for misplaced trail junctions, so I was happy to see the next trail junction was exactly where it was supposed to be.

The hike along Boulder Creek was easy as the trail followed an old two-track road. I filled up on water before leaving Boulder Creek for the final time, as I knew I would be up on a ridge walk most of the day tomorrow. I filtered water as fast as I could since the hordes of mosquitoes were extremely friendly. I happily hiked away from that creek, and after about 5 minutes, the mosquitoes disappeared completely. I had an easy climb up to the ridge on a nice trail, and I almost missed the trail junction in the meadow, since the sign was on the ground.

The day was getting late so I decided this was my camp spot.

It’s a beautiful spot on the ridgeline, hopefully it doesn’t get too windy since I’m a little exposed in the meadow.

Tuesday July 1, 28.5mi/45.9km

Fault Lake (943.4/6080ft) to Round Mt State Forest (914.9/2250ft) (ID)

Fault Lake was an amazing campsite, and I woke up when the sun hit my tent at 5:15. There was a pretty nice descent trail, it started off in an Alpine meadow.

It was easy to follow, even on the big slabs of rock, where there were plentiful cairns.

The morning light in the mountains just feels so cheerful.

I crossed this little stream, which slid down big granite slabs.

After the stream, the trail became an old two-track road, and despite being a little brushy was remarkably easy to follow.

After a couple hours I was at the trailhead, where I refilled my water from the stream. Sometimes the guidebook is less than clear on how far the next water is. There is a little shortcut to connect two dirt roads, which involved a decommissioned road. It repeated the theme of being easy to follow, but a little brushy.

At one point it was carpeted in thousands of these little white flowers.

After a little creative routefinding, I made it down to the main dirt road. From here I decided to hike up and over the next mountain range. The official route is a long road walk, down to the town of Samuels, and involves much paved roadwalking. Fortunately the guidebook has an alternate that completely avoids this and goes directly up and over the next mountain range, using forestry and logging roads. I had a nice break in the shade, under a bridge over the Pack River.

The rest of the day was hiking on disused dirt roads. I progress gradually uphill for a couple hours.

At the top of the climb there was a nice little riparian pond area, where I had lunch.

The forestry roads traversed along the forested ridgeline, it was a hot day and I appreciated being in the shade almost the entire day.

I descended the other side of the mountain range, where the roads entered some active logging areas. It was fascinating seeing such a large operation being operated by just a few pieces of equipment and two people.

Looking back to the ridge I had just hiked over, which is called Roman nose.

At some points, the forest was perfectly intact on one side of the road and completely clear-cut on the other.

On the final part of the descent I could see into the valley, which I would be traversing tomorrow to the small town of Naples.

I hiked about a mile of the valley, which had quite a few little farms. There were animals everywhere, including turkeys and goats.

I made it to a little square of state-owned land, where I could legally camp. At this low elevation it was pretty warm, and while I considered cowboy camping, the hordes of mosquitoes quickly put an end to that thought. I rapidly set up my tent in the forest, and ducked inside to hide away from all the flying vampires.

It was a pretty easy day, even considering all the mileage.

Monday June 30, 15.3mi/24.6km

Priest Lake State Park (958.7/2470ft) to Fault Lake (943.4/6080ft) (ID)

I packed up my camp early, and walked back into the campground before 7am. The store wasn’t open yet so I enjoyed a quick swim, the water wasn’t that cold.

After drying off and warming up under the hand dryers in the bathroom, I walked over to the camp store and picked up a few snacks, as well as some breakfast ice cream.

It’s all homemade ice cream and they have a local flavor called huckleberry cheesecake, so of course that was my selection. After consuming oodles of calories, I left the campground and had a paved roadwalk for an hour. I was relieved to turn onto a dirt logging road.

The road was slowly climbing toward the next mountain range, so after an hour I had a pretty good view back towards Priest Lake.

It was a hot day, but fortunately the roadwalk was mostly in the shade of tall pine trees, and an uneventful 3 hours passed by.

At 3pm I came to the end of the road, and much to my surprise, it immediately ended at a field of talus.

It was quite a shocking transition, going from the easiest walking surface to one of the hardest ones. And at times the talus got a little steep as I climbed up towards Hunt Lake.

It was a little less than a mile of talus, but it took me 45 minutes, even with some of the nice herd paths that circumvented the talus. But finally I arrived at Hunt Lake.

It was a nice spot for a break, and I sat on a big sunny boulder and had some salty snacks. At this high elevation of almost 6,000 ft it was a little chilly. My next task was to hike around the lake, and then up and over a pass at the far end. The lakeshore still had some sizable snowfields remaining, so it wasn’t easy.

I had to hike up and over the snowfields, since an accidental slide down them would send me straight into the icy waters of the lake. But it was straightforward and pretty soon I was at the far end of the lake.

Next there was an 800 vertical foot climb up to a pass, which was complicated by the remaining snowfields. Normally there is a herdpath straight up the creek drainage, that was hidden under some soft snow.

So I scrambled up some granite slabs for a while, which worked really well. Pretty soon I was high above the lake. I thought I had avoided all the snow but the last tiny bit before the top of the pass had a low angle snowfield, so I just hiked right up it.

Even the top of the pass had a little cornice that hadn’t melted yet.

The day was getting late, so I hurried off the pass and down into the next drainage. It was a very scenic little swampy area, and it was surprisingly easy walking through the short grass, even if I got my feet a little wet.

After cresting another minor pass, I could see down to my destination at Fault Lake.

Most of the snow was gone from this side of the pass, and I descended through big fields of yellow flowers.

As I got closer to Fault Lake, both the mosquitoes and the views increased.

I hiked right down to the surface of the lake so I could feel the water, it was probably in the high 30s.

There were a couple small icebergs floating in the far end, so that’s probably not surprising. It was quite damp down by the lake, so I setup my tent on a rocky outcropping.

After I set up my tent I noticed another couple had arrived and setup their camp on the opposite bank. I went over to say hi and they were pretty friendly, and even invited me for a swim. I was skeptical that they were serious, but they impressed me as they both jumped in the lake off of a low boulder. I was a little jealous of their resistance to the cold, as I love swimming but I hate being cold. Then promptly at 7pm, the mosquitoes reported to work, and I went and hid in my tent while making dinner and getting ready for bed.

Sunday June 29, 23.1mi/37.2km

Big Cedar Camp (981.8/2630ft) to Priest Lake State Park (958.7/2470ft) (ID)

I slept in a little bit and didn’t start hiking until 7am, tired from the last 3 days of traveling.

The beautiful cedar forest continued most of the morning.

This also seemed like a popular trail with all the boardwalks over the marshy areas.

After a couple hours I arrived at Upper Priest Lake, which was pretty quiet.

It’s surrounded by public land and there are no private homes on this lake, just campsites.

I followed the lakeshore for a couple miles, only seeing one boat pass by.

The miles were easy and scenic all morning.

By noon I could tell it was getting pretty warm, but every time I entered a dense forest, it was immediately much cooler.

And I was cooled further when I had to ford a shallow creek. Wet feet and legs are like natural air conditioning.

And then for the rest of the day I had a roadwalk, initially in the forest.

After a couple miles, the dirt road became paved, and I would see a car every 5 minutes or so. I had about 4 hours to hike to Indian Creek campground.

I arrived at the campground at 7pm, just after the camp store had closed. So no ice cream for me tonight.

I walked to one of the campground loops and sat at a picnic table and made dinner. While dinner was rehydrating, I recharged my phone and also tried to reserve a campsite. I was able to add 70% charge to my phone, but for the campsites I was not so fortunate. There were a few available but for some reason they wanted $62. So after dinner I hiked a half mile to the boundary of the park and camped in the forest. Who pays $62 to sleep on the ground? I’ve had motels that were cheaper than that. Tomorrow morning I’ll have to get up early as my choice of campsite is questionable, but that will give me time to check out the camp store and go for a swim in the lake.

Saturday June 28, 16.0mi/25.8km

Upper Priest Falls (995.6/3280ft) to Big Cedar Camp (981.8/2630ft) (ID) + 2.2mi approach trail

I was awake at 6am like usual, got a shower and some breakfast I had bought the night before. My packing routine was a little different, as I now had to deal with a bear canister and bear spray. Ideally I would have my urSack, but it’s locked away in my van. So I bought a cheap used bearVault off Facebook Marketplace in Spokane. I had been texting with Matt the night before, and we had settled on an 8am pickup time at my motel. The first hour of the drive was on normal paved roads, and as we headed north the roads dwindled in size, until eventually it was just a dirt road.

Matt hiked the ICT in 2021 together with his spouse, and was so entertaining to talk with during the drive. We mostly discussed hiking things, but at one point the topic of mental health came up and Matt shared with me their non-profit organisation, Ethan Murray Fund. I think it’s awesome they’re helping teens with access to mental health services. Mental health is a topic that our society doesn’t place enough emphasis on, or give enough resources to. Before I knew it, the 3 hours flew by and we were at the trailhead!

We took a photo together before I started off down the trail.

To get to the Northern Terminus I had to hike just over 2 miles on a spur trail. I descended into a very verdant valley.

It was clearly a popular trail as it had many well-built bridges.

I got to follow the Upper Priest River for half a mile, enjoying the sounds of the brook.

Everything was so mossy and green. It felt like such a different world compared to Nevada.

Pretty quickly I was at Upper Priest Falls, which is the Northern Terminus.

I happened to have the good timing to arrive at the same time as two ladies out for a long day hike. Christy grabbed a starting photo for me, thanks!

And then we took a photo together, because why not?

After a long lunch, I started hiking south from the falls, so now these counted as real miles. I loved the mature cedar forest with all the ferns on the ground.

After a couple miles, I inexplicably came by a random bench in the middle of nowhere.

The green forest continued for the whole afternoon.

I could tell it was probably a hot day, but in this dense ancient forest, it felt quite cool.

By 5pm I had finished hiking the Upper Priest River Trail, and had about an hour of roadwalking to connect to the next trail.

Christy passed me on the road as they were driving home, and gave me a nice cold seltzer. Thanks! (And sorry if I spelled your name wrong).

When I arrived at the trailhead for the Upper Priest Lake Trail, I entered an amazing open cedar forest. It was a little after 6pm and it looked like the perfect camping spot.

What a great first day on the Idaho Centennial Trail! I love that the Hot Springs Trail basically uses the ICT as its route through Idaho.