Every year, Fay and I do a climbing trip just the two of us. In years past, we have had some very intense climbs but this year we decided on a backpacking loop with some easy view points.
Since Fay has been recovering from a back injury, I let her come up with our trip. She picked the Salmo-Priest Wilderness in the far Northeast corner of Washington State. There is nothing further east or north just Idaho and Canada. Actually half of our loop trip was on trails in Idaho. This is an area I had never been to. Frankly, I didn’t even know it existed.
The drive from Bellevue was 8 hours. First, we went to Spokane and then turned north. It would have been shorter but Fay and I were talking so much we not only missed one turn but two. Thankfully, our hike on day 1 was 3 miles downhill.
Our camp was so comfortable, we slept for 9 hours. Then we spent another hour talking in the tent, looking at the tree tops. This was going to be a relaxing trip.
After a slow breakfast and packing up, we got out of camp just before noon. Not sure the last time either of us left camp this late.
Since the hiking loop was only 19 miles and we had 5 days, we felt no sense of urgency. We hiked along the forest floor visiting and admiring the old growth forest and crystal clear creek. Next came the Washington / Idaho border marked by a wilderness sign. We found out later that even though the entire area was wilderness, it is named 2 different things and managed by 2 different states.
Fay had read that the pass below Snowy Top Mountain had a small camp spot. This camp marked the start of a 5 mile ridge hike and was the best spot to climb Snowy Mountain from. It had no water but the hike down to the last creek running over the trail was only 15 minutes.
The next morning Fay and I got an early start for this trip, 10am. We headed up Snowy Top Mountain which was beautiful meadows once you got through the steep cliff band.
We were on the summit before noon.
The views into Canada were wonderful. We could see the border swath as it ran through the hillside in front of us.
After a couple of hours on the summit, we headed back to camp via the meadow ridge. We kept looking for the bear and caribou which live in this wilderness but never saw a thing.
We reached our tent just in time for a passing thunderstorm. We enjoyed an hour of relaxing in the tent listening to the rain drops hit the tent fly.
Around 4pm, we packed up and head along the ridge. We needed to find a camp with water and we wanted to hike up Little Snowy Top, an old lookout site.
There was a trail to the summit of Little Snowy Top Lookout. There was still many artifacts of the old lookout. It seemed to have burned down.
From here, we were able to get a good view of Snowy Top Mountain. The right hand ridge is the way we came down. Looks so welcoming from here.
Fay and I never did find a stream near the trail. After all, it was a ridge run. We did find a little grass bench with a spot that had obviously been camped before. Since sunset was close, we quickly setup the tent, through in our backpacks, and went hunting for water. We quickly located a drainage that look to only recently have dried up. We hiked down a couple of hundred feet before we heard water off to our right. We found a nice game path that took us right to a very hearty creek. We were able to fill up with water and get back to camp just before we needed headlamps.
The next morning was a slow one. We enjoyed wandering around in this grassy meadow on the ridge.
We even climbed a little bump next to camp to enjoy the views.
Just before noon, we decided we should pack up and head on to our next camp. The ridge was so enjoyable.
Eventually, we rounded the corner and started to head to our last pass of the trip, Shedroof Pass. The pass is just below Shedroof Mountain, an old lookout site on the Washington side of the Wilderness Area. It was weird to have two lookout sites so close together.
As we rounded the ridge, we could once again see back into Canada. Fay and I were both struck by a Canadian peak called Ripple Mountain. Not only did it have a fun name but the route looked very intriguing.
At Shedroof Pass, we found a beautiful camp spot but no water. Luckily, we filled up with water at the creek just a 1/2 mile from the pass.
We had some time after setting up camp to hike up to Shedroof Mountain Lookout. There were beautiful flowers covering the trail.
The views from the summit seemed to go clear into Montana. Priest Lake looked so close and very inviting.
There was still some evidence of the old lookout. Like the sign, …
… And the outhouse.
Fay and I easily returned to camp before dark to enjoy our last dinner on the trail. The next morning, we were out of camp before 9am. We both knew we had an 8 hour drive ahead of us.
The views from the last section of trail are some of the best. The wild flowers were blooming all around us.
To the west is Gypsy Mountain…
To the east was our complete ridge run from Snowy Top Mountain to Little Snowy Top to our meadow / ridge camp and the final turn back to Washington.
And then there was north to Canada and Ripple Mountain. This would definitely be next years adventure.
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