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BACKCOUNTRY ROADS, IDAHO

Backcountry Roads, Idaho is a new project that Lynna and Leland Howard recently completed. If you'd like to be notified when the new book is available, send your contact info to lynna.howard@mac.com.

Read an excerpt from Chapter 4 below. All text and images on this website, and those associated with the book "Backcountry Roads, Idaho" are copyrighted material, and may not be used without the express permission of the author, Lynna Howard. ©2008 Lynna Howard and Caxton Press. This excerpt does NOT represent a complete chapter.

4—Upper Priest River and Falls, Selkirk Mountains

When We Were There Whitetail deer flashing their brilliant signals in a deep green forest; bear grass, tiger lilies and daisies in bloom; minivans puffing up the dirt roads with their loads of July vacationers—we are as far north as we can get without stepping into Canada. In fact, we can walk into Canada if we want to, but we don't go far on a game trail. The trail is strewn with bear scat.

GRIZZLY COUNTRY

Mama grizzly rolls like a furred locomotive
trailing her fat cub as a wobbly caboose.
Pepper spray, that ludicrous weapon,
shrinks in my hand
until it's too small to hold.

She rises like a fat rug
nailed to the sky to give her nose
a technologically fabulous sniff of me.

I don't move a muscle
except to avert my eyes,
the submissive gesture of every culture.
Don't run, don't trigger the predatory
chase. Speak low and soft, back away—

"I'm old," I tell her, low and smooth,
"too stringy to be good eating."
"I'm human." I need her dim eyes
to realize I'm not a male griz
programmed to worse tempers
than old testament gods.

What worries me is the cub,
his young and foolish curiosity.

A breeze comes down from Canada
and brings her smell—She-Bear odor
of ripe toe jam with a hint
of old tennis shoes slow-baked.

Finally, she dismisses me
and its as if I disappear from the world.
She continues on her way, soon to be downwind.
She'll know,
if she cares to,
where I am at all times.
           
—trail notes by Lynna Howard

In addition to the bears, this part of northern Idaho is home to the only band of woodland caribou remaining in the U.S. But the forests are the show-stoppers here, with hundreds of square miles of trees that are normally found only on the Pacific Coast. Although stressed by drought, Idaho's inland temperate rainforest remains one of the true wonders of the world. Road corridors here are misleading—they let in so much sunlight that the verges fill with shrubs and small trees. Leave the road for a short hike into the forest and the tremendous silence and other-worldly grandeur under the big trees will envelop you.

Approach Routes
• From Priest River, N on Highway 57 to Nordman.
• From Sandpoint, W on Highway 2 to Highway 57. See above.
• From Coeur d'Alene, N on Highway 95 to Sandpoint. See above.
• From Spokane, N and then E on Highway 2 to Highway 57. See above.

Know Before You Go...
This is Grizzly and black bear country—see the tips for avoiding bears in this book's introductory section. Some side roads shown on maps are closed during the summer months, but open in the winter to over-snow vehicles. Some guide books and Forest Service pamphlets list the distance to be traveled on Road 1013 from Granite Pass to the end of the road as 11.5 miles, but it is 22.7 miles. Cell phone coverage in Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and Sandpoint. Late June-September. Mid-June is pushing it for the mountains, but fine for lake shore activities. Ditto for October. Check for forest fire activity, nifc.gov/firemaps.html. Snowmobiles are allowed on some roads in winter, obtain a snowmobile trail map from land administrators. Respect Salmo-Priest Wilderness borders in Washington.

Maps (See map sources in Appendix B)
Idaho Panhandle National Forests, Kaniksu NF.

Land Administration (See Appendix A for details)
NF, Idaho Panhandle, Priest River office
Idaho Fish and Game, Panhandle Region
Sandpoint and Priest Lake Chambers of Commerce

Difficulty Rating—Total Miles: 38.6 (more for optional side trips)
• 2WD paved, about 4.0 miles; 2WD graded gravel or dirt, about 35 miles. The road is relatively good to Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars (about the first 14 miles). You can pull a small trailer over it if you don't mind a few potholes and washboards. Pulling a trailer is possible but not recommended due to narrow spots where the road is one-lane-plus wide.
• 4WD recommended in wet weather, about 18 miles; 4WD required in really wet weather, about 9 miles. Suitable for SUV and for mountain bikes.

Expedition Directions
Set your GPS to display Degrees and Decimal Minutes. This expedition begins at the village of Nordman on the west side of Priest Lake. (The Priest Lake Ranger Station is south of Nordman.) The expedition dips into Washington as it follows Road 302 N, then crosses back into Idaho. Continuing on Road 1013, the trip ends near the Canadian border, where Upper Priest Lake Falls is accessible via a hiking trail. Along the way there are many opportunities for mini-hikes suitable for children and grandparents, and also trailheads for serious backpackers. Fishing spots are numerous on countless tributaries of Priest River.

GPS: 48º 37.845' N, 116º 56.755' W • Elevation 2617 ft
0.0            From Nordman, drive N on Highway 57, which becomes Road 302. At Nordman, Reeder Bay Road to the R, E, is an access point for Priest Lake and Reeder Bay Campground.
The road is paved for a few miles, then graded gravel. Several side roads are not noted in this log, stay on the main road (302) as it bends NW about 1.2 miles N of Nordman.
            At mile 3.0, the entrance to Nordman Campground is on the R, E.

GPS: 48º 40.525' N, 116º 58.340' W • Elevation 2812 ft
3.9            Take the L, NW, fork here where Road 302 and Road 1341 intersect. Pavement ends. The L fork is signed for Stagger Inn and Granite Pass.
            At mile 5.2 keep straight on Road 302 where Road 1362 Indian Mountain Road comes in from the L, SW. In this area there are many small, unsigned side roads leading to informal campsites. The main road follows the North Fork of Granite Creek and soon crosses into Washington.
            At mile 10.6 Tillicum Creek Trail, High Rock Trail and Orwig Hump Cutoff are accessed via spur road 1103 on the L, W. The main road (302) passes through some sections of old growth forest. Before the "Big Burn" of 1910, before unregulated logging, and before blister rust destroyed the white pines, much of the Panhandle area looked like the ecosystem you'll find in patches of old growth forest here.

GPS: 48º 44.479' N, 117º 03.821' W • Elevation 3197 ft
11.7            Huff Lake Interpretive Site. This is a good place to stop for information on the flora and fauna in the area. A wooden board walk explores the marsh area. Among other things, informational signs include the "Caribou Menu" of lichens, huckleberries, birch, willow, and Ross sedge. Woodland caribou leave distinctive hoof prints about five inches long—we saw some of these prints near the Canadian border, but never saw the shy animals themselves.
            At mile 13.0 Trail 379, a foot/horse trail to High Rock Mountain, is on the L, W.
Trail 266 to Boulder Mountain, and the spur road to Roosevelt Grove soon follow.
            At mile 13.3 the entrance to Stagger Inn Campground, Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars and Granite Falls is well-signed. We recommend a short side trip of 0.3 miles here (signs say 1/2 mile). From the campground area, trails to view lower and upper Granite Falls are short, and the lower falls is accessible to anyone who can walk a few hundred feet. The grove around the falls is named for President Theodore Roosevelt. It was threatened by fire in 1926, and the campground is named after firefighters who staggered back to a base camp here after fighting surrounding blazes. About 75% of the original grove was burned. In the old growth sections that are left, trees are estimated to be an average of about 800 years old, and a few are 2000 to 3000 years old.
            After visiting Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars, return to Road 302 and zero your odometer. Drive N on Road 302 to Granite Pass.

GPS: 48º 47.059' N, 117º 03.024' W • Elevation 3583 ft
1.8            Granite Pass. (Mileage assumes you zeroed your odometer at the entrance to Roosevelt Grove.) Choose the middle fork, Road 1013, at this intersection of Roads 302, 1013, and 401. Road 1013 is also signed as "Upper Priest Rd." (Road 302 continues W as Metaline Rd.) Terrain here at Granite Pass is so gentle it's hard to tell it's a "pass." Road 1013 soon enters Idaho, and the state border is signed.
            At mile 2.8, Snowmobile trail 656 is closed with a gate in summer.           
Road 1013 continues NE on Muskegon Creek drainage.
            At mile 4.5 Gold Creek and spur road are signed.

GPS: 48º 49.258' N, 116º 58.947' W • Elevation 2828 ft
6.4            Continue straight ahead, R fork, E, on Road 1013. Signs note "Road Closed ahead 20 Miles." Road 662 on the L, W leads to Hughes Meadows and several trailheads. (At mile 3.0 on Road 662, a wetlands and a cabin are located in a Caribou Recovery Area.) On the main road, cross Gold Creek via a bridge with views of Gold Creek gorge.
            At mile 9.1, continue N on Road 1013 at this intersection with Bugle Pass Road 655. (Road 655 leads over the mountains to Lion Head State Park, 22 miles distant, 4WD recommended.) Road 1013 now parallels Upper Priest River. Two-track spur roads to informal campsites are hard to spot in the thick foliage.

GPS: 48º 52.445' N, 116º 57.531' W • Elevation 2722 ft
11.4            We stopped here to walk a short distance from the road into old growth forest, taking advantage of excellent photo opportunities. Bear scat was ubiquitous.
            At mile 12.0 cross Cedar Creek via a bridge, informal campsite near the bridge.
            At mile 13.3 cross Lime Creek via a bridge

GPS: 48º 53.880' N, 116º 57.995' W • Elevation 2772 ft
13.5            Trailhead for Upper Priest River Trail 308. This is one of the most popular trails in the Upper Priest River Scenic Area. For about eight miles the trail winds through groves of western red cedar, white pine and other conifers, with Upper Priest River running alongside. This trail meets Trail 28 near Upper Priest Falls and continues to the waterfall. We recommend walking a bit of this lower section to view the forest, but there is a shorter access to the waterfall from the end of Road 1013.
            Beyond this trailhead the road narrows and begins to climb steeply uphill via a set of switchbacks, following the Lime Creek drainage. This part of the road is signed "Not Suitable for Trailers."

CONTACT INFORMATION
tel 208-357-1917
email lynna.howard@mac.com

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