Just a short notational clarification first: I'll now be using FH to
refer to possibly paved "forest Highways", FR for unpaved "Forest
Roads", FT for trails.
I tend to keep my intentions quite fluid. For example, when I left
CdA ending up at Settlers Cedar Grove, I also had in mind at least two
other possible destinations, the most logical one being to hit the
southern most uncompleted portion of the stateline trail first. This
would have been the next road access point north after Thompson Pass,
specifically take FH9 past Prichard (where FH9 abruptly turns east) to
Eagle (a few ranches near an intersection - and a clearing currently
being used as a helicopter landing area for some controlled burning
going on in the area generally north of Settlers Grove (there were
detailed postings of the proposed burns with maps at many of the
prominent intersections along FH9, although the date ranges were
broad.) At Eagle a left onto FR152 then in two miles the maps seemed
to show a Y branch, left to Settlers Grove, right onto FR2349 which
wound along East Fork Eagle Creek to the State Line above Jack Waite
mine from where I could follow the ICT south for about half a day back
to my turnaround from Thompson Pass, and take the ICT north to a
turnaround at least to Black Peak, another half day, at least. "At
least" because it seemed to depend on the actual situation at the next
apparent northern road access (different maps were inconsistent how
far south from Taylor Saddle was a road vs trail, and the actual
condition of the "not maintained for passenger cars" road was
uncertain - driving these roads with my car is very stressful! ) But
it would be time-efficient if I could do that branch in a single day,
as two half day hikes, and it was already mid-day today, so I was
already inclined to save that for another day.
So I found the Y with a sign left to Settlers Grove and no sign to the
right. Curious, I following the right branch, it shortly Y'd again,
right going down seemingly to a creek access, left up, of course no
signage. I assumed left, but would do that maybe tomorrow with an
early start. Backtracked and went to the Cedar Grove. That turned
out to be about an hour walk, I turned around when the trail left the
woods beginning to climb up a logged or burned ridge, according to the
maps, eventually to the State Line, about where the next road access
via Taylor Saddle would get me. Back at the car still early
afternoon, way too early to just hang around down here and probably
even too early to take the recently scouted road to the ridge above
Jack Waite mine, would be sitting there for a long evening, and
besides, I was curious about the actual next road access north.
There were at least three possible routes to that presumed state line
access point, at the south end of one of the branches from Taylor
Saddle. One route began nearby, just about a quarter mine west of the
Eagle intersection. on the ID road map this was a road, but on the
Forest map it was a "motorized use trail" turning into a road "not
suitable for passenger cars" further up the ridge. I intended to take
a look but must have gotten distracted on the road and missed the
turn, and didn't bother to turn back. Remaining were a number of
possible approaches to get to Taylor Saddle, all starting from along
FH208 and FH412, most seeming to get "tangled up" around Haystack Mt,
the last getting to Taylor Saddle Via Taylor Mt. I ended up blowing
past all but the last one before realizing I was making such good time
on the paved road.
The last possibility was FR151. I stopped there and studied the maps
some more. From Taylor saddle would be two branches, south to some
uncertain distance past Lost Peak/Bloom Peak before hitting trail,
North to probably the set FR801, a switchbacks back down the ridge
along a powerline crossing the ridge, then back up to Porcupine Pass,
there being trail to walk between those extremes and extending beyond,
probably to Black Point southward, and Bottle Point to the north. The
roads would all be "not for passenger cars". It would probably take
me at least two days to cover that territory. From Porcupine Pass, it
looked like I could drive east into Montana along a series of roads
and get back to the state line at Idaho Point. from Idaho Point, a
short hike south to Bottle Point would connect to my presumed out&back
north from Porcupine Pass.
North of Idaho Point it looked like the ICT followed roadway all the
way along the state line and then down to Clark Fork, first along
FR430 til it joined with FH412. Oh, FH412 was what I was on now. I
could just continue on that road (although it turned to gravel, it was
still much smoother than the alternative up FH151.) One particular
rationale I had for taking the "easy road" now was that I had
forgotten to add air back into my tires after a few days ago the
people at the oil stop took out air that I had gone out of my way
earlier to add, so my tires wouldn't look visibly flat. This seems to
happen every time I get my oil changed, I've even talked to them and
they say those are the Subaru specs, to have a softer ride,
apparently. Very annoying! Anyway, the notion of driving on cobbly
roads with already flat tires just adds to my stress.
I might end up overnighting on the ridge, but maybe not, it was now
still midafternoon. So on I drove, along the easier road. The drive
was faily mundane, scenery wise, filtered glimpses of horizons through
trees. I tried to poke into any turnouts for better views, but there
were few. The road did get much rougher on the ridge, but only a few
soft muddy spots gave me reason to worry about getting stuck. Getting
to the junction with FR801 I decided to pass on taking that
significantly rougher looking road now, due to my tires.
As a result, I ended up in Clark Fork late afternoon, got some ice at
a very poorly stocked market in town, and continued on to find the ICT
trailhead north of town. On the maps, the trailhead was at the end of
what turned out to be a small residential community, but again, no
trail signage and instead a bunch of no trespassing signs at all the
likely possibilities. Went back into town, stopped at a gas station
to get gas, and air, and to ask. The gas station attendant pointed
out that one of my tires was flat, I said, "I know, I just got an oil
change and they took my air, I was just going to ask where your pump
was." At the air pump I noticed that indeed, my front left tire was
very flat, a slow leak evidently. I then asked about the trailhead,
he didn't know specifically about the ICT, but said some of the no
trespassing signs that looked like they were for the road were
actually just referring to the land to the side of the road. OK, I'll
look again; poked around some more, taking some of the "no
trespassing" roads. A resident driving home asked me what I was
looking for and said, yes, one of the owners sold their land to a new
owner who then retracted the access agreement. (That's odd, must have
been an informal agreement rather than an easement.) They suggested I
access the trail from Trestle Creek Road, about 10 miles further up
the road. It was getting dark, and I had no overnight location lined
up, so decided I'd drive back to CdA and get my tire repaired at the
Walmart next morning. Doublechecked the air in the tire, still OK, so
drove through Sandpoint and south my usual hwy90 rest stop.
The next morning the tire was completely flat. Swapped that out for my
spare, went to Walmart and had it patched. But they noted that they
could only do that because it was my spare, they could not have
mounted it back on my car, and that if my other tires were that bad I
should get a new set. The other tires did look about the same (I've
been trying to rotate my set of 5 tires to keep then evenly worn,
relatively easy considering how often I need to swap out a flat.)
Went back inside to look at current price of my tire, about $45,
Douglas All Season, the cheapest available. Next one about 54, next up
60something. I chose the cheapest last time because I got burned once
before having to replace a whole set only about half-worn, because
they couldn't fix the flat because it was split, rather than just a
puncture. It occurred to me also that I mght ask about the mileage I
got on the tires, I guessed that I got short of the 45,000 mile
warranty on the tire, with all by gravel driving. Sure enough, I
only had about 25,000 miles on them (and that's not even considering
that with 5 tires, it's essentially only 4/5ths of that.) The shop
manager tried up-selling me to a higher grade, but I told them my
reasoning for getting the cheapest set, although they said that if I
had bought road hazard insurance on them last time, I could have
gotten the whole set replaced for only my prorated use. Turns out
that I had in act purchased the road hazard for my current set, so, I
ended up with a new set of 5 tires, for $2xx dollars (had to
re-purchase road hazard insurance on the new set for $10 per tire, and
they sneaked in $10/tire rotation service - sneakey!)
Well, that's it for the scope of my subject line for this thread, I
guess I started this thread after my tire purchase. Next email will
have a new subject line.
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