IDAHO BOUNDARY TRAIL HIKERS GUIDE 2020 By MIKE O’BRIEN & Jim “Yeti” Fulmis Copyright © 2020 www.fultek.com/ibt Please note that any discrepancies such as US Post office hour changes, prices, businesses closed or burned down is way beyond our control. If you discover changes, please send us information via email ([email protected]). This will help us to keep this guide up to date as best as possible. We did the trail in 2016 and updated everything, including all tracks and waypoints, which can be found at www.fultek.com/ibt. Trail closures, fires, or storms that blow down a lot of trees can and will happen. We discovered that ourselves in 2016. If you can, track anything you find different or just describe the differences and send those to the above email address. Tracks should be in GPX form. Also, there will be a text file named IBT_Hikers_Guide_Updates.txt online at www.fultek.com/ibt for any changes or additions we find out about after the book is published. Cover Photo: On the way to Owyhee State Park. Copyright © 2020 Mike O’Brien & Jim “Yeti” Fulmis Edited by: Melanie Simmerman All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1793257536 Why another long trail? When we looked at a map of Idaho we saw a wide variety of terrain, desert, forest, mountains; lots of mountains. Not only that, but the border was mostly public land where we could choose where to hike and camp. Could we hike all the way around? It would be tough. First, we had to figure out a route, one that had reliable water in the desert (no trail angels in the Owyhee Desert!), and a route that touched the special places, like the Tetons, the Bitterroot and Selkirk Mountains, the cedar rainforests in the north. It took months to work out a track all the way around, avoiding private land, detouring from the border to wind through interesting ranges, and finding towns we wanted to visit. We debated where and when to start so that we would get through the fire-prone forests before the fire season, through the desert before it got hot, and yet late enough for most of the snow on the highest peaks to melt. We settled on starting in Clarkston, Washington, mid- May, and heading around Idaho counterclockwise. Expect to finish in September. The hike far exceeded our hopes. There was variety, beauty, and all the challenge we wanted. What we didn’t expect were the new friends we found along the way, especially in the southeast corner of the state. We hiked the Idaho Boundary Trail several times, always carrying a GPS to exactly map our route, refining the track time and again until we had as perfect a route as we could find. You will need a GPS to find your way because there are no signs, and in places, no trail. When you download the track, you will find a main route of 2500 miles marked in red. You will also see blue alternate routes. Alternates are always the easier tracks! Waypoints locate water and some hard-to-find trail junctions. The hike can be hiked a section at a time or all the way. This hiker’s guide is divided into sections, usually with a town where you can resupply at the start and end of each section. Each section description starts with a profile, showing you a cross- section of the track. (If you follow the red main track all the way, you will end up climbing 361,000 feet and descending an equal amount.) There is a brief description of each section, and information about resupply. In the desert and other dry sections, reliable water sources and the distances between them are listed. Turn the page and dig in! Idaho Boundary Trail Hikers Guide Table of Contents Introduction 01 Section A - Clarkston, Washington, to Imnaha, Oregon 04 Section B - Imnaha, Oregon, to Weiser, Idaho 06 Section C - Weiser, Idaho, to Jordan Valley, Oregon 08 Section D - Jordan Valley, Oregon, to Mountain City, Nevada 10 Section E - Mountain City, Nevada to Jackpot, Nevada 12 Section F - Jackpot, Nevada to Oakley, Idaho 14 Section G - Oakley, Idaho to Preston, Idaho 16 Section H - Preston, Idaho to Montpelier, Idaho 18 Section I - Montpelier, Idaho to Victor, Idaho 20 Section J - Victor, Idaho to Sawtell, Idaho 22 Section K - Sawtell, Idaho to Monida Pass (Lima, Montana) 24 Section L - Monida Pass (Lima, Montana) to Bannock Pass (Leadore, Idaho) 26 Section M - Bannock Pass (Leadore, Idaho) to Lost Trail Pass (Salmon, Idaho) 28 Section N – Lost Trail Pass (Salmon, Idaho) to Darby, Montana 30 Section O – Darby, Montana to Lochsa Lodge, Idaho 32 Section Na - (Alternate) Lost Trail Pass (Salmon, Idaho) to Hamilton, Montana 34 Section Oa - (Alternate) Hamilton, Montana to Lochsa Lodge, Idaho 36 Section P - Lochsa Lodge, Idaho to Wallace, Idaho 38 Section Q - Wallace, Idaho to Clark Fork, Idaho 40 Section R - Clark Fork, Idaho to Bonners Ferry, Idaho 42 Section S - Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to Ione, Washington 44 Section T - Ione, Washington to Newport, Washington 46 Section U - Newport, Washington to Spirit Lake, Idaho 48 Section V - Spirit Lake, Idaho to St Maries, Idaho 50 Section W - St Maries, Idaho to Moscow, Idaho 52 Section X - Moscow, Idaho to Clarkston, Washington 54 About the Authors 56 Mike O’Brien and Jim “Yeti” Fulmis IDAHO BOUNDARY TRAIL HIKER’S GUIDE When you look at a map of the state of Idaho, you can’t help but notice that most of its perimeter is public land. All this public land gives the Idaho Boundary Trail room to explore surprisingly varied landscapes. The trail starts in Clarkston, Washington and heads south. You will see snowy mountains, deep Hells Canyon, irrigated farms, and in the southwest corner, the Owyhee Desert, one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states. Turn east and follow the border between Idaho and Nevada, up and down over seven mountain ranges and desert valleys, every one different from the last. This is Mormon country, and it has become one of our favorite places, where we met friendly and generous people. Turn north at Idaho’s southeast corner, over Snowdrift Mountain, through steep and remote forested ranges, and then detour up Fox Creek into Grand Teton National Park and the Death Canyon Shelf trail. At Yellowstone, turn west in the Centennial Mountains, and follow the Continental Divide past the most remote source of the Missouri River, past Lemhi Pass, where Meriwether Lewis, guided by Sacajawea, first looked west across the divide, saw “mountain upon mountain,” and his heart sank. Continuing north along the Montana border, you reach the Bitterroot Mountains, wild, jagged, and little visited. Remote lakes dot the border like a string of pearls. Cross the Silver Valley, where there are active mines that tunnel far below sea level. Go on north, walk the crest of the Cabinet and Purcell Mountains, then near the Canadian border, turn west across the panhandle of Idaho. The Selkirks look like they have just emerged from under glaciers. On their wet west slopes, cedar forests will remind you of Oregon. Turning south, you come to the rolling open hills of the Palouse, the home of the Nez Perce, whose horses and guides helped Lewis and Clark make it to the Pacific and back. It is a challenging and scenic walk. 1 Idaho Boundary Trail Hikers Guide Mike O’Brien and Jim “Yeti” Fulmis have been working on the trail for years, exploring alternate routes, locating springs, mapping the route. This is not a “trail” like the Pacific Crest Trail, sanctioned by the state and maintained by the Forest Service. A lot of it is on forgotten dirt two-tracks across the desert. Some long sections have no path at all. Most of the way along the east and north sides of Idaho are single track trails. There are no Idaho Boundary Trail signs. You will need a GPS to follow the trail; the track we post is the track we have walked. We have marked waypoints at reliable water sources. If you find a better, more interesting route, tell us, and we will add it to the hike. We recommend you start mid-May in Clarkston, Washington, and hike counter- clockwise, starting south, so that you get through the desert before summer heat and pass through the most flammable forests before fire season. Mid-May also gives time for most of the snow to melt in the mountains on the Montana and Wyoming borders. Depending on the route you choose, the trail is approximately 2500 miles around Idaho. If you average 25 miles per day, it will take about 100 hiking days to make the complete loop, and you will cross the Selkirks before fall snow storms. If you stay on the main track, which usually is the more difficult option, you will climb 347,000 feet up, and because it’s a loop, the same elevation down, for a total of 722,000 feet of elevation change. You will find it a challenging hike through fascinating and diverse country. The pages of this hiker’s guide are broken down into sections the way Yeti and Mike have hiked it, resupplying in the towns at the start and end of each section. You can hike the whole trail in a season, or you can hike one section at a time. Is it a state sanctioned trail? No; the Idaho Boundary Trail is not an official trail. But Idaho is unlike other states in that most of the perimeter is public land, which makes a long trek like this possible.