Monday July 21, 21.6mi/34.8km

North Fork Moose Creek (539.9/2760ft) to Ridge above Bitch Lake (518.3/6910ft) (ID)

I packed up from my cozy little spot in the Cedar forest, and had another couple hours of hiking along North Fork Moose Creek.

I was beginning to think it never rained in Idaho, but then it rained lightly for about an hour, which was enough to make all the plants very wet, which soaked me on the overgrown Trail. There was even a short section of blowdowns when the trail passed through a small burn section, and that went pretty slowly given how slippery all the logs were. The views of the river were unbeatable though.

After a couple hours, I entered a wide flat valley where the two forks of the Moose Creek converge, and hiked through a beautiful forest full of soaking wet ferns.

As I got closer to the East Fork of the Moose Creek, the trail quality started to improve.

I was pretty excited to see fewer wet plants lining the path.

The bridge over the East Fork Moose Creek was truly impressive.

From there I had just over an hour of pleasant hiking through a very burned valley, down to the Moose Creek Ranger Station.

There’s a bunch of backcountry outfitters and stock camps in this valley so they tend to keep the trail pretty well maintained.

The ranger station was an entire complex of buildings to support the operation.

There was a stables, a couple residences, a storage room, a laundry building, and a building for the airstrip. And of course a visitor office.

As I was reading the trail report (they keep a huge list of which year that each of their hundreds of trails were cleared!) the ranger came in from the other room and started chatting. It was lunchtime, and she offered that I could eat in front of the nice warm woodstove as it was a chilly wet day. Sweet. We ended up chatting for almost an hour about lots of trail stuff, turns out she’s pretty well connected to the ITA, Idaho Trails Association. As I was finishing my lunch, she also offered me a big slice of Huckleberry pie, a refill on my water, and a quick charge for my phone. It was an unexpectedly fantastic lunch. Pretty soon though, I had to head out into the gray day.

Walking the airstrip felt kind of funny, and there are recreational planes that land here a couple times a week. A mile later, and I was crossing the massive Selway River.

It rained lightly on and off for a couple hours, but that didn’t really bother me. The overgrown Moose Ridge Trail got me completely soaked, although the rain shell and rain skirt certainly helped. I couldn’t take any photos for a while as my lens was wet. I was able to capture one of this very cold, sad wet snake.

The ranger had pointed out how lucky I was to do this big 5000-ft climb on a cool cloudy day, as it’s usually hot and exposed on this ridge. Which is true but I was still wishing for a warmer day, as it was pretty chilly by the time I climbed up to 6,000 ft. These thimbleberries were especially effective, dumping all their rainwater on me.

Once I got up to the top of Moose Ridge at 7,000 ft, the trail became quite a bit better. Not because it was better maintained, just because there were fewer plants to grow up at this elevation.

After 6pm the clouds started to clear out, and the views became pretty impressive.

Looking to the West, where peeks of sun were highlighting some of the Bitterroot mountains.

It was tricky to find a spot to camp that wasn’t in dead forest that wanted to fall over and kill me, but eventually I found a flat grassy meadow above Bitch Lake.

What a long and tiring wet day. I’m starting to think there’s not going to be an easy day of hiking in the Selway section. Only 37 miles more until the Magruder Road, which is the end of this section.

Sunday July 20, 23.2mi/37.3km

Ridge above Rhoda Creek (563.1/6410ft) to North Fork Moose Creek (539.9/2760ft) (ID)

I woke up to a cold morning and started hiking with my insulated vest on. The trail weaved around little bumps on the ridge top and was pretty enjoyable.

Looking down on Shasta Lake.

And then then walking around its shoreline, which was quite buggy.

The next set of lakes I came to was called Two Lakes. There is a little side trail that loops around them, which apparently is not maintained. And to really make their point, the sign is on the ground and not on a post.

Looking south down the Rhoda Creek Valley.

For the last lake, I traversed high above it.

The trail was mostly pretty nice, but occasionally this little Alpine bush would obscure the tread, since it grows pretty thick.

Looking back at the ridgeline I just traversed, and the lake far below.

Some trail crew did some impressive rock work here.

After a couple of hours I left the ridgeline trail and turned off onto the disturbingly named Wounded Doe Creek Trail.

The guidebook had warned that the trail might be brushy and slow going. That might have been true back when there was a trail. I was able to find a very faint trail tread for the first quarter mile, and then it simply disappeared into the forest.

So for the next 3 hours I bushwhacked the 2.5 mile trail corridor, never actually finding any trail but occasionally finding some evidence that there was a trail, including a couple of Cairns and some sawed logs. Given that no humans ever travel this way, this snake was quite surprised to see me.

Sometimes when there was a meadow the bushwhacking was easy and I was able to move quickly.

As I was bushwhacking I thought how nice it would be to have a trail. As I analyzed the situation, I realized a trail is just a brush-free corridor that allows for easy navigation and faster travel. This non-existent trail parallels Wounded Doe Creek, so I decided to just walk in the creek. That worked okay but it wasn’t much faster since the rocks were slippery and I had to be careful. Eventually I exited when I saw another meadow since those are fast traveling.

At the very end of the bushwhack I was just a minute from the trail junction when I saw this really old saw leaning up against a tree. Very strange.

A very faint trail had come over the pass from Fish Lake, and after I passed that junction I had clear trail again.

The simple joys.

The rest of the Wounded Doe Creek Trail was fairly nice hiking, and I was excited for the next trail which I assumed would be even better. I was wrong, the Rhoda Creek Trail traveled through a burn area, with lots of fallen trees.

One of the fallen trees I was able to use to my advantage since it laid directly on top of the trail, so I just hiked along the top of it.

That 3 mile trail took me a couple of hours, and by the time I hit the Moose Creek Trail it was late afternoon. As soon as I turned onto that trail I had to ford its namesake creek.

I hiked alongside the North Fork Moose Creek for an hour, constantly looking for a campsite, but the trail was benched into a steep hillside.

I was getting slightly worried since darkness was approaching, but at the last minute I found a tiny flat spot tucked into a copse of cedar trees. Perfect.

Saturday July 19, 18.1mi/29.1km

Gateway Campground (581.2/2105 ft) to Ridge above Rhoda Creek (563.1/6410ft) (ID)

I was up at 5am with the sun, and my watch gave me a nice birthday message.

The lodge insists on using Mountain time, even though they are actually in Pacific time. This confuses basically everybody there, the restaurant opened at 7am for breakfast, but which 7am was it? The bikers I was camping with decided to go over at 6am, which the lodge was calling 7am, so they got served breakfast and brought me back half of a waffle and some bacon. Sweet. I went back out to the road to hitch, it took me about an hour and a half before a nice guy named Randy picked me up and drove me all the way to the Wilderness Gateway campground. It was a 45-minute drive so I didn’t start hiking until 10:30. I crossed over the massive Lochsa River, and then entered the campground.

The trailhead was at the back of the campground so I had to walk 15 minutes along various paved roads. The trailhead had one of those neat carved wooden signs, that showed the entire wilderness.

For the first 5 miles the trail was very nice.

After about an hour, I officially entered the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. I love seeing these Wilderness signs, and it’s a little surprising that I’ve already hiked 420 miles of the Idaho Centennial Trail before seeing my first such sign. The nice trail continued…

… All the way to the Stanley hot springs.

There were six or seven different pools, all created by stacked rocks. Three of the pools were large and very clean looking so I used one of those to soak in for a little while, while I also enjoyed lunch.

It’s also surprising to me that I’ve hiked 420 miles from the Canadian border on the ICT / Hot Springs Trail, and this is the first Hot Spring I’ve come to. It was a very nice hot spring and eventually I pulled myself away from it and continued on up the mountain. Immediately after leaving the hot springs, the trail became much less maintained.

Towards the top of the big 4000-ft climb, it entered a burn area which was annoying to step over all the fallen trees.

But I could tell this was still a popular trail, as each of the fallen trees had all of its branches broken off so it was easy to step over, or it had a well-worn herdpath going around it. At the top of the climb, I came around the corner of a ridge and then I was in lake territory. Lottie Lake:

And less than a mile later, Little Lottie Lake.

Where there’s water, there are snakes.

Every mile or so I hit another lake, this was one of the Seven lakes.

And then I had another thousand-foot climb up to the top of Stanley Butte.

Pretty sweet views from the top. The mountains to the South still had a little bit of snow on their shadowy North faces.

Up at 7,300 ft. elevation I could see in every direction.

I descended down to Shasta Lake, where there were forms of wildlife blocking my path.

I passed by several trail junctions, and most of them had the signs on the ground. Can the Clearwater National Forest not afford posts?

Even though I had more daylight and more miles I could cover, after I looked at my watch I decided to stop and camp in a little little saddle above Rhoda Creek.

My watch showed almost 7,000 vertical feet ascended today… oops.

That was definitely not my intent, but I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Friday July 18, 0mi/0km

Gateway Campground (581.2/2105 ft) to Gateway Campground (581.2/2105ft) (ID)

I had a productive morning at the motel, getting another shower, unwrapping all my new gear, and fitting 7 days of food inside a bear canister. When I went to do laundry the laundry room was empty, like there were no machines to use. I asked at the front desk and the lady was super nice and said she would just do it for me in her commercial washers. While that was running, I packed up my new backpack, each one packs slightly differently and it’s a learning process.

I finally left the motel at 11am, went next door to the post office to mail my old backpack back to the manufacturer, and then took the bus across town back to the REI. Most backpacks that I’ve recently had are made of a waterproof material, but not this one. So I had to buy a pack cover in case it rains. I grabbed a quick last meal at Wendy’s, and then got an Uber to Lolo, a small village at the edge of town. I had planned on hitching from there down Highway 12, but the Uber driver said he was bored and I was very entertaining, and he drove me another 30 miles to Lochsa Lodge.

That seemed pretty lucky and now I had some extra time so I ordered an early dinner.

A huge bowl of elk chili and a large Bavarian pretzel really hit the spot, then I wandered over to the general store to give my phone one last charge, there was an outlet next to the pay phone.

Yes, there was a working pay phone. Also some funny stickers on it, which I feel will be applicable to my life real soon.

Then at 6pm I walked down the driveway to the entrance to hitch to the Wilderness Gateway campground, where the trail resumes.

I stood there for 2 hours, even wore bright colored clothing to look friendly and had a sign. But there were so few cars going by, maybe one every 5 minutes, and most of them seemed to be going the other direction. Finally a little after 8pm I called it quits and walked back to the lodge where they allow hikers/bikers to camp on the lawn. I’ll try again early tomorrow morning!

Thursday July 17, 8.1mi/13.0km

No-see-um Meadows (589.3/5890ft) to Gateway Campground (581.2/2105 ft) (ID)

I left camp at 6:30 and packed up my backpack which seemed to have only a few more miles of life left in it.

The Sherman Creek Trail was over 7 miles all downhill to the Lochsa River, and it was barely brushy at all.

It actually stayed pretty high above the river and frequently had good views to the South, of the mountains I would be hiking tomorrow.

There was one little meadow that was completely overgrown and in the morning dew felt like a cold wet car wash.

Mostly the trail went through an enjoyable, mature Forest.

I got one last glimpse of the upcoming mountains, before I made the final descent to the trailhead parking area.

I crossed highway 12, made it to the Wilderness Gateway campground, and immediately started trying to hitch a ride into Missoula, over 90 miles away.

After only 20 minutes the sixth car stopped to pick me up, Rob & Angie were on their way to a music festival up in whitefish MT. They were super nice and generous people, and I had great conversation with them the entire 2 hours I was in the car. At one point it came up in conversation that I was only stopping at Lochsa Lodge to pick up a resupply box, and then immediately continuing to Missoula. They very generously offered to pull into the lodge while I got my package, and then we all continued on, even stopping for lunch at a charming little bar, the Jack saloon.

After 8 days of backpacking food, the burger and beer really hit the spot. They dropped me off directly at the REI where I immediately went shopping for a backpack. Not finding one in my size, I got an Uber to downtown Missoula to the other camping store. I didn’t find the pack there either. But I did find ice cream next door.

Walking through downtown Missoula and Higgins Street is always entertaining and there’s lots of good people watching and interesting artwork.

At this point I was getting low on options to get a replacement backpack today, I even scoured the local Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist ads. I got a phone call from the very helpful guy at REI saying he didn’t find a men’s small backpack, but he found something of equivalent size, so I went back to REI and bought a bright yellow backpack. By now it was getting late in the day and my plan to hitch back to the Wilderness the same day was not going to happen, so I got a local motel. It was brand new remodeled, but in an old-timey way.

Inside my food resupply box my parents had included a birthday card, that was very nice. The little things.

It was time to eat again, so I went a couple blocks away to Gary’s Local Burgers which had $6 burgers and actual good Coke, the kind from Mexico with real sugar.

And then I went to the grocery store to pick up a couple extra things like more wet wipes, new water bottles, and I found a 50% off birthday cake. Nice little motel celebration.

I did a bunch of phone chores and then watched some Stephen Colbert, it’s a shame that they will be canceling one of the best comedians for some pretty shadowy reasons. Tomorrow is back to trail!

Wednesday July 16, 19.4mi/31.2km

Monroe Butte (609.3/6350ft) to No-see-um Meadows (589.3/5890ft) (ID) -0.6mi skip Liz Cabin

I woke up in a damp meadow to a wet and cold tent. I spent a few minutes trying to dry out the inside but knew I’d have to dry everything out at lunch. I had a nice trail for the first half mile of the day.

As soon as I turned onto the Windy Creek Trail it became a little overgrown, and I could tell it was maintained and used far less frequently than the nice Windy Bill Trail I had been on.

At the higher elevations it wasn’t so bad, as there were just fewer plants available to reclaim the trail. But after I descended a thousand feet, the trail became more overgrown.

But at least it was still easily followable 99% of the time. Only a couple times in big meadows did I lose the trail tread and have to find it on the other side.

There actually weren’t many blowdowns, and I could walk at almost my usual pace when the trail wasn’t approaching a little stream or waterway. When it got within 100 ft of water, the plants grew like crazy and I just had to wade slowly through the entangled ferns and bear grass.

Finally, after 4 hours of effort I had made it the 9 miles to Weitas Creek bridge. Down here the trail seemed to be a little better used and I followed nice tread for a half mile until I stopped for lunch on the bridge.

It was pretty hot down here at 3,000 ft, so I sat in the shade on one end of the bridge while my tent and gear dried in the sunny part of the bridge. I took up the entire bridge with my stuff, there’s nothing like a good ol’ bridge yard sale. Plus there’s no way anybody was coming through here, I was hours from reasonably good trail, and even further from a trailhead. After lunch I packed up and quickly found the junction to the Yokum Creek Trail.

The distances on those signs are often full of lies, as they don’t account for the many switchbacks. Turns out it was closer to 3.5 mi to the Liz Butte Trail, and 6 mi to the top of Liz Butte. I wish I had taken a photo of the trail junction, it was comical that the trail I was turning on to was almost non-existent, and the trail tread was blanketed in thick moss. It cleared up considerably as I climbed higher on pretty nice switchbacks, and above the riparian plants in the valley. After a couple hours I made it to the junction, where the sign was being swallowed by a tree.

As I got higher up I was traversing meadows more frequently, which were beautiful to walk through with all the paintbrush growing this time of year.

The downside of meadows is that they sometimes make a faint trail impossible to follow, but I only lost the trail once and found it after only 5 minutes of searching the forest. This was probably the strangest piece of trail trash I’ve ever encountered.

The last mile was through an area that was severely burned, so there wasn’t much brush but there were plenty of downed trees.

Finally, at 4pm I arrived at a dirt road, with much relief and fanfare. I thought it was cool, and also a little ironic, that the only sign I’ve seen for the Idaho Centennial Trail is on the brushiest trail I’ve hiked yet.

The roadwalk was pleasant and easy, apparently it’s also the Nez Perce National historic Trail, and the Lewis and Clark Trail.

I arrived at a trailhead at 6 pm, and it seemed too late in the day to continue down 8-mile Sherman Creek Trail, which descended 4,000 ft down a steep valley, and probably had no camping options. So I set up my tent at the edge of the forest, and afterwards noticed this sign. Eek.

While the meadow did have a few of those bugs, it had far more mosquitoes. I enjoyed a couple hours of relaxation protected in my tent, and looking at maps for the next section in the Selway mountains. I also made a plan to deal with my rapidly deteriorating Durston backpack, one of the hip belt straps was slowly ripping off of the pack frame. It definitely wasn’t going to last another 300 miles to Stanley (the next town), so when I get to Highway 12 tomorrow morning, I will hitch almost 90 miles East to Missoula, which has an REI. What a pain.

Tuesday July 15, 26.4mi/42.5km

Kelly Creek Trailhead (633.8/3170ft) to Monroe Butte (609.3/6350ft) (ID) +1.9 Windy Bill trail

I packed up from my damp little camp spot down in a meadow next to the river, basically the worst camp spot possible, I spent a few minutes drying out my tent but I’ll have to dry stuff later in the full sun. I crossed Kelly Creek on a huge bridge, it’s funny they call it a creek, it’s basically a river at this point.

The first task of the day was to climb 3,000 vertical feet up to Scurvy mountain. The first half of the climb was easy on a gradual dirt road.

I saw some large canine prints in the mud next to the road, I was very curious what made them.

And 5 minutes later I saw the creature.

I was a little delayed in getting out the camera and taking a video, so I only got him running away. But he was large and very fluffy. Cool. The second half of the climb was on a trail, but it was a multi-use trail so it was wide for ATVs.

I was glad that the morning stayed cloudy and cool, so I didn’t have to do all this climbing in the hot sunlight. Plus the clouds gave the photos an interesting perspective.

Once I got to the top, I skipped the little side trail to the firetower since it was locked anyway, and continued on the Windy Bill Trail, basically following this ridgeline for the rest of the day.

So I went down 1400 ft….

And then hiked right back up that same amount.

Right to the top of Switchback Hill, which was very appropriately named.

I had lunch at the top of Switchback Hill, and checked my watch. I had hiked 5,000 vertical feet before noon, I’m going to feel that later in the day for sure. The rest of the ridgewalk was much flatter, and occasionally through these eerie feeling areas of dead forest.

There was supposed to be another 800-ft climb, but the trail had been rerouted to go around the mountain instead of over it, much to my relief. The guidebook recommends taking the old abandoned trail up and over the mountain anyway, but that was written in 2020 and five more years have passed, and by now nature has thoroughly reclaimed the old trail. I searched and couldn’t find where it had split off. The new trail was quite delightful other than a short half mile section of blowdown trees.

I continued through more of the eerie half-dead mossy forests.

And then finally a mature forest.

This was a confusing trail junction for several reasons.

It was not located where the map indicated, which actually has been happening a lot recently on the ICT. But also the trail numbers were slightly different, the sign says #167 but the map says #164. On the assumption that one of those was a typo, I continued on, and was eventually able to confirm I was correct. The last hour of the day was easy hiking on a nice trail, and I stopped to camp at the last moment before leaving the ridgeline.

I knew from here it was a 2000 ft descent, where there would be no camping options for a long time. But I’m camped at a pretty high elevation so it’s going to be a cold night!

Monday July 14, 27.6mi/44.4km

Unnamed Alpine Lake (661.4/6070ft) to Kelly Creek Trailhead (633.8/3170ft) (ID/MT)

I had a quiet night at my little Alpine Lake, which looked even better in the sunrise than it did in the evening.

There were some mosquitoes hanging out but I quickly left them behind after only a half mile of uphill hiking, when I came over a small pass and into a new valley.

I hiked this neat ridgeline for a little bit, with views down into two valleys at once.

The section of the Stateline Trail seemed to be less used and was a little brushy.

Pretty soon I could see down into Kid lake.

I thought about swimming in Kid Lake but it was still too cold this early in the morning.

After many days on the Stateline Trail, I would finally be leaving it. At Kid Lake, I turned onto the Kelly Creek Trail, leaving the Idaho/ Montana border and entering the depths of Idaho.

I started the long gradual descent down into the Kelly Creek Valley, where I would be remaining for the rest of the day. It always fascinates me when trees grow like this, I have no idea why and it was funny to see so many at once.

The Kelly Creek Trail seems to be well constructed and had a nice trail tread, though much of the time it was a little buried in the short brush that was trying to take over.

I’ve been up high on a ridgeline for so long, I forgot that crossing tributaries was a thing.

I managed to keep my feet dry, although after a few more such crossings I gave up trying. After only a few miles, I could hear the creek next to me getting louder and louder as it gained more tributaries. By lunch time I had made it down a few thousand feet, and arrived at an outfitters camp. It was the only spot where the trail was wide and not brushy, so I had lunch on a little bridge.

There wasn’t anyone on site at their outfitters camp, but I explored the area and found a clever way to keep their beverages cold, a metal box in a cold creek!

Soon after I left that spot I came to a very large wooden bridge, probably constructed by the Outfitters to get their horses and mules across these little tributaries.

The rest of the day I followed Kelly Creek downstream, as it slowly gained size.

The trail steadily improved too, as more people used it lower in the valley where it was closer to the trailhead.

After a couple of hours, I came to another Outfitters camp where I ran into two guys taking a break on their camp chairs. Chuck and Jackie were up here for the week on a fishing trip, and had driven all the way from the Boise area. They were really entertaining to talk to, and even though I know very little about fishing, we had much in common. They knew about the Idaho Centennial Trail, and were more familiar with the sections further south near Atlanta Hot Springs, closer to where they live. I lost track of the time but eventually continued on, enjoying all these nice little bridges.

The valley went into shade pretty early, which was nice as it instantly cooled down.

The trail stayed a little above Kelly Creek most of the time, with nice views of a pretty large river.

I had planned to stop after 22 miles, but couldn’t find any spots in the thick riparian brush. So I kept hiking to the trailhead where I knew there would be a large flat clearing. It was a long day but I made it there by 7:30. It feels very damp, I hope I don’t get too much condensation in the tent tonight.

Sunday July 13, 26.0mi/41.8kmGraves Peak saddle (687.4/7220ft) to Unnamed Alpine Lake (661.4/6070ft) (ID/MT)I had a great little camp spot and when I woke up this morning there were no mosquitoes, surprising, but I’ll take it. Walking along the ridge in the morning light was a great start to the day.Looking down at St Joe Lake:These Bitterroot Mountains are a huge range. I have been hiking through them for days, and can still see endless mountain ridges in the distance.In mid-morning I crossed over Hoodoo Pass, and I was surprised to see a wide gravel road almost like a highway. And I was more surprised to see over a dozen cars in the trailhead parking lot. The guidebook says this would be a difficult hitch to a town in Montana, 25 miles away, but it seems like it might be rather easy, and a great place to break up a long section. There was a short climb after the pass, where I talked to two ladies for a while about the ICT / HST, they had so many fun questions, and at one point even offered me a ride to the town. That might have been fun but I’m not backtracking 2 miles, and also I already have all the food I need for this 175 mile section. Pretty soon I was back up on the ridgeline, and looking down at alpine lakes all afternoon.That was Heart Lake, though I think it should be called Kidney Lake, due to its shape.Yup, definitely kidney lake. Around this time the bugs started to become pretty bad, I hadn’t seen so many different types of flies all swarming at once. They only bothered me when I was stopped or trying to take a break, when I was hiking/moving there was almost nothing. Weird. I came around a switchback corner, and heard some hooves. Usually this means deer or maybe an elk, I was incredibly surprised to see this big fluffy white goat standing there staring at me.It did not move. Like, not even 1 inch. So I carefully walked in a circle around him. Further down the ridge I came to Dalton Lake, which seems like this should be called Heart Lake.Just lots of beautiful ridge walking on the Stateline Trail again today.I never figured out the pattern with the bugs, I tried taking breaks in Sunny spots, shady spots, forested, grassy, nothing seemed to help. The first minute or two after I stopped was fine and then somehow they would all discover my presence and just hang out with me. Ugh. This part of the ridge had a little more wind and kept most of the bugs away but not all of them.More alpine lakes:One of the two Siamese lakes:The last part of the ridge walking was a little easier, as the trail decided to go around the bumps instead of over them.There had been some recent trail maintenance done in this section so it was a nice cruise down to Fish Lake. Fish Lake must be a popular camping area as there were about a half-dozen campsites, all numbered with posts. I stopped at one to sit on the bench and take a break, and noticed that some idiot had left their campfire still smoking a little bit. So I poured a bunch of water on it.It was a nice little break spot, I filled my water bottles in the lake, ate a bunch of snacks and waited to make sure the campfire was really dead.Fish Lake:It was only 5pm so I decided to push on another couple hours to camp at another lake. The Stateline trail climbed up to a saddle, where it split with another trail. That was the “original ICT”, but the guidebook recommended an alternate that stays on the Stateline Trail so that’s what I did. The old trail markers were neat to see.After climbing to a second saddle, I descended through an ancient burned forest, down to an unnamed alpine lake.There was a beautiful little camp spot near the outlet of the lake, perfect. By now the flies had disappeared, only to be replaced by mosquitoes. But surprisingly, the mosquitoes weren’t too bad given that I was camped next to a swampy lake.

Saturday July 12, 29.3mi/47.2km

Ridge above Square Lake (718.0/6240ft) to Graves Peak saddle (687.4/7220ft) (ID/MT) + 0.5 to Illinois Peak, -1.8 skip Joe Lake

Today was more hiking on the Stateline Trail, which transitioned from a road to a singletrack trail halfway through the day. It was pretty dry up on the ridgeline so I was happy to see a little roadside spring.

It was just nice easy walking all morning, and I had an occasional view when there was a burned area or clear-cut.

Occasionally I would cross a dirt road coming up from the valley, which meant some signage for the drivers. Apparently I’m still in Idaho Panhandle National Forest…. The same forest I started in up at the Canadian border.

This bird was cool, it was just strutting around the road, I think it was guarding some young chicks or something.

A preview to one of my upcoming climbs, I even saw a little bit of snow up there.

The road mostly contoured around 6,500 ft elevation, and the wildflowers were in full bloom here.

By late morning the road had ended and I continued on a nice single track trail.

Which climbed up and up onto a ridgeline over 7,000 ft.

From way up there I had views down to some nearby Alpine lakes on the Montana side. I think those are the Cliff Lakes.

Aside from the bugs being kind of bad, the day was generally quiet and enjoyable on a nice ridgetop trail.

Lots of little Alpine lakes today, they were only for viewing, most of them had no trails or were not easily accessible. These are the Bonanza Lakes.

It definitely wasn’t hot up here at over 7,000 ft, but it did feel nice to be out of the strong sunlight.

I came to Cascade Pass, which seemed to be a popular crossroad and trailhead, there were half a dozen cars parked there. And more signs.

Looking down to Missoula Lake, I wish one of these lakes was closer to the trail so I could go for a swim. I crossed the road and continued on the Stateline Trail, which apparently is a National Recreation Trail.

Looking below to the Oregon lakes:

I had been steadily but slowly climbing since I left Cascade pass, and now I could see my high point ahead of me, Illinois Peak.

The wildflowers, and the monarch butterflies, were really quite the spectacle today.

Somehow a trail goes up that mountain.

Then a half hour later I stood at the top of Illinois Peak, the back side of the mountain was actually gently sloped and had a nice trail to the top. I took a little break on the summit and enjoyed the strong breeze which kept the bugs away. As I was signing the summit register, I noticed the name on the pen.

Pretty nice views from the 7600 ft Summit.

As the sun dipped lower in the sky it started getting a little chilly, I continued another mile down the main trail and set up camp in a protected saddle.

I’m camped pretty close to the trail but there’s no way anybody is coming down this trail other than ICT hikers, and there are only like a dozen of us in any given year.