500 mile adventure in Central Idaho!

July 2008

For this trip, our plan was to leave home, head into Central ID and travel up to the Canadian border; then come back a different route through Western MT. We were figuring on about 1000 miles. But after 5 days we were still in Central ID! It had been a hard winter prior, and there was still a lot more snow than we bargained for in mid July! We had to backtrack many times since we couldn't get over much of the mountains. We still had a blast doing a lot of "turn around-go backs" and trying to figure new trails to use. This was new country for both of us, so we thoroughly enjoyed this adventure. The only disappointment was it was not as remote as our other trip. We did see people on the trails and we went through several small towns.

We should have figured it was going to be "one of those trips" when, just 30 miles from the truck, we started shoveling snow and seeing that we were the first people through from the winter

And of course, when you're the first to clear snow from the trail, you're also the first to clear all the downed timber! This is why chainsaws are always a necessity when traveling in the back country.

But, all the wildflowers were in full bloom. These are beargrass. Each plant, which has only 1 flower, blooms once every 5-7 years. They stand about 3 ft tall.

Cayuse Lake. There was a major fire that roared through here in the early 2000's.

Cayuse Creek. This is deeper than it looks! It's just so crystal clear, it seems shallow.

Just some gorgeous scenery on our way!

This is the upper portion of Dworshak Reservoir, which is over 50, miles long. The North fork of the Clearwater dumps into it.

Near Elk River, this is a Western Red Cedar Tree, the largest tree in the state. Estimated to be over 3000 years old, it's more than 18 feet in diameter and stands 177 feet tall.

This is down off Freezeout Mountain. July 21 and too much snow to go over! So we had to make camp there and re-figure our route. It was a dry camp (no creeks for water) so we melted snow. Had a gorgeous view of the valleys to the south and a gorgeous sunrise the next day. From here we traveled a long way through the St Joe National Forest to Clarkia, where we got lunch and fuel. Then headed up to Avery. Avery's history is rich in railroading with the Milwaukee Railroad running along the St Joe River through town since early 1900's. It is also where over 80 firefighters were killed during the the Great Fire of 1910. Most of where we traveled was part of this forest fire which burned over 3 million acres (bigger than the whole state of Connecticut). Today it is still considered to be the largest forest fire in US History. (here is a link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910 )

We are at Gold Summit and found a beautiful spot to camp down in a bowl. We had 2 visitors.... the doe who just hung with us all night and a fox or coyote that got into our stuff in the night. It was a full moon, and after waking to the rummaging sounds, we watched a shadow with a long fluffy tail take off!

This is some really pretty country. We are off HooDoo Pass near Trout Creek in the Lolo National Forest, and headed to Kelly Work Center, which is a summer camp for forest workers.

On our way to Osier Lookout, we came across all this Fern. I am standing! We typically don't have fern because it's too dry in the forests, especially this tall and lush.

Indian Paintbrush

From Kelly Work Center we just retraced our path back. We had a super time, as we always do back in the woods; but wished we hadn't run into so much snow which altered the whole trip. But that's the adventure one always gets when traveling in Mother Nature's world. You do what she dictates!!!