The morning was chilly, and again I woke up on the ground. I have to patch this sleeping pad.

We downed the last of bits of our coffee (weak tasteless coffee at that, but on the flip side we’ve had dark french press the first 3 mornings), and hiked back to where we had cached our boats.

Oooo, that must be a big bear

Ensue bushwack. Getting to the river from the trail was a bit of a willow bashing fest, but we finally made it and transitioned to packraft mode. All gear stored inside the boat, day bag with sunscreen, lunch (in this case one packet of hickory smoked tuna. That’s it. Sucks.), and water.

We launch on a swift little current on a narrow log-congested river, gravely braids of river channels everywhere.

The water was clear and blue and green and it felt like we were flying through the canyon, until we got to logjam, after logjam, after stupid logjam. It was still worth it though. I actually expected more in an un-dammed river in the heart of the Sawtooth Wilderness.

The 4.5 miles of trail turned into 9 miles of river with all the meandering channels, but still worth it.

We were worked by the time we made it back to the car mid-afternoon. We had a short rapidy section about half way, but it was mainly the numerous log jams we had to portage with full boats and careful walking to not impale ourselves on dead trees, or break a leg in a beaver hole. So much fun!! Really!

It felt like I was sleeping on rock…that’s cause I was. My air beam sleeping pad must have sprung a slow leak, cause I woke up on a lack of air, and it was hard.

We packed up under the granite towers above us, and started down the many switchbacks to Ardeth Lake. It was beautiful and buggy. We walked down down down the thousands of feet we had hike up a few days before. We were down to the last bits of food, carefully rationed out to get us to the car tomorrow afternoon.

Hammocks came out again for a lunch break, and a train of mules and horses passed us. We’ve seen several mule trains on the trail each day, and because there are still a fair amount of downed trees across the trail, the horses and mules have been forging some huge bypasses up and around them. It’s impressive where horses can go off trail without breaking a leg, but also has me a bit pissed off at the destruction they are causing on the side of the trail. Most of the horse packers carry a saw, and clearing some of the trees would only take a short while. Seems to me if they are using the trail so heavily, that they should help out and clear some of the downed trees as they pass by each day. There are fewer and fewer resources for the forest service to maintain trails…as it is most are done by volunteers. I know the folks from the Idaho Trails Association have their hands full.

Back to the trail…we continued on and by mid afternoon we were quite stumbly. The more we dropped in elevation, the warmer it got. In fact it was down right tropical around Fern Falls. We had hit prime wild flower season.

Smith Falls

We stumbled into camp, the same camp as night one, and went down to immerse ourselves in the cool water and wash away the heat.

Relief.

Last evening we climbed the rest of the way up to Edna Lake and what had to be the best campsite in the area. The headwall of the south fork drainage still had snow, in fact a few patches of snow were all around. We decided to make camp here tomorrow morning and spend the day exploring the high alpine lakes.

So this morning after our coffee we packed up and headed to the granite jetty where we wanted to make our camp, set up, and left a few things in the tent while we explored during the day. We decided to hike cross country around one side of the lake to reach the next 2 lakes, and soon had to climb high to get away from mosquito hell.

We popped up over the upper two lakes and almost to an unnamed pass that held its own little lake. As soon as we were up there we knew we had to move camps. It was just stunning with shallow green water and big slabs of granite floating like little islands throughout. We sprawled out on one of the granite islands and I decided I would hike on the trail back to the camp we just set up and bring the gear back here. It wasn’t that far, right?

But then we saw this little lake!

Well by taking the trail back I had doubled the distance to the lower lake, so 2 hours later I arrived back from the errand and decided it was the perfect time to jump in the lake. At almost 9,000’, it was still hot enough for a swim…kind of. Piles of snow were still melting into the water. Brrrr!

Blue line, cross country. Yellow line, trail.

I took a siesta and Kirk went exploring, to come back a short while later with the news that epic views in all directions were just a few hundred feet above the lake. I followed him back up and….

Dude.

Idaho is something else!

We made some mac and cheese high on the ridge and looked at all the world below.

Dude.

Later back at camp we played a rousing game of cards as night drifted down around us.

When we woke up it was Kirks birthday! Idaho birthday trip is proving to be a success so far…including waterfalls, and some carrot cake I packed out that is only slightly pulverized.

We were drinking our coffee and looking at the river when a hiker passed by, or he almost passed by before I saw his small pack and tan legs and asked if he was thru hiking the Idaho Centennial Trail. Gentle Ben had been section hiking the trail, getting pushed back by snow and swollen rivers. I was stoked to see a long distance backpacker. He said he had seen no hikers. Almost no hikers at all on the trip.

We continue up the river canyon, stopping periodically for views of the river and various waterfalls. Kirk is living up to his trail name of “I’d rather be kayaking” because he squealed with delight at many of the drops. I may have committed to coming back at lower flow and hiking our boats up further to run some rock slidey sections.

We took a long siesta at a river crossing and strung up our hammocks for a nap.

Then onward. We had 3,000 feet of elevation today, no real destination either, but we figured we would continue to go up the South fork…might as well hike up to the headwaters.

Mid afternoon I look down, and in a beacon of light, there sat a fully wrapped orange starburst. Birthday trail magic for Kirk! The trail provides, I always say. I handed him the sun-warmed treat and after unwrapping it, he claimed we needed to bring more starbursts on our hikes.

Early evening found us at Virginia Lake, over 8,000’, and we found a sweet gravel bar to perch our camp at midway up the drainage to Edna Lake. 

We woke up high on the cliff above the Middle Fork of the Payette and decided to head to the south fork and try our luck on a backpack/packraft adventure into the Sawtooth Wilderness. The fact that it also happened to be along the Idaho Centennial Trail was an added bonus, and oh so convenient.

By the time we made it to Geandjean, the trailhead up the South Fork of the Payette, it was about noon, and a hot sleepy Tuesday afternoon. There were almost no people about, which was awesome for the middle of the summer. We repacked our backpacks and packrafts with 4 days of food and the hope that we would be able to float at least 5 miles until the river canyons up and becomes waterfall and wood-ladened. Something Kirk was looking forward to seeing. He has wanted to boat/packraft the south fork for a long time, and here we were. 

Hot hot hot start to the trail. We walked up about 5 miles, deciding to go for our chacos for the river crossings at Baron Creek and Goat Creek. The river looked tranquil and full of wood. It would be a float on blue-green water through a very green valley. As the canyon started to gorge up we decided to drop our boats and paddling gear to pick them back up for the packraft out. It wasn’t long before we saw a portion of the river forced into a narrow slot in the granite and found a sweet little campsite in view of a massive pour-over. We set up camp, took snacks and the can of PBR i had packed up, and sat with our legs dangling in the water on a big slab of granite.