don't recall exactly how the forecasts evolved, but it now seemed I
had a short window of about two sunny days separated by one night of
rain, before a pattern change to a cold front and at least a week of
"instability", so I decided to again forego the half-day hike where I
was at, at Shiloh, and instead preempt the risk of having too-muddy
rugged mountain roads in the area I had skipped between just north of
Clark Fork to my last loop hike attempting to reach PurdyMt.
So I made the long drive south and east to Trellis Creek Road FR275
climbing up from Lake Pend Oreille to FR1091 to the Lunch Peak TH at
FT67, that trail you may recall from my last thread, having the name
"Pend Oreille Divide Trl", at least the sign makers at Kelly Pass
called it that. Arriving at the LunchPkTH about noon after a grueling
ordeal for the Zomberoo on creek-bed-rocky FR1091, the trail was
signed simply "67". Packed my backpack for a one-nighter, and
started off, from already spectacular near-360 views on the TH saddle
(just below the actual top of Lunch Saddle which has a rent-able
lookout tower - thought I might visit it on my return,) along a ridge
with generally good unobstructed views down both sides, and relatively
minor climbs down across wooded saddles between peaks, so I had the
energy to climb off-trail most of the encountered minor peaks with
grassy or small-brush or tallis-rock terrain. Also climbed the
feature-peak, Mt Pend Oreille, rewarded with 360 views southwest to
the same-named lake, southeast to small Lake Darling, southeast to a
craggy range in Montana (possibly the Purcels, or the Cabinets though
I thought I was on that range - more research for later...) and north
to Mt Willard and neighboring peaks. At the peak, for once I actually
found the round USGS survey marker and a US Coast & Geodetic Survey
Triangulation Station marker. (I was seeing these quite often further
south, but then along most of the Mt-ID border they were missing,
unless possibly buried by large cairn-piles that were prevalent on
those peaks with missing markers.) I scrambled down off-trail the
cliff-edge that seemed to sag down to the next saddle. (It seems to me
now that some of the cirque-shaped valleys formed at the base of the
hanging walls of the thrusted-up slabs of bedrock, tend to bend at
their sides, hence also the rounded shapes of the back-sides of those
thrusted slabs. It also seems to me that the minor comb-shaped ridges
I often see between adjacent cirque-valleys could be formed by if one
pictures the down-thrusted slab having fat fingers with torn gaps
between, which when pushing down through the opposing up-trusting
slab, leave un-trusted furrows behind, where the down-thrusting gaps
are. Not sure this conforms with proper geological thinking though.)
The next peak along the ridge was Mt Willard, and I hoped to scale
that on my return. The trail skirted the eastern slope of Mt Willard,
then descended down the seepy western slope of an unnamed peak before
arriving at a saddle just south of Purdy Pk. This seepy slope had a
lot of tree-fall slowing down my progress, and an increasing amount of
overgrowing vegetation, and I was anticipating the trail might peter
out altogether before reaching Purdy, as seemed to be the case north
of Purdy. I found a good campsite with promising morning sunlight
just before the saddle, left my backpack there and continued on with
just my waistpack and camera, with about 2 hrs of daylight left, to
scale Purdy Peak, a gently rounded spherical mound with grassy-
scrubby terrain. (The main trail past Purdy again just skirted its
western slope.) I got back to my backpack with plenty of daylight left
to pitch tent and have a snack.
Thursday morning I backtracked to Willard Peak, starting an off-trail
upward traverse from its southeastern slope, leaving my backpack
prominently visible with a way-point taken somewhere on it's
south-southeastern flank, scaling the rest with my waistpack, taking
my obligatory pano's, and backtracking to my back without needing the
waypoint. Reached the trail again at the southern saddle and continued
back to the car. The forecast still claimed there would be an evening
and night of rain, but It was still mid-afternoon and still very sunny
and warm, so I was considering trying to do the short two-mile climb
up TrestlePk from a trailhead a short quarter mike further up
TrestleCrRd from where I rejoined that road after making it down the
spur road from Lunch Pk. With this in mind, and because I was hearing
voices coming from the lookout tower on LunchPk, I decided to skip a
visit to the tower and instead get set up for a quick afternoon climb
up TrestlePk. Drove down to there, sat there for a while not feeling
much energy, looked at my map and saw that it was a 1200ft climb up
those 2 miles, decided instead to look for a swimming hole down along
Trestle Creek, found a perfect spot at Huckleberry Canpground with no
one occupying the place, got in my dip, changed clothes and headed for
to the Sandpoint library for a few hours, returning to Trestle Creek
Road again in the evening to a camping area shortly after the left
turn from the junction with hwy200 along the lake from Sandpoint. It
was still not raining, though the forecast remained unchanged.
When I woke up Friday morning it was still dry, but as I ate my
breakfast cereal, it began drizzling. I decided to head for town for
another day in the library. Stopped first at the Ponderay shopping
center to do laundry (and exchange a wrong-size "Frog Togs" rainsuit I
had bought the other day at Walmart) and I called my sister Ann in S
Carolina to chat about the hurricane. By then the library would be
open. Returned that evening to Trestle Creek Road, with still a
slight drizzle, passing by a few downed trees that were recently
chain-sawwed out of the road, and one actively being cut. I continued
up the road to overnight at the Trestle Pk TH. This was short of my
ideal destination, the saddle just below Round top Pk at the top of
AuxorRd FR489 up Auxor Basin, but I was concerned if the forecaster
was wrong about Saturday being sunny, I might get trapped at the top
of a rough road with a week of inclement weather ahead, so stayed safe
on the main road. I might possibly still choose to make the two mile
1200ft steep climb from there up to Trestle Peak.
Saturday morning to my surprise was indeed sunny. A few cars pulled
up to the turnaround area at the trailhead, parked two of the cars,
piled into the rest and drove on, presumably for a one-way hike across
Trestle Ridge, presumably from the Auxor Saddle. That was encouraging
to me, so I also drove on eastward down Trestle Cr Rd into the
Lightning Creek watershed to Auxor Rd. After the bridge across
Lightling Creek at the base of Auxor Rd there was a letter from the
USFS Sandpoint Ranger Station stapled to a tree, dated Sept 5.
Paraphrasing: Auxor Rd is being closed for public safety during road
reconstruction and improvement activities, to improve 8.5 miles of
road surface, drainage, widen and construct turnouts, remove
vegetation for visibility, clean ditches, culverts, catch basins, and
turnaround spots at the top of the road. Auxor Rd was originally
built over 50 years ago for mining and timber access. Today,
recreationists regularly use this road to access the national forest
to camp, hunt, pick huckleberries, or simply take in the scenery.
The road otherwise seemed accessible from this point, admittedly not
very indicative of the entire stretch, but neither had I seen the
carpoolers returning, nor parked at this point. So I continued on up
the road. The road did become rather fiercely abusive of the zombaroo,
yet another creek-bed-like road surface as bad as the others I've
encountered, possibly with fewer turnouts and steeper dropoffs. At
the top, seemingly in the middle of the road, was parked a large truck
with tent mounted atop, wheels positioned on platforms to level the
entire contraption. And a 2nd Jeep next to that. Reminded me of the
rafts hovering at the tip of the launching ramp on the Middle Fork
Salmon before being pushed down the ramp into the water. Here, just
enough room was left to follow the road right, to the saddle, where
more ATV's and jeeps were parked, and tents pitched, occupying nearly
every possible turnout on the saddle. Down the other side to the west
the road continued, from the map I understood as motorized trail FT444
coming directly up the ridge from Lk Pend Oreille, evidently a popular
route, and another motorized trail FT2250 branched off to the
southeast. There were also signs for nonmotorized trail FT120, the
ICT route, both south and northbound.
I found a nook to park my car, gathered my gear and headed south,
through a tent-site cluttered with ATV's. I was immediately greeted
to views of a fog bank below, hiding Lk Pend Oreille and the entire
valley, very reminiscent of the California coast or bay on a foggy
morning. the trail continued with good views of this fog bank along
the whole ridge south past Cougar Mt, watching the fog gradually
shrink and become patchy, revealing the lake and details on the valley
floor. By the time I reached my destination overlooking Porcupine
Lake, where I had turned around on my hike up the switchbacks from
Clark Fork, the fog had mostly dissipated. But my shoes were nearly
as soaked as on that earlier hike in the rain, from the wet
vegetation, still dripping in the shaded spots. But the sun was warm,
soon drying my pants legs at least. On my return, I ventured
off-trail to scale Cougar Peak, starting from just below a saddle
between that peak and an unnamed peak just north of the ridge (again
the trail hung lower down along the southwest slope of the ridge.)
Thus scramble involved pushing through chest-high Huckleberry thickets
and dense BearGrass clumps, again soaking my pants and shoes, but
offering me close-up views of a (glacially smoothed?) rust-colored
rocky east slope/cliff of the unnamed peak north of Cougar Pk.
Arriving back at the car, I just continued north up RoundTopMt, which
appeared to be a pile of tallis from my south-west vantage point. I
found myself off trail by accident, so scrambled to the top of this
pile of rubble, finding a more vegetated continuation of the ridge to
the north, and the spur trail that I had intended to take,
switchbacking down the west side to meet the main trail FT120 that
would continue north over Trellis Pk. I instead took FT120 south the
short distance back to my car. It was late afternoon and I wanted to
get down off of Auxor Rd before the weather changed. So far, just
high stratus had been filtering the sunlight.
Safely back at the bottom of Auxor Rd, I decided to continue right on
FT419 (rather than going back up to the divide at the TrestlePkTH then
down Trestle Creek.) The right turn would take me down Lightning
Creek to Clark Fork. I had been hesitant about taking that route up
due to markings on the forest map showing "low water crossings" on
this road, and a section of that road marked "4WD" on the old map
(just noticed that the newer map I bought shows no such markings or
designation.) It seems the "low water crossings" had been
re-engineered into broad dips in the road at tributaries, with a metal
grill covering a concrete channel across the road. In Clark Fork I
turned right towards Sandpoint. It was now dusk, and I was undecided
whether to overnight nearby, probably a short way up TrestleCreek Rd,
where I had stayed Thursday night, or continue the drive down to Coeur
D Alaine, where I planned to use the library Sunday afternoon. Ended
up blowing past the Trellis Cr Rd turn so continued on south. Just
before reaching Ponderey, on Hwy 200 where the speed limit keeps
alternating between 65 and 45, suddenly flashing police lights in my
mirror. The cop asked what I thought the speed limit was there, I said
didn't know. He said it was 45. How fast do you think I was going? I
offered "50?" He said he clocked me at 60 dropping down to about 55.
Took my license, asked if my licecen was good, I looked puzzled, he
repeated the question, I said "uh, yeah?" He went back to his car,
after a while came back returned my licence, said I can go. I looked
surprised, said, thanks, he said, just pay a little more attention to
your speed, OK?. OK. Drove on, got gas at Walmart just out of town,
arriving at my usual hwy 50 rest stop between CDA and Post Falls by
10pm. Next morning, drove a few exits further west to the truck stop
to take a shower, returned to town did some shopping at Winco, got to
the library hello early walked the park a bit till it opened at noon,
wrote emails til it closed at 5, (with the last minute WiFi glitch
there sending off my work in progress) moved on to correct the email
issue at a JackInTheBox near Winco, pretty much same routine this
morning, and now I'm caught up.
The weather forecast was a dud. They've been gradually walking back
their dire predictions of an inch of rain Sunday night-Monday, at
least here in town, it's been a few spits is all. So I'm thinking of
heading back north tonight, plan to drive into the Priest Lake area,
to investigate some of the ICT access points, stop at the local ranger
station there for info, staying near my car while the forecast is
still "unsettled" There will a a few longer hikes in that area,
probably a few overnight backpacks. Still a lot of nasty road for the
zombaroo to endure. Then mop up a few loose ends - theTrestle Pk
ridge, the Shiloh half-day outing. Should be finished well before the
end of this month. Then either splice up a few other gaps on my way
back south to Boise, or, more likely, hopefully still, a new adventure
for a while in October in Canada.
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