Saturday August 23, 30.3mi/48.8km

Bengoechea cabin ruins (38.5/4590ft) to Jarbidge River Overlook (8.2/5600ft) (ID)

Another early morning to beat the heat, it started off nice and chilly like usual.

I was hiking pretty briskly to get warmed up, once I wake up and get out of my tent, these early mornings are pretty cool.

Sunrise is coming…

I paused to get a photo of the actual sunrise, since I’m not usually awake to get sunrise photos.

I crossed over a pretty large dirt road, it seemed to be the access point to the Bruneau River. I think this is where the rafters put in, for rafting trips. There was even a nice map & sign.

It stayed mercifully cloudy all morning and I was very thankful for the reasonable temperatures.

For this entire desert section, the trail is entirely on two-track dirt roads. I thought the maze of roads would be confusing but the trail is actually really well signed.

I stopped and had lunch in Poison Creek wash, which had the only tree I had seen since yesterday. Even though it was cloudy and cool, it felt like a special treat to eat lunch under a juniper tree. After lunch I climbed out of the wash and unfortunately the clouds started to disperse.

By 1pm the clouds were almost completely gone and I hiked under my umbrella the rest of the afternoon. By late afternoon the Jarbidge Mountains were coming into view.

It was pretty hot at the end of the afternoon, so I found a tall sagebrush and made some umbrella shade, taking a break for a couple of hours until 6 pm. I continued on for another hour after my long break, and I noticed these strange red tanks. I was pretty low on water and got my hopes up, but they were dry.

I’m not sure what animal those tanks would be used for, I haven’t seen any evidence of cows today. Perhaps antelope, I’ve seen like eight herds of antelope today.

At the end of the day I came to the Jarbidge River Overlook, and enjoyed looking 800 feet down to the river below.

There is an alternate route, which scrambles down the rocky talus fields to the river, but I had no interest in making some rattlesnake friends. I camped up on the rim nearby, with nice views of the Jarbidge Mountains to my South. Tomorrow I have about 7 miles to the ICT Southern Terminus, then I’ll backtrack a couple miles and head down to the Jarbidge River.

Friday August 22, 25.4mi/40.9km

Bruneau Desert (63.9/3780ft) to Bengoechea cabin ruins (38.5/4590ft) (ID)

Another 5:30 wakeup and on the trail just after 6am, it was pretty chilly.

It felt good to be moving when it’s cold, the heat makes me lethargic. After a mile the sun came up and my hands started to thaw.

The early morning light really makes some amazing pictures.

Pretty soon the sun was higher in the sky and it was no longer cold, and by mid-morning it was a little too warm. The trail followed a bunch of old dirt roads in this section, thankfully there are markers at each junction, it’s easy to space out and miss a turn.

By late morning I was heading down into a small canyon for Clover Creek, where there’s a little oasis called Winter Camp.

Apparently it’s a tiny parcel of private property surrounded by BLM land, so you have to sign into their register before proceeding.

It was exciting to see some trees again, it feels like I hadn’t seen trees in forever. I miss my arboreal friends.

Winter camp is also a water source which is a critical one, coming at the end of a 40 mile dry section and starting the next 45 mile dry section. But I didn’t see any water in the creek. Ummm…

The dirt road paralleled the creek for a mile, and I kept a very close eye on the creek, which looked dry every spot I checked.

There were a bunch of old junk cars and farming equipment scattered around, and also some neat old stone buildings on the property.

I was almost at the other end of the property and getting quite worried, since I hadn’t seen any water yet. I know of only two other hikers that have come through here in August, both of them had flowing water in the creek. I crossed the creek on a small road bridge, and underneath the bridge there were small stagnant puddles. Hooray.

I filtered my maximum capacity which is 7 liters, to get me to the next water source 45 miles away. Filtering took a long time as the water was quite silty and it was definitely killing my filter. To hide the cow flavoring, I added some Crystal light and also a bunch of little salt packets I got from town.

My hands were tired from squeezing the filter bottle, and by noon it was time to leave the comfort of the shade and climb out of the canyon.

The roads were pretty nice all day, no annoying tumbleweeds clogging the wheel tracks like yesterday. And I had pretty sweet views of the Bruneau canyon, a few miles off to my right.

But mostly the theme of the afternoon was surviving the heat, my umbrella was a lifesaver both for hiking and taking breaks. Most of the bushes here are tiny, but I was able to find a tall one that made some shade and also became an umbrella holder.

I used the same strategy as yesterday, hiking most of the afternoon, but taking a break during the hottest part of 3-5pm. Luckily around that same time, a few thin clouds moved in, which felt great.

At the very end of the day I had a small climb, and as I came over the rise in the hill I saw mountains to the south of me. Mountains! Those must be the Jarbidge Mountains in the Nevada, just over the border.

I ended up camping near a dilapidated old cabin. I bet these cabin walls would have provided some nice shade during midday.

I definitely noticed the higher elevation with the nighttime temperatures being colder. Hopefully tomorrow will be a cooler and cloudier day.

Thursday August 21, 26.6mi/42.8km

Snake River (90.5/2480ft) to Bruneau Desert (63.9/3780ft) (ID)

I was awake at 5:30 and enjoyed a view of the night sky while eating breakfast.

Packing up was faster than I expected and I was hiking just before 6am. I still had another mile and a half of roadwalking, and while I could see just fine in the pre-dawn light, I used my headlamp so cars could see me.

The temperatures were indeed nice and cool, probably 60°F. A short while later I had turned off onto a farming road, and the sun had risen.

The farming road only lasted an hour, and then for the rest of the day I was on brushy 2-track roads.

For part of the morning I was hiking through the Snake River bird sanctuary, and for another part of it, an Air Force bombing range. This sign was in the middle of nowhere, probably at the boundary of those two areas.

At least the trail was well marked.

As I weaved and turned through the desert. I connected and split from various different dirt roads. Some were better than others.

And for some reason part of the desert had been burned in this area, it looked very purposeful since the burn boundaries were very straight and defined.

By mid-afternoon it was starting to get pretty hot, and I arrived at the Bruneau overlook at 3pm, just in time to take advantage of the only shade around for miles.

The views were pretty sweet too, as the Bruneau River carved an 800-ft deep canyon.

It was rather shocking to be hiking across a flat grassy desert all day and then suddenly coming upon a giant gorge. To stay out of the Sun and heat, I sat in the shade of the bathroom for a couple hours and read my book.

By 5pm it had started to cool down slightly, so I hiked for another hour or so.

I made another 4 miles of progress before I decided to call it a day. Finding a campsite was not too difficult, since everything around here is flat. I found a spot where the grass was shorter, and I watched a nice sunset while my dinner was cooking.

Tomorrow will be another early wake up, to hike across more of the desert all day. Kinda feels like Groundhog Day.

Wednesday August 20, 3.9mi/6.3km

Hammett (94.4/2540ft) to Snake River (90.5/2480ft) (ID)

Despite getting most of my chores done yesterday, the morning was still busy packing up everything from the hotel room. I sampled the goldfish to make sure I liked the new flavor, it’s pretty amazing. I’m really looking forward to that snack on the trail.

I made the quick walk back to the downtown area, donated the book that I finished reading to a Little Free library, and then went to the Manhattan Cafe again.

After lunch I went to the park and started reading my new book, it was nice and shady under the ancient cottonwood trees. Then I went to the library for an hour to update some things on my blog, my caltopo maps, and some internet chores are just easier to do on a real computer. I had called the only local taxi service to pick me up from the library at 5pm and take me to the edge of town, where I would begin hitching back to Hammett. The driver was really interested in hearing about my summer adventures in Idaho, so she drove me all the way to Hammett. I gave her some extra for the gas money, and then ordered dinner at Lulu’s Cafe.

The camping in this section is a little sporadic, since there’s a bunch of private property. I knew I was only hiking 4 miles, so I took my time eating and didn’t leave the cafe until 7 pm. The roadwalk was perfectly flat and expectedly boring.

There was a couple miles of irrigated farmland.

And then the road got squeezed between the river and a cliff.

Watching the sunset over the Snake River was rather special.

Crossing the river felt like a unique moment, basically all the waterways in Idaho drain into the Snake River eventually.

It was actually perfect timing, I crossed the bridge just after sunset, so I was able to set up my tent just as darkness was approaching. I’m camped close to a road and I’d rather cars not see me, feels safer.

It’s basically 90 miles of relatively flat and shadeless trail to the Idaho/Nevada border, and I plan to get up early the next few days to start hiking in the darkness, while the temperatures are still cool.

Tuesday August 19, 1.5mi/2.4km

BLM Fire Station (95.9/2670ft) to Hammett (94.4/2540ft) (ID)

I slept surprisingly well given how close I was to an interstate and railroad tracks. It was an easy mile and a half walk into the town of Hammett.

Crossing over interstate 84, this one runs from Salt Lake City to Portland. Weirdly it doesn’t connect to the usual interstate 84 in PA/NY/CT.

I was hoping to see a train but the tracks were quiet this morning.

I finally saw my first potatoes in Idaho! After hiking 900 miles across Idaho, and never seeing a single potato, I saw some spilled on the shoulder of the road. Ha!

It was 8am so I walked directly to the post office and got my new shoes, which will be my final pair for this trail.

I waited at the main crossroads of Hammett for an hour before I was able to successfully hitch a ride to Mountain Home, 20 miles away. It didn’t help that during that time the Elmore County sheriffs were on a manhunt and kept circling through the area. One of them even stopped to warn me that it wasn’t legal to hitchhike in Idaho, but they had bigger issues to deal with right now. I saw two guys drive by in a work truck towing a trailer with trenching equipment, and they must have really wanted to give me a ride because they drove past me, pulled a u-turn with a trailer, and then picked me up! Super nice. If people want to pick you up, they will find a way. 30 minutes later, we were in Mountain Home.

We drove directly to Albertsons and I bought them a coffee at the Starbucks there. And then I had a second breakfast.

I would have thought potato chips would be cheap in Idaho, turns out they’re more expensive than anywhere else.

After doing some grocery shopping, I walked a few blocks to Manhattan Cafe and had third breakfast.

After consuming so many calories, I decided to walk to the south end of town to my motel and try to check in early.

It worked! The guy was super nice and let me check in at 12:30pm.

It’s a huge room with a full kitchen, so in theory I could save money, and make dinner in the room, but I didn’t feel like walking all the way back to the Albertsons on the other side of town. I unpacked a bit and took my first shower, then I was feeling a little hungry again so I walked a few minutes to the Pizza Hut next door.

Apparently Pizza Hut lunch buffet still exists somewhere in this country.

After eating way too many breadsticks and slices, I waddled back to my room at 2:30 and took a nap. I caught up with a bunch of friends and family on the phone, watched a few episodes of a new Netflix series I’ve been getting into, and even finished reading my book. I grabbed a late dinner from a little Mexican food cart, it was a perfect end to the day.

Monday August 18, 24.1mi/38.8km

Little Canyon Creek (120.5/5410ft) to BLM Fire Station (95.9/2670ft) (ID)

I packed up camp and left my cozy little camp spot next to the creek. I’m pretty sure that will be my last campsite near water for a while. I finished the roadwalk in the nice cool shade of the canyon.

These flowers lined the road much of the way, it’s like they were all saying good morning as I passed by.

After an hour I left the roadwalk onto a little singletrack trail, which was amazingly well marked.

I had a little descent off a plateau, in the distance I could see desert farms and wind turbines.

The trail was very well marked but strangely there wasn’t a gate in the fence. I quickly found a section of fence that was broken down and just stepped over it.

I was now clearly in volcanic rock territory, with a large cliff looming above me, and lots of little black rocks scattered around the trail.

After an hour of decent singletrack, I was back on dirt roads for the rest of the day. The views here were pretty expansive but mostly of wind turbines.

It was also quite dry, when I got to Cold Springs Creek at lunchtime, I discovered it was neither a creek nor cold.

Bummer. I had enough water to make it to the fire station at the end of the day but I was looking forward to drinking cold water, as the water in my pack was hot from the beating Sun. I sat in the shade of a Willow bush for an hour at lunch, the only bush around for miles. After lunch I hiked by more wind turbines, they were turning quite slowly, I think both me and them wished there was a little more of a breeze.

When I passed over Ryegrass Creek, I was surprised to hear a trickle of water, as the guidebook says this creek goes dry after springtime. I had to move like 100 tumbleweeds to get to the water, but water was definitely under there.

I even found shade!

I walked another hour and then sat in the shade of a little fiber optic communications building at an intersection. I waited till the sun got lower and then I found shade again, when the road descended through a cliff band.

Looking down on the Snake River Valley, with the little town of Hammett, and some artificially green farms.

I hiked to the little BLM fire station, and didn’t find a water spigot, as promised by the guidebook. Which was strange, every other fire station on this trail has had water accessible somewhere on its premises. I poked around the fence for a while, even called their phone number (disconnected!), but didn’t come up with a solution. I could have easily climbed the chainlink fence but I wasn’t desperate, and I didn’t see a water spigot inside either. A passing car saw me looking suspicious and asked what I was up to, after I explained about getting water they gave me a Snapple. I was surprised both by their generosity and that Snapple still exists. I backtracked a minute, and then setup camp amongst some nice golden grasses, just as the sun was going down.

Sunday August 17, 29.0mi/46.7km

Hunter Creek Transfer Camp (149.5/5450ft) to Little Canyon Creek (120.5/5410ft) (ID)

I was planning on a longer day today, so I started hiking at 6:30 just as the sun was rising.

I hiked along Hunter Creek, which wasn’t much of a creek but really a series of Beaver dam ponds.

Pretty quickly. I turned off of that road and hiked through a ranch for a couple of hours. The cows seemed unwilling to yield the road until the last minute.

It was a relaxing morning of easy hiking, I only saw two vehicles drive by, both were hunters and seemed very interested in what I was doing. The second guy kept asking excited questions, and then sent me off with a bunch of candy and a cold RC Cola. I didn’t even know they still made RC Cola. By mid-morning I had made it to Moore’s Spring, the only nice water source I would see until my campsite at the end of the day.

From there I hiked a couple miles along a paved road that connected to Featherville, a popular tourist town. Interestingly, the lack of painted lines on the road actually made it safer to walk, I think when people are unsure of their lane, they generally drive slower, and are more likely to move over. By late morning I made it to the Castle Rocks area, known for interesting rock formations that kinda reminded me of Joshua Tree.

The final rock formation looked like the scene in the Never-Ending Story with the guardian towers.

I stopped for lunch amongst the rocks and then continued on, and had another couple miles of paved roadwalking on Highway 20.

I know this road goes all the way to the Oregon coast, and the other way to upstate New York and Boston. It would be fun to bikepack that someday. The rest of the day was uneventful on Bennett Hills Road, and it got noticeably hotter once the clouds cleared away.

Taking one last look back at the mountains to the north, before I drop off the plateau and lose sight of them.

I’ve been hiking in Idaho for so long, and all of it has been so mountainous, I’m not sure what I will think for this last flat desert section. I finished a very gradual climb and then descended along Little Canyon Creek, to a lovely little camp spot next to the creek.

I checked my watch, it was 6:30pm which meant I had hiked for exactly 12 hours. Back in the Selway and Frank Church Wildernesses, I commonly hiked for 12 hours to make it just 20 miles. Today was all easy roadwalking and I pretty effortlessly covered 29 miles, crazy.

Saturday August 16, 19.9mi/32.0km

Willow Creek CG (169.4/4810ft) to Hunter Creek Transfer Camp (149.5/5450ft) (ID)

I got an earlier start at 6:45, to get up the big 2,000-ft climb before it got warm. I left the campground and a minute later I was crossing the South Fork Boise River.

Such a fancy bridge! I also noticed that there are frequent ICT markers now. And that I’m hiking towards Lime Creek, which sounds delicious.

I was on a very nice trail, which definitely helped, since I was climbing 2,000 ft in 3 miles.

Pretty soon the sun started to peek over the hillsides.

And a quick 30 minutes later and I was halfway up, and could see back down into the valley for the South Fork Boise River.

Once I was almost to the top, the trees disappeared and I was in sagebrush territory.

I followed along a ridgeline for a couple miles, and met a couple guys out scouting for hunting season in a couple weeks. They were looking for a specific type of quail, I told them I’ve seen many quail but I’d have no idea what flavor they are. Those birds are so annoying, hiding in the bushes until the last possible minute and then loudly flying out just before I walk by and causing a small heart attack. Pretty soon I joined a singletrack trail and dropped off the ridge. I could tell this ICT marker had been around for a while, the tree was starting to swallow it.

This trail isn’t in the wilderness, so dirtbikes are allowed to use it and it was quite dusty. No big deal, I’ll just rinse off in a creek later. The dusty trail also revealed footprints I might not otherwise see, including this bear.

The guidebook suggests taking an alternate higher trail up on a ridge to avoid this “riparian overgrown trail” but it looked perfectly great to me so I stuck with the main route.

The trail even had some fresh markers!

As I followed Lime Creek downstream all afternoon, I noticed the tributaries flowing into it were named for early presidents.

All afternoon I had only encountered three blowdowns and basically no brush, so the main route seemed perfectly fine.

Just as I got to the junction where the alternate route rejoined the main trail, a pair of dirtbikers rolled up behind me. They were very friendly and interested in whose footprints they were following all day…mine! They had also cleared the blowdowns that I saw, since they travel with a chainsaw and have the Forest Service Sawyer certification. Pretty awesome. They took off but I caught up to them a quarter mile later at a tricky creek crossing.

I crossed the creek on a log, which of course isn’t an option for them. They rode through 2-foot deep water, and it was very entertaining to see. They took off again and I had the trail to myself once more, now following the South Fork of Lime Creek.

Weirdly I saw a sheep, but only one sheep. They usually travel in flocks so it was a little creepy.

And right at the final creek crossing for the day, somebody had lost a pelvis.

I forwarded the South Fork Lime Creek, and made my way up the final small climb to my campsite.

These transfer camps seem to be for equine users to corral their horses, but they also make very serviceable campsites, since they usually have pit toilets and some picnic tables. This one was pretty dry and dusty so I set up my tent in the only grassy spot I could find.

As soon as I left the last creek today the trees disappeared, and I could tell looking across the flat landscape I probably wouldn’t see trees again for the rest of Idaho. I’m back in the desert!

Friday August 15, 17.1mi/27.5km

Decker Creek (186.5/7120ft) to Willow Creek CG (169.4/4810ft) (ID)

I slept in a little and didn’t get moving until 7am, and even then it was surprisingly cold when I started hiking.

The valley stayed in shade for a long time, and I loved watching the sunlight creep down the opposite hillside as I slowly made my way up the climb.

The 1800-ft climb took me a few hours, and near the top of the pass I finally warmed up in the sunlight.

Once I was at the top of the pass, I was immediately bathed in warm sunlight, which felt quite warm even at this high elevation of 8900 feet. This might be the highest point on the entire trail in Idaho, but the guidebook doesn’t say for sure. From the top of the pass, I spied a couple very large tents stealthily hidden way off trail under some trees.

The way they were set up seemed very suspicious, but I thought it safer not to go investigating strange tents. Instead, I enjoyed the view looking down the Willow Creek Valley, where I would be hiking all afternoon.

The little bushes in the meadow had started turning red, I guess that means Autumn is coming.

Yep, lots of descending to do.

At a trail junction, I even spied a rare Idaho Centennial Trail marker.

Alpine Meadows are always such a treat to walk through when there is a nice trail.

The initial descent was a little steep.

But soon I was down hiking near the creek, and the occasional forested section provided relief from the heat.

It’s amazing how quickly it went from 45° this morning to 85° in the afternoon. I hiked right by the Willow Creek Hot Springs, so of course I had to go check them out.

The water was insanely hot, so I did some light masonry work and rearranged some stones to bring in some cold creek water to mix in. That helped but since there was no shade, I didn’t stay long. I continued on another mile to the trailhead, where I met a nice couple from Boise, Cassie and Ryan. They gave me a nice cold Coors light while they went and watered their horses.

After they came back we chatted for quite awhile, I love talking about Idaho and hiking the trail, hopefully I didn’t scare them off, it’s not often I get to have an in-depth conversation with people. I continued on, and a quick mile and a half later I was at Willow Creek Campground.

Usually I don’t like to pay to sleep on the ground when I usually do that for free, but it had picnic tables and toilets, and it was only $3.

I spread out all my food on the table and organized it for the remaining 3.5 days until town, and then I continued with my book about the first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. A nice relaxing evening!

Thursday August 14, 18.7mi/30.1km

MF Boise River (204.2/6270ft) to Decker Creek (186.5/7120ft) (ID) + 1.0mi hot springs

The sunrise is happening noticeably later these days, as it didn’t wake me up until almost 6:30. I left camp just after 7am and had a nice stroll down the remainder of the valley next to Middle Fork Boise River.

Apparently a bear had been using the trail recently too.

I love being surrounded by the granite mountains.

It was really quite impressive how nice some of the trails in the Sawtooths were.

As I neared the little historic mining town of Atlanta, I left the Sawtooth Wilderness for the last time.

I checked out the permit registration box, to see if there was anybody I knew. Nope. Just the usual comments about Hayduke.

I passed by the powerplant campground, which meant I was back in the front country. I decided to go check out the Greylock Hot Springs, which were right next to the MF Boise River.

The pools were quite shallow so I didn’t spend very long soaking there. I hiked 10 minutes down the dirt road and found Atlanta hot springs, which were much nicer.

Someone had clearly spent some time constructing this, with stone cemented into a nice little patio, and pipes bringing in the hot water. After about an hour, I decided to check out the third and final Hot Spring in this area, Chattanooga Hot Spring. The trail to get there was a little vague, and it was the most remote of the three hot springs, but it was also the coolest one. It’s a hot spring fed by a waterfall!

I enjoyed a nice soak sitting in that hot spring, watching the river flow by. Eventually my stomach started rumbling and I realized it was after 12 noon and I was hungry. So I left and finished the road walk into Atlanta. It was a neat little historic mining town. They fixed up the old church into a library.

And this old gas station seemed to be some sort of museum, though it was closed today.

And finally at the far edge of town I came to the only public business, the Beaver Lodge.

They serve lunch and dinner 6 days a week, and had a very kitschy rustic decor inside.

After enjoying a nice nice fried chicken sandwich, garden salad, ice cream, and a Coors to wash it down, I got my resupply box from the bartender. It seems I packed a little too much food, as it’s only 4 days / 100 miles to the next town. The staff was nice enough to let me charge some things and update my maps over their Wi-Fi, and after a couple hours I had finished everything I needed to do and left to continue exploring the town.

I think that was an old miners cabin, there were lots of little notes scattering around explaining mining techniques. And the other building was definitely an old jail.

Leaving town was a slow process, as I hiked a hot sunny dirt road up 1500 ft.

After a couple of miles I got to the trailhead, and I saw the landscape was devoid of trees, so the trail would also be in the hot sun. I decided to rest in the shade of the few trees at the trailhead, and read my book for awhile. After an hour the sun had lowered in the sky and it felt cooler, so I continued on the sunny trail.

Every time the trail crossed a little stream, there was a small grove of aspens.

It was amazing how quickly the climate had changed, now this trail feels like hiking in Northern Nevada again, mostly sagebrush except for the aspens near water. These bushes also grew pretty thickly on the hillsides of an old burn area.

I had planned on camping next to Flint Creek, which the guidebook promised had a little camp spot. When that turned out to be untrue, I had to continue another 3 miles to camp next to Decker Creek, which was the first spot I found that was flat, and without standing dead trees. It seems to be a nice little camp spot, tucked in a copse of green pine trees.