Tuesday July 1, 28.5mi/45.9km

Fault Lake (943.4/6080ft) to Round Mt State Forest (914.9/2250ft) (ID)

Fault Lake was an amazing campsite, and I woke up when the sun hit my tent at 5:15. There was a pretty nice descent trail, it started off in an Alpine meadow.

It was easy to follow, even on the big slabs of rock, where there were plentiful cairns.

The morning light in the mountains just feels so cheerful.

I crossed this little stream, which slid down big granite slabs.

After the stream, the trail became an old two-track road, and despite being a little brushy was remarkably easy to follow.

After a couple hours I was at the trailhead, where I refilled my water from the stream. Sometimes the guidebook is less than clear on how far the next water is. There is a little shortcut to connect two dirt roads, which involved a decommissioned road. It repeated the theme of being easy to follow, but a little brushy.

At one point it was carpeted in thousands of these little white flowers.

After a little creative routefinding, I made it down to the main dirt road. From here I decided to hike up and over the next mountain range. The official route is a long road walk, down to the town of Samuels, and involves much paved roadwalking. Fortunately the guidebook has an alternate that completely avoids this and goes directly up and over the next mountain range, using forestry and logging roads. I had a nice break in the shade, under a bridge over the Pack River.

The rest of the day was hiking on disused dirt roads. I progress gradually uphill for a couple hours.

At the top of the climb there was a nice little riparian pond area, where I had lunch.

The forestry roads traversed along the forested ridgeline, it was a hot day and I appreciated being in the shade almost the entire day.

I descended the other side of the mountain range, where the roads entered some active logging areas. It was fascinating seeing such a large operation being operated by just a few pieces of equipment and two people.

Looking back to the ridge I had just hiked over, which is called Roman nose.

At some points, the forest was perfectly intact on one side of the road and completely clear-cut on the other.

On the final part of the descent I could see into the valley, which I would be traversing tomorrow to the small town of Naples.

I hiked about a mile of the valley, which had quite a few little farms. There were animals everywhere, including turkeys and goats.

I made it to a little square of state-owned land, where I could legally camp. At this low elevation it was pretty warm, and while I considered cowboy camping, the hordes of mosquitoes quickly put an end to that thought. I rapidly set up my tent in the forest, and ducked inside to hide away from all the flying vampires.

It was a pretty easy day, even considering all the mileage.

Monday June 30, 15.3mi/24.6km

Priest Lake State Park (958.7/2470ft) to Fault Lake (943.4/6080ft) (ID)

I packed up my camp early, and walked back into the campground before 7am. The store wasn’t open yet so I enjoyed a quick swim, the water wasn’t that cold.

After drying off and warming up under the hand dryers in the bathroom, I walked over to the camp store and picked up a few snacks, as well as some breakfast ice cream.

It’s all homemade ice cream and they have a local flavor called huckleberry cheesecake, so of course that was my selection. After consuming oodles of calories, I left the campground and had a paved roadwalk for an hour. I was relieved to turn onto a dirt logging road.

The road was slowly climbing toward the next mountain range, so after an hour I had a pretty good view back towards Priest Lake.

It was a hot day, but fortunately the roadwalk was mostly in the shade of tall pine trees, and an uneventful 3 hours passed by.

At 3pm I came to the end of the road, and much to my surprise, it immediately ended at a field of talus.

It was quite a shocking transition, going from the easiest walking surface to one of the hardest ones. And at times the talus got a little steep as I climbed up towards Hunt Lake.

It was a little less than a mile of talus, but it took me 45 minutes, even with some of the nice herd paths that circumvented the talus. But finally I arrived at Hunt Lake.

It was a nice spot for a break, and I sat on a big sunny boulder and had some salty snacks. At this high elevation of almost 6,000 ft it was a little chilly. My next task was to hike around the lake, and then up and over a pass at the far end. The lakeshore still had some sizable snowfields remaining, so it wasn’t easy.

I had to hike up and over the snowfields, since an accidental slide down them would send me straight into the icy waters of the lake. But it was straightforward and pretty soon I was at the far end of the lake.

Next there was an 800 vertical foot climb up to a pass, which was complicated by the remaining snowfields. Normally there is a herdpath straight up the creek drainage, that was hidden under some soft snow.

So I scrambled up some granite slabs for a while, which worked really well. Pretty soon I was high above the lake. I thought I had avoided all the snow but the last tiny bit before the top of the pass had a low angle snowfield, so I just hiked right up it.

Even the top of the pass had a little cornice that hadn’t melted yet.

The day was getting late, so I hurried off the pass and down into the next drainage. It was a very scenic little swampy area, and it was surprisingly easy walking through the short grass, even if I got my feet a little wet.

After cresting another minor pass, I could see down to my destination at Fault Lake.

Most of the snow was gone from this side of the pass, and I descended through big fields of yellow flowers.

As I got closer to Fault Lake, both the mosquitoes and the views increased.

I hiked right down to the surface of the lake so I could feel the water, it was probably in the high 30s.

There were a couple small icebergs floating in the far end, so that’s probably not surprising. It was quite damp down by the lake, so I setup my tent on a rocky outcropping.

After I set up my tent I noticed another couple had arrived and setup their camp on the opposite bank. I went over to say hi and they were pretty friendly, and even invited me for a swim. I was skeptical that they were serious, but they impressed me as they both jumped in the lake off of a low boulder. I was a little jealous of their resistance to the cold, as I love swimming but I hate being cold. Then promptly at 7pm, the mosquitoes reported to work, and I went and hid in my tent while making dinner and getting ready for bed.

Sunday June 29, 23.1mi/37.2km

Big Cedar Camp (981.8/2630ft) to Priest Lake State Park (958.7/2470ft) (ID)

I slept in a little bit and didn’t start hiking until 7am, tired from the last 3 days of traveling.

The beautiful cedar forest continued most of the morning.

This also seemed like a popular trail with all the boardwalks over the marshy areas.

After a couple hours I arrived at Upper Priest Lake, which was pretty quiet.

It’s surrounded by public land and there are no private homes on this lake, just campsites.

I followed the lakeshore for a couple miles, only seeing one boat pass by.

The miles were easy and scenic all morning.

By noon I could tell it was getting pretty warm, but every time I entered a dense forest, it was immediately much cooler.

And I was cooled further when I had to ford a shallow creek. Wet feet and legs are like natural air conditioning.

And then for the rest of the day I had a roadwalk, initially in the forest.

After a couple miles, the dirt road became paved, and I would see a car every 5 minutes or so. I had about 4 hours to hike to Indian Creek campground.

I arrived at the campground at 7pm, just after the camp store had closed. So no ice cream for me tonight.

I walked to one of the campground loops and sat at a picnic table and made dinner. While dinner was rehydrating, I recharged my phone and also tried to reserve a campsite. I was able to add 70% charge to my phone, but for the campsites I was not so fortunate. There were a few available but for some reason they wanted $62. So after dinner I hiked a half mile to the boundary of the park and camped in the forest. Who pays $62 to sleep on the ground? I’ve had motels that were cheaper than that. Tomorrow morning I’ll have to get up early as my choice of campsite is questionable, but that will give me time to check out the camp store and go for a swim in the lake.

Saturday June 28, 16.0mi/25.8km

Upper Priest Falls (995.6/3280ft) to Big Cedar Camp (981.8/2630ft) (ID) + 2.2mi approach trail

I was awake at 6am like usual, got a shower and some breakfast I had bought the night before. My packing routine was a little different, as I now had to deal with a bear canister and bear spray. Ideally I would have my urSack, but it’s locked away in my van. So I bought a cheap used bearVault off Facebook Marketplace in Spokane. I had been texting with Matt the night before, and we had settled on an 8am pickup time at my motel. The first hour of the drive was on normal paved roads, and as we headed north the roads dwindled in size, until eventually it was just a dirt road.

Matt hiked the ICT in 2021 together with his spouse, and was so entertaining to talk with during the drive. We mostly discussed hiking things, but at one point the topic of mental health came up and Matt shared with me their non-profit organisation, Ethan Murray Fund. I think it’s awesome they’re helping teens with access to mental health services. Mental health is a topic that our society doesn’t place enough emphasis on, or give enough resources to. Before I knew it, the 3 hours flew by and we were at the trailhead!

We took a photo together before I started off down the trail.

To get to the Northern Terminus I had to hike just over 2 miles on a spur trail. I descended into a very verdant valley.

It was clearly a popular trail as it had many well-built bridges.

I got to follow the Upper Priest River for half a mile, enjoying the sounds of the brook.

Everything was so mossy and green. It felt like such a different world compared to Nevada.

Pretty quickly I was at Upper Priest Falls, which is the Northern Terminus.

I happened to have the good timing to arrive at the same time as two ladies out for a long day hike. Christy grabbed a starting photo for me, thanks!

And then we took a photo together, because why not?

After a long lunch, I started hiking south from the falls, so now these counted as real miles. I loved the mature cedar forest with all the ferns on the ground.

After a couple miles, I inexplicably came by a random bench in the middle of nowhere.

The green forest continued for the whole afternoon.

I could tell it was probably a hot day, but in this dense ancient forest, it felt quite cool.

By 5pm I had finished hiking the Upper Priest River Trail, and had about an hour of roadwalking to connect to the next trail.

Christy passed me on the road as they were driving home, and gave me a nice cold seltzer. Thanks! (And sorry if I spelled your name wrong).

When I arrived at the trailhead for the Upper Priest Lake Trail, I entered an amazing open cedar forest. It was a little after 6pm and it looked like the perfect camping spot.

What a great first day on the Idaho Centennial Trail! I love that the Hot Springs Trail basically uses the ICT as its route through Idaho.

Thursday June 26 & Friday June 27, 0mi/0km

The train arrived in Salt Lake City, and I took a quick Uber to the airport. Unfortunately, my 7am flight had been canceled due to lack of flight attendants, and I couldn’t wait another 24 hours for the next flight. So with my refund plus my “denied boarding” compensation, I rented a one-way car to Spokane airport.

I was on the road at 6am and had a nice scenic drive thru Northern Utah and Idaho. A quick stop at the Idaho potato museum was warranted, and it was just as quirky as I imagined.

The gift shop had a bunch of ridiculous t-shirts and other junk, and the cafe had potato-based cupcakes and ice cream which were interesting.

From there, I drove all day through Idaho, into Montana, and I stopped at the Costco in Missoula to pick up some bear spray.

The northern few hundred miles of this trail are in grizzly territory, so I will be hiking with the appropriate gear. I bought a fuel canister at REI, and then hit the road, heading west towards Spokane. I ended up camping at a nice free little camping area behind the 50,000 silver dollar Cafe. Breakfast there the next morning was typical greasy diner food which definitely hit the spot.

After a couple more hours of driving, I dropped off the rental car at the Spokane airport, grabbed some lunch, and then got on a local community shuttle bus from Spokane to Newport. I did some resupply shopping at the Safeway in Newport, checked into my motel, and then grabbed some dinner at a local pizza place. Pizza in the rural West is never that great, I’m always comparing to New York Pizza which is hard to beat. Tomorrow morning, I’m meeting a local guy I had connected with, who offered to give me a ride to the Northern Terminus, which is like a 3-hour drive, much of it on slow dirt roads. That’s amazingly generous of his time. I’m pretty excited for the Hot Springs Trail in Idaho, which mostly coincides with the Idaho Centennial Trail. I’m actually using the guidebook for the ICT, since it’s more comprehensive and also newer and more up to date.

Wednesday June 25, 3.6mi/5.8km

Lamoille Canyon (1082.3/6410ft) to Lamoille (1085.9/5890ft) (NV)

I slept in later, since I only had an hour to hike and nothing in town was open until 8am. It was a pretty quick roadwalk on a warm sunny morning.

There’s only two restaurants in town and only one of them is open for breakfast. The cafe is a rustic little place.

It was actually a pretty good breakfast and I love any place that has rye toast.

I hung out at the cafe until almost 10am, since that’s when the post office opened. I went next door and got a couple of packages, my new insoles and also a food box.

The third box was not there however, and when we checked the tracking number it apparently had been misdelivered to the location in Elko. So my new darn tough socks were at the PO in Elko. A guy in line behind me overheard my dilemma, and offered to drive me into town, about 30 minutes away. Amazing. I was planning on heading into Elko anyway since that’s where the Amtrak train is, and now I didn’t have to hitch. He dropped me off directly at the Elko post office, I got my socks, and then walked the downtown area.

The first time I was in Elko it felt a little sprawled and crappy, but this time I was in the downtown area, which is actually pretty nice. Lots of artwork everywhere.

Many people I talked to had recommended the Star restaurant, so I went there and was amazed by the quantity of food.

Basque food is quite delicious!

My change of plans was to continue my hike in a different direction. I was basically finished hiking Nevada, and if I continued hiking North through Idaho, I would probably hit wildfire season in the most remote forests of the state. So I decided to hike Idaho in the southbound direction, which means I’m taking various means of transit to go from Elko, Nevada to the Canadian border of Idaho. I’ll hike all of Idaho southbound and then reconnect to my steps here in Elko, probably by late August. After dinner, I walked a mile across town to the Amtrak station.

The train arrived at 9 pm, and it will take me to Salt Lake City at 4am, where I will then catch a flight to Spokane WA, and then a bus and a ride to Idaho.

Goodbye for now Nevada, I’ll be back.

Tuesday June 24, 19.6mi/31.5km

North Furlong Creek (1062.7/9900ft) to Lamoille Canyon (1082.3/6410ft) (NV)

It was cold camping at almost 10,000 ft, and I woke up a little later to let the sun warm the valley. Llama and I seemed to be on the same schedule, as we finished packing up our tents at the same time.

It was an easy little hike out of that valley.

After an easy climb to a low pass we dropped into the Favre Lake basin.

The trail didn’t really get near that lake, but fortunately it went directly near Liberty Lake, where we took a long snack break.

From there we said our goodbyes, as our routes would split as I would continue North and he circled back to his car. I started to climb above the lake, I loved watching the morning light reflect off the surface.

Climbing up to Liberty Pass.

From high on the pass, the lake looked like a postcard.

And of course there were snowfields up on the pass.

Goodbye, wilderness of lakes.

Pretty soon I passed by the wilderness sign, which meant I had officially exited the Ruby Mountains wilderness.

From the top of the pass, I could see ahead down into the Lamoille Canyon.

At this point I was only a couple of miles from a popular trailhead so the trail quality improved noticeably.

And I had one more alpine lake to explore, Lamoille Lake.

Despite all the snow, I saw a couple people trying to fish in it.

As approached Lamoille Canyon, the snow started to disappear and everything became green again.

There were still a few large patches of snow, and many of the dayhikers were struggling to understand how to walk on summer snow.

I wasn’t using my hiking poles so I helped them out and gave two of them each a hiking pole for balance. I chatted with the family for a mile, turns out they are from Mocksville NC, and the Seats family have lived there for many decades. Pretty soon after that I arrived at the trailhead parking area, said goodbye to my new acquaintances, and then continued on the roadwalk.

It was a very easy gradual downhill hike, and despite my late start this morning and many long breaks I had covered 20 miles by 5 pm. I couldn’t continue further as I would be entering private property, so I camped at the last possible minute next to the Lamoille Creek. Tomorrow I will have only 3 miles to get to the little town of Lamoille, where I will pick up a few boxes from the post office.

Monday June 23, 24.7mi/39.8km

McCutcheon Creek (1038.0/8750ft) to North Furlong Creek (1062.7/9900ft) (NV)

I started off the day with a little more hiking in the aspen forest, everything has been so green lately, I’ve forgotten I’m hiking in a desert.

After climbing a little higher I get above the forest and get some views!

The trail goes up and down over a series of hills and every time it enters a drainage it gets a little overgrown. Fortunately there were cairns to mark the way.

Even a few stream crossings.

In many ways, the Ruby Mountains feel like a smaller version of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

There were so many little creek crossings and water sources, I never had to carry water for more than a couple of miles.

After climbing up out of the drainages, I was back on top of the ridgeline where it was nice and sunny.

I enjoyed a nice lunch up there and figured I’d have an easy afternoon. But after rounding your corner, I saw that there were still many lingering cornices and snowfields on the North- and east-facing slopes.

The snow was quite soft, so it was easy to kick little steps. Definitely not steep enough to be dangerous, it was just energy intensive.

I crossed over a pass and then had an absolutely ridiculous view down to these two Alpine lakes, the Overland Lakes.

The upper lake was mostly thawed and was tempting for a swim.

And given how far I was from a trailhead, the trail was surprisingly well maintained up here.

I went down to the lakeshore to get a better photo and dip my feet in the water. It was definitely refreshing.

After carefully getting down some more snow slopes I was at the lower Overland Lake.

It was a very peaceful little lake. I didn’t hear any animal sounds, and even the scattered campsites were deserted.

Yep, it definitely feels like hiking through the Sierras.

At the outlet end of the lake was this mysterious little abandoned cabin.

Also at the outlet end of the lake, much to my surprise, was another backpacker. I haven’t seen another hiker on this trail since California, which was about 500 miles ago. I met “Llama”, who was up for a weekend backpacking trip. Even more coincidentally, he’s one of the very few people who’ve actually thru-hiked the Hot Springs Trail before. Amazing. I had a fun afternoon hiking and chatting with him!

I mostly forgot to take photos that I was excited to be chatting with another human, but it did capture a few. Like this mysterious object next to the trail.

We did have to surmount a few more small cornices, though most of them we were able to easily go around.

I believe this was near the summit of Wines Peak, over 10,000 ft.

Neither of us wanted to camp up on a high ridgeline, so I hiked a little later than I normally would. We watched the sunset as we descended into a little valley to camp.

We made it down to North Furlong Creek just after sunset and set up camp near each other. I haven’t camped with anybody yet on this entire trail! We took pre-dinner selfie before retiring to our respective tents.

Fun day!

Sunday June 22, 8.0mi/12.9km

Harrison Pass (1030.0/7250ft) to McCutcheon Creek (1038.0/8750ft) (NV)

I got pretty lucky for picking a random hotel, the Holiday motel was pretty decent for $79 and even had free laundry. In the morning I went down to the Maverick and got a couple breakfast burritos, then after doing laundry and shower I packed up and went to lunch at the only place nearby, Dairy Queen. After lunch I started hitching back to trail which I knew would be a tough hitch. I started hitching at noon and took a couple hours to get the first ride which got me 5 miles out to Spring Creek. From that crossroads I waited another hour to get my second ride down a rural road, to the tiny hamlet of Jiggs, which is basically just a bar and community Center.

The driver Jay was really nice and agreed to drive me all the way down to Jiggs when I offered to buy us a round of drinks at the bar. He’s a local but hadn’t been there in years and thought it would be nostalgic. I let him order for both of us, and I was surprised and a little frightened that he ordered us shots of Fireball. But a deal is a deal. After washing the taste out of my mouth with a Coors beer, I stood out front and started hitching for my third and final ride to the trail at Harrison pass. Within 5 minutes a guy working at the silver mine picked me up, and Franklin said he could drive me halfway there before his road split off. But after being my usual friendly self for 5 minutes, he agreed that he could drive me all the way to the pass since he had some extra time. It was 5pm and I was back on trail!

The hike started off easy enough on an old 4wd road, with some cool rock formations to look at along the way.

After a couple miles the old road ended, and I was at the official trailhead for the Ruby Crest Trail.

This seemed like the most useless sign I’ve ever seen, since there was no junction nearby. Yup, it’s a trail!

The weather has been a little chilly the last few days and once I rounded the mountain I was in the wind again. But I could see for miles!

The old road got more and more overgrown, and it felt more like a hiking trail.

I love these little Aspen forests.

The Ruby Crest Trail is a National Recreation Trail, but some of the signs looked like they could use some maintenance or replacing.

Great views to the Northwest all the way back to Elko, where I had come from.

Once I rounded to the north side of the mountain, the vegetation changed and became almost all aspen forest.

Since I got a late start hiking, I only covered about 8 miles before ending my day at McCutcheon Creek.

It was a beautiful spot, and there was even plenty of running water nearby to fill my bottles. And falling asleep to the sound of a creek is always a wonderful end to the day.

Saturday June 21, 15.7mi/25.3km

Mitchell Creek saddle (1014.3/8570ft) to Harrison Pass (1030.0/7250ft) (NV)

This was my little patch of dirt camp spot, which was somewhat protected from wind by the trees. But it was still the windiest night of camping I think I’ve ever had.

Of course I didn’t sleep that well, so I was thankful to have some more easy old roads to hike this morning.

It was a quick thousand-ft climb up and over a pass.

And back down the other side, where there were still little patches of snow!

So far it was a pretty easy ridge walk, and quite scenic as well.

Just cruising along the ridgetops, there wasn’t even any wind!

Looking down into the valley, at the Ruby Lakes.

Eventually the old road ended and things got a little rockier. And slower. Looking ahead to Pearl Peak, my high point for the day:

On the Summit of Pearl Peak it started to become quite windy and the clouds were moving in. I could see ahead to the next two bumps on the ridge, the last of which was named Red Cone.

As I made my way down to Red Cone, the wind really started to increase. I hurried my way across the Ridgeline and pretty soon I was standing in front of Red Cone.

The rocks seemed to be red from some type of lichen that was growing on them. I hurried up and over, as it was becoming increasingly cold and windy.

The ridgeline was pretty rocky but I was making good time, motivated by an incoming storm.

Way below me to the West, I spotted a little alpine lake! So cool.

This was one of the last photos I took as my hands were starting to get pretty cold. It shows the storm moving in, and the amazing ridgeline I was descending.

Once I finished traversing the ridge I had to descend steeply, I opted for the scree express route.

The guidebook map shows a route going straight down the center of the ridge, but that was just a series of impossible looking 20-ft cliffs. So, no thanks! Besides, scree-surfing is fun! After losing a thousand feet of elevation in 5 minutes, I noticed the storm was getting pretty close.

For the next hour I was moving at full speed, descending and moving into the relative safety of a valley.

It was certainly much less windy, but now it was snowing on me. It was a beautiful valley, though the wildflowers didn’t seem to appreciate the snow either.

I just kept moving, which was a great way to stay warm since it was now 35ºF and lightly snowing. I made it all the way to the dirt road at Harrison pass, while trying to think of a plan of what to do. There were no trees nearby to block the wind, and since it’s a pass, all the wind gets funneled through the area. It was 4:30pm, so I didn’t have a lot of time to make it much further today. I decided to try and hitch to town. It was a long shot since it’s a very remote road, and in 1 hour I only saw 2 cars. They both stopped to chat with me, the first car was going the wrong direction. The second car picked me up and took me to Elko, where the two ladies were heading to see a rodeo tonight. It was a long drive, and an hour later I was in town in a warm dry restaurant. Spicy food is the best when you’re cold!

Downtown Elko is fairly compact, so I was able to walk a couple blocks and get a cheap motel room for the night. I’ll figure out what to do for tomorrow, and how to get back to the trail.