Thursday July 31, 17.2mi/27.7km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And sometimes right next to it on little rocky ledges.

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

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

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

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

Wednesday July 30, 25.3mi/40.7km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then back up onto the hillside above the river.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday July 29, 20.0mi/32.2km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday July 28, 21.9mi/35.2km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday July 27, 22.6mi/36.4km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday July 26, 26.7mi/43.0km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday July 25, 22.6mi/36.4km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just chill hiking all afternoon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday July 24, 26.0mi/41.8km

Grouse Creek (476.6/4690ft) to Campbell’s Ferry Bridge (450.6/2410ft) (ID)

As I was packing up my tent I thought I smelled a little bit of smoke in the air. As I continued down the trail, I came to a clearing and saw the hazy mountains in the distance.

I wasn’t sure where the fire was coming from, but it didn’t seem very strong and I enjoyed the nice downhill trail all morning.

Maybe I had become accustomed to the brushy trails of the Selway Wilderness, but I was surprised at how nice this trail remained all the way down to the Salmon River.

They had even built a nice smooth trail through all the talus areas, which is quite a bit of work. And it was quite loud hiking next to a roaring creek, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hear a rattlesnake so I paid close attention looking for them.

The last few miles of the Bargamin Creek trail were in a little gorge.

Yep, definitely quite a bit smokier down here.

I made it down to the Salmon River!

It was hot and smokey down here, and I had lunch in the shade of some Ponderosa pines. In the past couple of days I noticed the climate had slowly been changing from a wetter to a drier one, I must be transitioning to Southern Idaho. There were a few private ranches along the river, it felt strange walking by someone’s front yard.

The smoke started to clear up, and I had amazing views of the Salmon River all day, as I continued to follow the popular River.

I kept my eye out for rafters and this is a very popular rafting river, and eventually spotted a couple from way above.

It was super hot down here at 2500 ft, so any shade was appreciated.

Occasionally the trail would dip down to the riverside, this little camping spot was occupied by some guides who were setting up for their group later that day.

The trailside snacks were delicious also.

I had been messaging with my friends Rich and Randi on my InReach, and received information the smoke was from a wildfire 20 miles to my East. So, no problem. And as the afternoon went on, the smoke seemed to clear away.

I was keeping alert for rattlesnakes and only saw one, but I did see almost a dozen regular snakes.

Towards the end of the day, I could look across the river and see my big climb out of the canyon tomorrow.

My goal for the end of the day was to make it to the Campbell’s Ferry Bridge.

The Salmon River is simply massive.

Campbells Ferry is a neat historic ranch that was used as a crossing point during a gold rush, and is still occupied today by some residential caretakers.

But most importantly to me, they allow hikers to send resupply packages to them. I followed the instructions in their email and retrieved mine from a little old shed.

There were a bunch of other historical buildings on the property too, like a blacksmith shop and a tannery, I spent a little time reading all the interpretive signs.

It’s private property and they don’t allow camping or anything else so I had to backtrack across the bridge to camp in a nice pine forest. Tomorrow, the big 4,500-ft climb back up to the ridgeline.

Wednesday July 23, 21.4mi/34.4km

Warm Springs Bar (498.0/3890ft) to Grouse Creek (476.6/4690ft) (ID)

It was a damp night camping down by Running Creek, I knew I would be drying my tent again at lunch today. I packed up and walked through the outfitters camp, searching for the trail. I forded the creek, and searched the forest on the other side, but only found a few animal trails. A few past hikers also had trouble finding the trail, and I really wanted to find it but after 20 minutes I gave up. I walked the road around, which added about a mile.

I saw where the missing trail met the road on the other side, it was a clear and well- used trail. Definitely harder to find for southbound hikers, and the guidebook wasn’t any help either since it’s written for the northbound direction. I had another pleasant hour of hiking a gradual ascent on the dirt road, eventually I turned off on the Lynx Creek Trail.

I knew it traveled through several large burn areas so I was expecting some fallen trees and brushy undergrowth, much to my pleasant surprise, I found little of either.

There were even a few pockets of green forest, which was a nice break from the hot sun.

After 3 miles I got to Lynx meadow, and a hunters’ camp.

It was a cool little spot and I spent some time checking out the old artifacts.

There was even a metal sign nailed to a tree with a bunch of names signed on it from 50 years ago.

But when I went to leave the camp that’s when things got confusing. There was a web of mediocre trails leaving the camp, the only good trail was the one I entered on. The guidebook was no help again, so I had to try each faint trail, one led to an old privy, one led to a woodshed, the other led nowhere, and the last one turned out to be the correct trail. After I left the brushy meadow, it was actually a decent trail.

The ICT is known for having some sections of rough and overgrown trail, but really its main issue is lack of good trail data. With a good GPS track and some waypoints, I could avoid all the navigation confusion. The Lynx Trail did have one section for about a mile with young pine trees trying to take over the trail in a burn area.

But the trail was easy to follow, and pretty soon I was at the other end where it joined another dirt road.

The whole forest is pretty burned, so when I stopped for lunch I didn’t even try to find a shady spot. Fortunately up at 6,800 ft it’s not very hot. After a couple easy miles on the road I turned off onto Bargamin Creek Trail.

Basically the entire trail was in a burn area except the very end, and it was mostly in good shape. Much better than I expected given the amount of burn it traveled through.

It was a hot afternoon and I was glad to be hiking downhill, gradually dropping off the ridge to Bargamin Creek.

I arrived at Poet Creek campground, and I spent awhile chatting with a very nice group of bikers, who are also riding the BDR, just like the group I met at Lochsa Lodge. Their route basically parallels mine but it takes dirt roads, and it will only take them about 1.5 weeks. They had a similar sense of humor as me and after sharing some beers (that cold Deschutes tasted so good!), I gave one of them a trail name. They were even nice enough to take my trash, since I won’t have a way to dispose of it at Campbell’s ferry (where I pick up my next resupply box). As I was saying goodbye and leaving, a group of three mountain bikers rode up who are also doing a similar route. Popular campground!

I crossed the Magruder corridor Road, which means I finished the Selway-Bitterroot section. That moment felt good. It was a tough 100 miles. The Bargamin Creek Trail continued across the road, following the creek in its descent to the Salmon River.

It was a pretty decent trail too, I hope that continues all the way down to the Salmon River.

I’ll follow the Bargamin Creek for 13 more miles tomorrow and then I’ll hike along the Salmon River a day. I’m in the Frank Church Wilderness, it’s massive!

Tuesday July 22, 20.8mi/33.5km

Ridge above Bitch Lake (518.3/6910ft) to Warm Springs Bar (498.0/3890ft) (ID) +0.5mi looking for junctions

I awoke to one of the coolest weather phenomena and one of my favorites, the undercast clouds.

It had rained pretty good last night for about 4 hours, so even though I shook off most of the water, I knew I would be making an extended lunch stop to dry my stuff. I was all packed up and ready to hike and then… I couldn’t find the trail junction. I have three different versions of maps downloaded and according to all of them, it should be right where I was camped. Ugh. So I walked a few minutes backtracking to check that I hadn’t missed it yesterday, nothing. And then I hiked a quarter mile further down the trail getting increasingly unsure that I would ever find it… and there it was, 0.3 miles from where it was supposed to be.

I continued to follow the Moose Ridge Trail all morning, except today it was actually nice trail.

I traveled through a half mile of burn section, where the trail was easy to follow, I just had to step over lots of fallen logs.

At least most of them were small and easy to step over. Pretty soon the burn area ended and then the sun even came out, warming the very chilly morning.

The next trail junction was exactly where it was supposed to be but the signs were a little hard to read.

I hiked over a pass and descended down toward Goat Creek, and most of the area was burned. But this time the trail seemed like it had recently been maintained and there were very few logs to step over.

And some massive mushrooms were growing also.

After crossing Goat Creek, I was out of the burn area, and followed Long Prairie Creek upstream for a while before I stopped for lunch.

I was surprised at how nice the trail was all afternoon, a friend had recently told me I should do more complaining in my journal but today didn’t give me much to complain about. Later in the afternoon I finally turned off the Moose Ridge Trail which I have been following since yesterday at the ranger station. There was a steep climb up the Grouse Ridge Trail, and then apparently I was following the Wilderness boundary for the next few hours.

It was a roller coaster of a trail going steeply up and down a couple of times, but always on good trail. I enjoyed seeing all the cool rock formations, I think it’s the same rock type as in Joshua Tree NP.

And the views of the Continental divide in the distant East were pretty amazing.

I turned onto the Patrol Ridge Trail, which started a long gradual descent, with an initial steep one.

And I was still on a pretty good trail the rest of the day.

There was an unsigned junction near the bottom of the descent, I was pretty sure it led to a hot spring, so I followed the trail and it did! It was a nice little homemade rock enclosure, almost a mile off the main trail. Pretty sweet little spot. The mosquitoes were starting to awaken, so after a quick soak I backtracked to the main trail and continued to its end at an outfitters camp.

I didn’t want to continue on because camping spots would be hard to come by in the next few miles, so I camped in a flat spot near the outfitters, next to Running Creek. I enjoyed an earlier evening in my tent with some nice spicy dinner.