Friday July 11, 30.6mi/49.3km

Ridge above St Regis River (748.0/5730ft) to Ridge above Square Lake (718.0/6240ft) (ID/MT) +0.6mi to water

I was on the Stateline Trail all day today, which started off as a singletrack trail and then transitioned to a dirt road for the rest of the day. It was easy hiking, the scenery was nice, and I wasn’t really present in the moment for any of it.

I got news on my inReach at 7am, that Denali had gone to doggy heaven. She was my dog a long time ago, and then my parents adopted her 10 years ago. She had a good long life, and yet 16 years wasn’t enough time for all the head pets she wanted. At least now she’s above the clouds, where it will never rain on her… she absolutely couldn’t stand rain.

I used up all my mental energy from this morning’s news and then accidentally hiking 30+ miles today…so here’s my photos from today.

Thursday July 10, 8.5mi/13.7km

Mullan (756.5/3270ft) to Ridge above St Regis River (748.0/5730ft) (ID/MT)

It was hot in that low elevation Valley, but with the fans on all night I slept comfortably. In the morning I packed up my food into my bear canister, with some food also going into a box to be mailed into the Frank Church wilderness.

I left the Airbnb before the checkout time, since I wanted to get to the post office before they closed for lunch at 11am.

I mailed a small box of food to the Indian Creek Guard station, and despite me verifying the address from three different sources, the PO still couldn’t find it in their computer. But I know it’s right, so it should get there. Afterwards I went a couple blocks to a little bakery, and was doubly excited when they had sourdough toast with peanut butter and honey.

I got on the bus and went back to Mullan, which took almost an hour. I noticed the library was open so I decided to do some quick updates to my journal and my maps, and also top up my phone charge while I was there. After that was the road walk out of town, fortunately it was cool and cloudy today.

That billboard looked weirdly out of place behind all the trees, but then I figured out this must have been the main highway through the valley before they built Interstate 90 in the late 1970s. And I could hear that Interstate nearby, and I crossed over it a mile later. It looked pretty empty.

Once I was south of the interstate, the road turned to dirt.

After a mile it ended at the Willow Creek Trailhead where I saw just a few vehicles, weirdly one of them was the Shoshone county Sheriff. Now I was back on trail and happy to be making uphill progress and in the nice cool weather. I really had pretty good luck with the weather today, the one day I have a huge 3,000-ft climb and it’s cool and cloudy.

I was almost to the lake when I saw a couple people hiking downhill towards me, without backpacks and wearing uniforms. Once I got closer I realized they were two county sheriffs, they said they were looking from somebody that wrecked their car “up at the lake”, which sounded ridiculous given that you can’t drive anywhere near these lakes, it’s just narrow hiking trails. They said not to worry and the person isn’t dangerous, but if I see a car or a lost person to call 911 and they’ll come sort it out. Interesting. I pondered that for quite a while and then when I passed a waterfall it pushed those thoughts out of my brain.

Within a few minutes I was at lower Stevens Lake, which looked pretty sweet. Lots of campsites, no mosquitoes, and swimmable water.

But the afternoon was getting late and I wanted to cover some miles, so I went past it towards Upper Stevens Lake.

And from the upper lake, I took a series of faint herd trails to hike/ scramble up to the ridge, 600 ft above the lake.

This routing is an alternate recommended by the guidebook, I’m not sure I agree. It was quite steep, and very different in character from the rest of the trail so far. Looking at Stevens Peak, my destination at the top of the climb.

Once I was on the ridgeline it was quite rocky, though there was a nice herd path. The last bit just before the summit was definitely steep, and while I have fun with these little rocky scrambles, I think most hikers would be happier taking the original route, which is a more gradual ascent on dirt roads.

The view from the summit was pretty epic. Looking West toward the other ridge, where the original routing is located.

Stevens Peak is 6800 ft, which is the tallest in the Northern Bitterroots. It’s always nice to look down on the area I just hiked up, feels like an accomplishment. The Stevens Lakes:

From there I dropped off the summit and followed a ridgeline for the rest of the day. Since I was on the highest terrain in the area, I had tons of good views, including this cool spot of sunlight.

I knew I would be following this ridgeline for a couple more days, and once I noticed it was almost 8pm I decided to stop and camp. Of course there weren’t any convenient spots nearby so I just camped in the middle of the wide trail.

I didn’t cover many miles today but it was a big 3,000-ft climb to get back up onto the ridge.

Wednesday July 9, 10.4mi/16.7km

Upper Glidden Lake (766.9/5910ft) to Mullan (756.5/3270ft) (ID)

I was visited in the night by an elk or a moose, I heard a large hoofed animal walking by, and then in the morning saw some big branches broken off nearby. The mosquitoes were still having their annual gathering so I packed up faster than usual and hiked uphill away from the lake.

The trail was very nice, but it was a little confusing that it didn’t appear on any of the several different maps that I had. After a mile of climbing I was back up on a ridgeline, and could see down to upper Glidden Lake.

And once I crossed over a small pass I could see the valley I would be descending into, including Interstate 90 and a small ski resort in the distance.

The endless rows of mountains here are just amazing to see.

Continuing my big 3,000 ft descent on a very nice trail.

I had a couple of enjoyable hours gradually descending down to the Little North Fork valley.

I emerged from the forest at a fish hatchery ! That was surprising, usually trails emerge at trailheads. The last couple of miles were along a paved road, but at least it went by a little town park where I could sit and take a break in the shade.

As I got closer to town, I passed by a huge operation for a mining company, and then a large State DOT maintenance facility with lots of beeping trucks. Finally I was in Mullan.

It was 10:30am, nothing was open yet and my bus didn’t come until 12:30. I killed some time wandering the little town, and when it was 11:00 I went to the only restaurant open in town, the Outlaw Bar and Grill.

Their pork chop burger was pretty good, and I’m surprised at how many places here have tater tots. After an early lunch I got on the bus and went down to Kellogg, which is a bigger town with a grocery store. I was staying at a little Airbnb room, and was pleasantly surprised to see all these stickers on the front door.

I had my own little part of the house, a bedroom, bathroom and TV room. The laundry room and kitchen are shared, the host was very nice and mostly gone all day at work nearby. I walked into town and did some quick resupply shopping and spent a couple hours planning out the next few legs of the trip. I’ll have one town stop in a week and then after that there won’t be any phone signal for a couple weeks…so I have to download everything and figure it out now. There wasn’t much of anything on TV, it seems like it’s mostly reruns during the summer, even Colbert’s late show. I went to bed a little later than usual, with a bunch of fans turned on high, there’s no AC here and it’s pretty warm down in the low elevations.

Tuesday July 8, 17.7mi/28.5km

Dixie Pass (784.6/5520ft) to Upper Glidden Lake (766.9/5910ft) (ID/MT)

It was a pretty relaxing day since I’m a little ahead on miles and had a few lakes to visit and possibly swim in. The day started off pretty easy on an old dirt road for an hour, and then some very nice single track trail.

Overall it was pretty densely forested, but I had frequent views every time there was a talus field to cross.

Looking to the West:

It seemed like in every direction I looked there were just endless rows of mountains continuing in the distance. Pretty cool. And I continued to be pleasantly surprised by the good quality trails in this section.

I’m pretty sure that will change further south, but for now I’m enjoying the nice trails. I came to a pretty busy trailhead, and since I hadn’t looked at my maps closely, I was surprised to see a paved road cutting through the area.

Blossom Lake is pretty popular, though it seemed strange that it would have two separate trailheads. Segregation for horses?

I passed two large groups that were hiking out as I was heading into the lake, and I kind of figured that the lake would be empty, since the five cars in the parking lot would be matched up with those 10 people. But when I arrived, there was still a large group there, nine women were having their annual weekend at the lake. I picked a quieter spot further along the shoreline.

It was indeed a nice spot to have lunch as well.

I went for a swim right after lunch, definitely not waiting 30 minutes, pretty sure that’s just an urban myth. The large group nearby had a friendly yellow lab who kept swimming over to deliver a large stick he had found in the lake. Apparently it was the dog’s first day ever seeing a lake, and it was probably the best day of his life. I left the busy lake and headed uphill another 30 minutes to the next lake, Pear Lake.

I attempted to swim at this one, but quickly aborted once I realized there were too many hungry mosquitoes. The previous lake had a bit more wind which I think was enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay. So I continued on and just enjoyed the views of Pear Lake as I climbed above it.

Once I got to the top of the ridge I could see ahead to the next valley, and upper Glidden Lake, where I would be camping tonight.

The amazingly well maintained trail continued all day, I’m savoring it now while it lasts.

Upper Glidden Lake was fairly large, and seemed to have enough wind to keep away the bugs so I could go swimming.

This water was much colder, so the swim was very brief. Which worked out well anyway, because it seems everyday at 7pm the mosquitoes come out in force. Usually when the bugs are really bad I would make dinner in my tent, but I can’t use that strategy in grizzly country. So I made dinner down by the lake, wearing all my rain gear as bug protection. Ugh. Tomorrow should be a short day as I only have 10 miles to town.

Monday July 7, 27.6mi/44.4km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The stumps on this trail are so friendly!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday July 6, 21.1mi/34.0km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday July 5, 1.5mi/2.4km

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

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

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

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

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

And the dog, Red was simply adorable.

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

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

Sandpoint even has a legit outdoor store!

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

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

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

Friday July 4, 29.0mi/46.7km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even after they degraded they were still quite followable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dry Creek was my destination for the night.

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

Thursday July 3, 24.9mi/40.1km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday July 2, 22.0mi/35.4km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And sometimes through dense forest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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