The Lost Trails Found crew recently finished up a hitch on the Shedroof Divide. We did logout and started repairing a turnpike.

 We started our hitch by logging out the Thunder Creek trail. A volunteer crew got most of that trail cleaned up before we arrived. We just finished up the last bit of that trail and moved on to the Shedroof Divide trail going north from the junction with Thunder Creek. We logged out the first few miles of that section and got part of the way through the burn zone from the North Fork Hughes fire in 2017. The trail in the burn zone can be a bit difficult to follow. The wildflowers are trying their best to reclaim the trail tread.

 Our other project on the Shedroof Divide was repairing a turnpike. We rebuilt about 10 feet of turnpike. Additionally, we reestablished drainage and refilled the tread on another section of turnpike. This area of the trail was very wet and we found that, at this time of year, the stream here was a better water source than the spring near the campsite. It is approximately 3 miles from the junction of Shedroof Divide and Thunder Creek trails.

 We camped at two different campsites during the week. The first one was on the Thunder Creek trail just before the junction with the Shedroof divide. This campsite was in a meadow and had a small water source. However, there was lots of bear scat throughout this area. We were extra vigilant with our food storage and cooked away from our tents because there are grizzly bears in this area.

Our second campsite was just north of a spring on the Shedroof Divide trail, approximately 1-2 miles from the junction. It had beautiful views looking east into Idaho and down to Priest Lake.

 I would recommend this trail for folks who are looking for solitude. We only saw two other backpackers the whole week we were on trail.

Visited the Salmo-Priest Wilderness on an overnighter from 6/16-6/17. The plan was to take the Shedroof Divide trail from Pass Creek Pass to Hughes Fork, to Jackson Creek, back to the Shedroof Divide trail, back to my car. 

The road up to Pass Creek Pass is in good shape - a little rough, but my two-wheel drive RAV4 made it up just fine. There was one sketchy spot where a creek goes over the road though. 

Shedroof Divide from Pass Creek Pass to Thunder Creek is actually really nice - some blowdowns, but I believe WTA went and worked there the weekend of 6/23. The section from Thunder Creek to Hughes Fork is a bit faint through the burned area, and there were a lot more blowdowns - nothing impassable though. 

Got to Hughes Fork and made it maybe 3/4 mile before it turned into a bushwhack that I wasn't ready for, so I backtracked out and took Shedroof Cutoff (nice trail) out to the road, then down to Thunder Creek and back to Shedroof Divide. Thunder Creek was a really nice trail overall, but did have some pretty major blowdowns that were a little tricky to get over. WTA may have cleared these since then. 

No snow on the trail - saw a couple patches down below the Shedroof Divide and up on a Ridgeline, but that was it. No wildlife except birds and squirrels/chipmunks, but did see very recent bear scat. The mosquitoes were also pretty bad where I camped at the Shedroof Divide/Thunder Creek intersection.

Great hike overall, and I look forward to exploring other areas of the Salmo-Priest later this summer.

We hiked up the Shedroof Cutoff, then north along the divide with a detour to Shedroof Mountain, before following the Salmo Divide to the trailhead. There were a few downed trees on the Cutoff, and a few more on the Divide. Around the west and north of Mt Shedfroof there was still 1-2 m of snow in the bowls. The trail was visible in sections and other's footprints helped guide our way. After the junction to Snowy Top Mountain, the rest of the trail was a bit of snow and clear trail and a few more trees down. We camped on the road before hiking out along the trail and down the logging road back to Cutoff Trailhead. 10/10 would hike again.... later in the season and with a saw :D

Road report only, didn't hike. Spoke to a ranger on Friday 6/3 and she said that crews had been up that way and said driving up to Pass Creek Pass isn't possible. It should be impassable starting a few miles before the pass. At the "turkey foot" in the road, the snow begins.

I came up with this hike idea when other weekend plans were cancelled, and fortunately I have one friend who is just as nutty as me who was willing to give this route a shot. This is admittedly a crazy idea as a day hike, but it could easily be transformed into a multi-day backpack trip.

We met at the Noisy Creeek TH late in the afternoon on Saturday & dropped off my car. Then we carpooled in my friend's car to the Salmo Loop TH, ate dinner, and slept for a few hours. We knew this route would take more hours then there was daylight available, so we were up & on-trail by 4am on Sunday morning.

The route starts by dropping into the Salmo Basin, all of which we experienced by headlamp. Even so, the many mushrooms along the side of the trail were spectacular! I've hiked this trail on numerous previous occasions, but if anyone plans to re-create this route & has not seen the Basin in daylight, don't start so early as the forest is also beautiful.

We were within a couple miles of the Shedroof Divide by the time the sun came up, and stopped at the last water source for our first real break of the hike so we could top off water bottles for the long dry section ahead. The fall colors are fantastic in the upper reaches of the Basin trail, and especially along the Shedroof Divide. The larch haven't really started to turn yet, so this one will continue to offer great fall colors until snow prevents access.

We didn't need the water break at the camp below Cabinet Pass, but did stop again at the source just before the Salmo Divide junction. There were small water sources available at seeps along the trail near Thunder Mountain, and we stopped for another fill-up just past the junction with Thunder Creek & Jackson Creek. The hike up the steep switchbacks at Helmer was interrupted by several "tourist stops" to take in the colors on the burned landscape, all crimson & gold.

The fatigue of all the miles started to hit us around Pass Creek Pass, where we stopped for a snack break & had a hard time standing up and walking again! But again, this section was beautiful and all of the fall colors offered a good distraction from sore muscles. Sunset on the Hall-Grassy Divide was spectacular!

We didn't really start to suffer from this crazy hike until the sun went down. The lower portion of the trail has experienced several burns in recent years, so my usual landmarks to help me judge distance were impossible to pick out. It really wasn't until the last 7 miles that I struggled, but not enough for me to consider stopping early. We exited the Noisy Creek trail just a little after 9pm.

Total distance was 43.16 miles with about 7500' elevation gain. The route is within the Salmo Priest Wilderness from the TH to Pass Creek Pass. A large portion of this route is also a segment of the Pacific Northwest Trail. It's a very easy route to shuttle, and could even be made a little longer by ending at the north end of Sullivan Lake.