A hike in the Idaho Sawtooth Mountains: Day 1

John, Davy, Daryl, and the pups spent a week backpacking in the Sawtooths last week. Here are their journal entries and photos.

All packed up and ready to jump in the car for the 3-hour journey to the Sawtooth Mountains.

Davy: Today started poorly. After we left home, Daryl and I both fell asleep and we ended up missing the turn down to the trail head. That was because the sign was in very bad condition. We got directions in town and came back out. The directions turned out to be wrong but we found the trailhead without too much trouble.

A boy scout troop was leaving just as we got there. We got out our lunch but Dad ended up forgetting the bread, so we wrapped everything in ham and ate it that way. We put everything back and got out our backpacks. The clouds were getting darker and darker. We passed the boy scouts after a while. A couple minutes after that it started to sprinkle. We decided to find a place to set up the tent and wait out the rain. Before we could find a place the rain started coming down fairly strong and me and Daryl took out the fly for the tent and got under it while Dad kept going to find a place to set up the tent. It turned out there was a good spot a couple hundred feet further down so we went there and set up the tent.

By that point the rain had almost stopped and the sun was coming out. We let everything dry and kept going. We crossed paths with the boy scouts while our stuff was drying and we passed them again after a while. At the beginning the dogs were full of energy, but by the end of the day they were laying down whenever we stopped and rested. The rest of the day was fine and we had no issue with rain, but the clouds did seem threatening. At around 6:15 we found a nice campground and set everything up, the water filter wasn’t working great, but we were able to fix it, and we didn’t put enough water in the food so it was fairly dry. The dogs also ate all of their food and fell asleep fast.

At the trail head of the Idaho Centennial Trail.

Daryl: Today was the beginning of a week-long hike. We got up early and had pancakes for breakfast. Then we drove out to the mountains. As we headed out, we missed the trail head. Once we got to the town after it, we asked directions. We then found the trailhead with no problem. We got there at about lunchtime. For lunch we had tomatoes and spinach wrapped in ham. The reason they weren’t wrapped in bread is because Daddy forgot to bring any. Once we finished eating we started hiking. On the way it started to rain. When that started, we decided to find a place to set up the tent and take shelter. As we searched, it started to rain harder. Finally, we found a place and set everything up. As soon as we finished it stopped raining. Then we continued on and set up camp.