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.

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.