On the Stateline above Heart, Pearl lakes

I've lost count of the number of times we've been to Heart and Pearl lakes near Superior over the years, but one thing we had never done until recently was hike the portion of the Stateline Trail between the two.

We began by climbing Trail 171 south gradually along the east side of Trout Creek for about 2 miles, then switching back up the side of the valley and turning west to a junction at about 2 3/4 miles, crossing a few streams along the way.

At the junction, we continued west on switchbacks above Heart Lake into a high meadow that held the bare stalks of what must have been a beautiful beargrass bloom a month earlier. The trail then switchbacked up to the ridge that forms the border with Idaho and the junction with the Stateline Trail - Trail 738 - at about 4 1/3 miles. Here, we stopped to eat and saw the first of a handful of mountain goats in the distance along the rocky ridge.



The Stateline followed the ridge southeast, passing a rocky point at 4 3/4 miles and a chute still holding snow at 5 3/4, both providing views of the lakes below. Along the way, we found plenty of huckleberry bushes filled with juicy, tart fruit.

At about 6 miles, we left the Stateline at a junction with Trail 620 and dropped northeast to a saddle between Pearl and Dalton lakes. From there, we continued down Trail 175 and back west around Pearl Lake to its outlet at about 7 1/2 miles, then down again and north to the first junction below Heart Lake at 8 2/3 miles, letting the dogs swim multiple times along the way.



After that, we retraced Trail 171 back east and north 2 3/4 miles to our vehicle.

See more photos from Heart and Pearl lakes.

Distance: 11 1/2 mile loop.

Trailhead: From Superior, follow Diamond Match Road southeast and Trout Creek Road southwest - one turns into the other - for 19 miles.

A weekend run through Hells Canyon

My running year is officially underway, although the first event was the unofficial Hells Canyon Run this past weekend. While I had a couple of problems, it wasn't a race and I had a great day overall.

On a March weekend, runners from around the Northwest arrive at Pittsburgh Landing on the Snake River, in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area near White Bird, Idaho. There's a potluck dinner the night before, and you board the boat and pay the driver the next morning - the only parts appear even semi-organized. Runners then are ferried upriver to one of two dropoffs - at roughly 15 and 25 miles away - and make their way back along the Snake River National Recreation Trail. There are no aid stations, and you are responsible for your water, food, garbage and safety.

I heard about the run last year and decided to go after learning that this year's event might be the last. Friends let me carpool down with them and share a campsite, bringing the Missoula contingent to about 12 to 15. After the snowy winter at home, it was nice to find spring weather in the canyon - partly cloudy skies, warm days, chilly nights and the season's first wildflowers blooming.



In the still-dark canyon at 6:15 Saturday morning, we boarded the first boat for the longer distance. About an hour later, we were dropped off on the rocky bank below Granite Creek rapids. After getting our gear organized, we started back down the trail in a line about 10 runners long.

The first 10 miles of trail steadily rose and fell through the trees and grassy fields, crossed the occasional creek and passed a couple of historic homesteads. At the first creek, a friend in the lead of our group made it across dry, a few others splashed a foot, wetting the rocks, and I slipped and sank both of my shoes. We kept moving - now in a group of three Missoulians - and after a few miles my feet warmed.

After occasional stops to eat and take pictures, we arrived at Sheep Creek, the dropoff for the shorter distance. A little more than five miles farther and we stopped again to eat and take pictures. Just after we started again, a Chinook helicopter came into view low over the river, which prompted another picture break. We would later learn it was part of a search for a missing man after a boat sank farther upriver.



My real problem came with about nine miles to go, when I tripped and fell, bloodying my hand and knee and dazing myself. I've fallen several times during winter and gotten the occasional scrape, but this was the worst I've done. After a few minutes of collecting myself, we started again with the two bigger climbs of the day ahead.

A short distance later, we were standing on cliffs and looking down at the winding Snake directly below - one of the best views of the day. After dropping back to river level, we reached the historic Kirkwood Ranch and stopped to look in the small museum there that's accessible only by trail. Departing the ranch with about six miles to go, we made our steepest climb of the day up a series of switchbacks to a long traverse high above the river and watched as the search helicopter passed below us.

A couple of miles farther, we dropped to the river for the final stretch along the cliffs back to Pittsburgh Landing. My running partners graciously kept with me until the last two miles as I slowed after my fall, and I ran in with two other people we caught.

In the end we covered about 24.5 miles and 4,300 feet of elevation gain, although my GPS became disconnected from satellites a couple of times and logged a mile less.

Despite the problems, it was a beautiful day, and we followed it up with dinner back at camp in a group of about 10 Missoulians. The next day, we drove out of the canyon and headed for home.



Here are more photos from Hells Canyon.

13.1 miles to wildflowers in Idaho

Saturday saw us at Lolo Pass, off U.S. Highway 12 along the Montana-Idaho border, for two reasons: I was running the Mountain to Meadow Half Marathon, and camas flowers were blooming in Packer Meadows.

Every year in late June, the meadows fill with blue flowers, and the run passes by the fields and is usually around the peak bloom - fitting two of my interests.

The run on forest roads just inside Idaho went well and might have been one of my best half marathon finishes, although it should come with an asterisk. The last time I ran the race, it was two weeks before the Missoula Marathon, making it ideal for a final long run before tapering. This year, it was just one week before the marathon, likely limiting the field. Nonetheless, I finished in 1 hour, 50 minutes and 13 seconds, about 8 1/2 minutes faster than my previous best on the course. The time was good enough for 21st overall, 15th among men and fifth in my category.

After the race, we took a stroll about a mile back down the road to the meadows for some photos of the flowers. The bloom was about at its peak last Wednesday, according to the Lolo Pass Visitor Center's Facebook page. Although they were beginning to wilt, the blue blooms still were plentiful.

Here are a few more views of the flowers.

New Year's snowshoe at Lolo Pass

After a busy - and somewhat sad - holiday season, we sought to start off the new year right on a short snowshoe adventure with friends at Lolo Pass on the Montana-Idaho border.

Despite cloudy skies, we had a good day making first tracks in a small amount of powder and going sledding back at the Lolo Pass Visitor Center.

Follow the snowshoe trail up the hill to the south of the visitor center and past a junction. At the top, the trail continues out a ridge that offers good views into Idaho then down a powder-filled slope, crossing a groomed road before reaching Pack Creek. The trail follows along the creek then a cross-country ski trail, and loops back to the junction near the start.



See more photos from Lolo Pass here.

Distance: About 3 miles.

Trailhead: From Missoula, drive 9 miles south on U.S. Highway 93 to Lolo, then 32 miles west on U.S. Highway 12 to the Lolo Pass Visitor Center, just over the border in Idaho. (Parking costs $5.)

Far-away car camping in Idaho

We decided to take a scenic drive and go car camping with the dogs over Fourth of July weekend.

Too busy to go both Saturday and Sunday nights, the question was, where would we find an available campsite on the second night? The answer: The Indian Creek campground along the Selway River deep in Idaho's forests.

The road to the campground is surrounded by wilderness - the Selway-Bitterroot to the north and the Frank Church-River of No Return to the south - and driving there takes about four hours from Missoula. In our time there, we only one other family camped nearby and we saw few other vehicles.

Getting there was something of an accomplishment for us. We have a brand-new SUV and have been reluctant to put the dogs in it. Gigi, in her mid-teens, has a thick coat and sheds constantly; 8-year-old Belle has never traveled well, getting anxiety attacks whenever she's in the car and drooling nonstop. (This was, by far, Belle's longest drive.) With plenty of covers to protect the interior and Belle tethered, we made the drive.

The campground sits next to a horsepacking trailhead where Indian Creek meets the Selway River. There's plenty of soothing sound from the rushing river as well as scenery to take in. A few trails leave from the area, but with Gigi too old for any real hiking, we mostly wandered and lazed during our stay.



Considering all the water from this year's high snowpack, we were surprised that the mosquitoes weren't too bad. We all got some bites, but they really only bothered Belle, to the point that she tried to get in the tent on her own. She succeeded in getting between the ground cover and the floor of the tent. After some assistance, though, she was content inside.



On the way home the next morning, we took a short side trip to the historic Magruder Ranger Station, which was closed but nonetheless in a nice setting.

See more photos here and here.

Directions: From Darby, drive 7.4 miles south on U.S. Highway 93, then turn southwest on the West Fork Road. After 11.3 miles, continue southwest on Nez Perce Road. After 16.1 miles, the road crosses into Idaho at Nez Perce Pass and becomes the Magruder Corridor Road. Turn north on Forest Road 6223 after 18.7 miles and continue 5.3 miles to the campground. This section of the Nez Perce/Magruder Corridor Road is a mixture of gravel and pavement.

We skied the CDT

Over the weekend, we decided to check out the cross-country ski trails at Chief Joseph Pass, south of Hamilton where the Continental Divide sidles up to the Idaho-Montana border, for the first time.

With 5 1/2 feet of snow on the ground and a fresh dusting of powder, it was worth the 95-mile drive.

There were a handful of vehicles and people in the parking lot when we arrived, but on the trail we found ourselves mostly on our own.

The Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club maintains a network of 24 kilometers of well-marked, groomed trails that are easy to link together into loops of varying lengths.



Never having skied at Chief Joseph before, we chose to start on the Continental Divide Trail.

About half a mile in, on the edge of Picnic Meadow, we caught a glimpse of a "snowbow" arcing over the Gordon Reese Cabin. After a brief stop to check out the cabin, we skied up and down, through lodgepole pine forest and meadows along Broadway, the Gold Medal Loop, Timber, Solitude and the Vista View Loop. For a while, the sun was shining through breaks in the clouds, and despite the noise of wind, it was never too blustery.

After another stop at the cabin, the sky turned gray and we skied back to the trailhead via Moose and the Lost Trail Loop, shy of 7 miles and satisfied.



See photos from Chief Joseph Pass here.

Distance: About 6 3/4 miles. (24 kilometers of groomed trails available, with more ungroomed terrain.)

Directions: The Chief Joseph Pass trailhead is about 47 miles south of Hamilton on U.S. Highway 93, then 1 mile east on Montana Highway 43.

Geography lesson

Where can you see Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Illinois - Illinois? - on the same dayhike? On the Stateline Trail, southwest of Superior.

In the five miles southeast of Cascade Pass, Montana and Idaho make up the ridge that the trail tracks, then there are the Oregon Lakes and Oregon Peak, and Illinois Peak.

There are a variety of access points to the Stateline Trail, Cascade Pass being a relatively easy, but long approach. It's about 25 bumpy, dusty miles by car from Superior. On Tuesday, my dog Belle and I had the trail to ourselves - only one other vehicle was in the parking area, but we never saw anyone else.

From the pass, I've been northwest to Bonanza Lakes before, but this was the first time I've headed southeast to Illinois Peak.

The route is mostly open, grassy forest with gentle ups and downs. In fact, the terrain bears a resemblance to hiking in Scotland or the Australian Alps, especially with the abundant pink mountain heather, top. I was also quite surprised by the variety of wildflowers in bloom - bluebells, a few varieties of penstemon, bracted lousewort, purple shooting stars, heather, yellow pasqueflower, mountain gentian, phlox and more.

At about 1 3/4 miles, the path passes above the uppermost of the three Oregon Lakes, with its deep blue water. The trail steepens at four miles and climbs through some interesting rocks - look for the ripples of old seabed. At about 4 1/2 miles, take the east fork through two junctions, then it's up the final push to the grassy summit of the 7,690-foot mountain.



A great start to a week of vacation!

Here are some photos.

Distance: 10 miles round trip.

Trailhead: From Superior, follow Diamond Match Road on the west side of Interstate 90 about 1 1/4 miles southeast, then Cedar Creek Road (Forest Road 320) 25 miles southwest to Cascade Pass.

Skiing in the new year

It's been pretty brown in town this winter - the leaves never fully fell, and it seems like there's been more deep freeze than snowfall. Cross-country ski season began last weekend, however, with our annual New Year's outing.

Originally, I wanted to go to the new Como Trails Cross Country Ski Area south of Hamilton, where dogs are allowed. After reading on the Missoula Nordic Ski Club site about having to hike up to snow, though, we settled on a trip up Lolo Pass without the pups.

The day started out with a handful of vehicles in the parking area and the trails shrouded in fog, but after 6 3/4 miles of skiing the sun was out and the lot was packed.

See some photos here.

Distance: Trails from 1.2 to 14 miles are available; some are shared with snowmobiles. We did a 6 3/4-mile loop that incorporated parts of the Glade Creek and Packer Meadows trails.

Trailhead: From Missoula, drive 9 miles south on U.S. Highway 93 to Lolo, then 32 miles west on U.S. Highway 12 to the Lolo Pass Visitor Center, just over the border in Idaho. (Parking costs $5.)

Time to taper

After more than three months steadily increasing my mileage while training for the Missoula Marathon, I'm down to the last two weeks and the "taper."

I closed out my long runs over the weekend with a last-minute entry in the Mountain to Meadow half marathon on dirt roads just across the border in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest. With beargrass and camas in full bloom at Lolo Pass, it was a fun and beautiful run. And I finished a little quicker than I thought I would considering the 2,200 feet of elevation loss and gain over the 14-mile course - in 1 hour, 58 minutes and 50 seconds.

In this last part of training, my longest run is eight miles, with the average distance a little more than 4 1/3 miles. The theory is to rest you legs for the big event, but it's a little strange, really, after heading out regularly for runs in the high teens.

My main goal for the marathon itself is to finish. The pace I've been training at should bring me in at about four to 4 1/2 hours. After the half last weekend, though, a co-worker and fellow marathoner tells me I could come in under four hours.

We'll see on July 12.

Blue sky skiing

After being cooped up for a few weeks, we finally got out, just over the border to the Lolo Pass cross-country ski trails in Idaho. (The dogs stayed home, though, as they're not allowed on the groomed trails.) And, as you can see from the picture above, it was a perfect blue sky day.

Arriving before the crowd, we put together a route roughly seven miles long by connecting part of the Glade Creek Loop and the Packer Meadows Loop.

The last time we skied the Packer Meadows Loop, we started on the northern portion, which seemed to send us up a lot of the steeper sections of trail. This time, we started on the southern portion and got to enjoy glide down those sections.

See more photos here, and check out those brand-new skis Jen is sporting.

Distance: About 7-mile loop. (Variety of trails available, from 1.2 miles to 14 miles.)

Trailhead: From Missoula, drive 9 miles south on U.S. Highway 93 to Lolo, then 32 miles west on U.S. Highway 12 to the Lolo Pass Visitor Center, just over the border in Idaho. (Parking costs $5.)