I have a map of the Salmo Priest Wilderness, and I keep track of all the trails I have hiked within the wilderness by highlighting the trails as I complete them. At this point there are only a few trails that are not highlighted, and today I added one more trail to my list of completed hikes in this area. The trail I needed and the starting point for today's hike was the Slate Creek Trail (#525). It is 4.2 miles long and intersects the North Fork Trail (#507) which leads up to Crowell Ridge in 2.7 miles (Crowell Ridge #515). I nearly made it to the end of Crowell Ridge (3.7 to Bear Pasture or 2.2 to the end of the ridge), but I reached my turnaround time just 1/2 mile shy of the end of the ridge before it drops down to Bear Pasture. I was considering hiking a little longer when I started to hear thunder in the distance--that made my decision for me! The rain caught me in the last four miles of the hike and I walked out in rain, lightening and thunder. It was a little scary, and I wasn't able to hike as fast as I would have liked because of the downfall on the trail. The good news is that there are no downed trees on the North Fork Trail--I helped with a trail clearing crew on that trail during Hike-a-Thon last year, so it was nice to see that the trail is still clear. Now I want to see if I can get some friends to help clear the Slate Creek Trail, too.
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| Salmo Priest Wilderness! My FAVORITE place! |
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| Crowell Ridge Trail |
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| Abercrombie & Hooknose Mountains as seen from Crowell Ridge |
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| Crowell Ridge |
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| Sullivan Mountain Lookout in the distance--there is a trailhead there, but it is a very rough road to get to it! |
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| Wildlife! |
Read my WTA trip report
here.
Today's mileage = 17.2 miles
Grand total for the month = 77.42 miles
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