Seeing as this being my last summer in the great state of Idaho, or so I hope, my two roommates and I decided to plan a weekend trip up to beautiful northern Idaho. It took a little bit for us to plan everything, mainly because each of us has our own passions. Nate loves biking, Shane is the fish whisperer, and I cannot get enough climbing with this beautiful weather. However, we somehow were able to get each in, in just four short days. After packing everything into my Subaru, somehow fitting all of our clothes, climbing gear, camping gear, fishing gear, food, and bikes in a little legacy, we drove through the night for seven hours to Coeur d'Alene.
We knew that we
wanted to camp in the National Forest just north of town, and arriving there at
two in the morning we started searching the mountain side for the perfect spot.
After another hour of driving, we found it, or rather what we though would be the
perfect spot. We came across a dirt road set apart by markers of beer cans,
glow sticks, and other items nailed to the surrounding trees. We walked down
the trail, all along me thinking a bear or wolf would jump us, and came across
a large opening in the forest only to find broken glass and trash littering the
entire area. We should have known that the markers at the entrance would be sign
enough that this was the party spot for the locals. At that point in the day
however, we were willing to settle for anything because of exhaustion. But with
a bad feeling from Shane, we left and went straight to Post Falls, the town we
planned to climb in. Our luck was short there as well in finding camping.
Literally there was nowhere to camp in the area. Locals in Post Falls and in
Spokane later told us that one had to travel to Coeur d’Alene to find camp
sites, which we already did and were not impressed. So we did the next best
thing. We found an LDS church and slept under the pavilion. It was surprisingly
comfortable despite the cement floor, and the sprinklers going off all around
us. Except for Nate, he forgot his sleeping bag, so he slept in the car. This
we did for two nights in a row.
Packed up car for the road.
Night shot of our first camp site.
Q’Emiln Park (pronounced Ka-mee-lin)
The next day, we
finally set out to climb. This part was the highlight of my trip. I looked at
the specs on this wall, or rather multiple walls, beforehand on mountain
project. This place has well over 82 climbs with both trad and sport routes
rated from 5.6 to 5.11. The granite rock has great holds, mainly krimps (which
I prefer over jugs), and the rock itself was extremely grippy.
We hit this place
up for two days of straight climbing from morning till night, with the
occasional brake for food, swimming (we found a sweet natural pool about a half
mile away from one of the close by dams in the area), and fishing for Shane
which was the highlight of his trip (even though he was not able to catch
anything surprisingly). We also took a breather to head to Spokane Washington
for dinner, only to find out we ate in Spokane Valley just outside of the city.
We went to HuHot, a Mongolian Grill. Since I had never been to one before, let
me warn everyone that you need to get the food cooked before eating it. Frozen
meat and the cooks in the center cooking food on the grill should be sign enough to this minor necessity and needless to say, I felt
very stupid for not realizing that I had to get my food cooked before eating.
Anyways, Q’Emiln
Park is very easy to find, and you do not have to pay to get in. Just park
outside and hike into the various different walls. Each is easily accessed; it
is just a matter of finding them. I recommend going to mountain project to get
directions to each wall. In the two days we climbed, we hit up four of the
thirteen different walls, climbing a whopping ten climbs. You could take a week
at the park and MAYBE climb all of them. But as for us, we had the pleasure to
climb at Grotto Wall, Lower Ledge Area, Upper Fifth Canyon (which is next to
School House Rock, not found on mountain project, but a great rock to teach
someone to lead), and Alpha Wall. It was loads of fun and extremely frustrating
at the same time (some of the leads felt tougher than what mountain project
would rate them at, oh and Nate forgot one climbing shoe but had the other).
However, we got our climbing fix, and moved on to our next adventure.
Some of the walls were marked with these blue signs for an easy find.
Our first climb, a big chimney crack with bolts on one side. We had a lot of fun with this climb.
Day two of our climbing.
First lead of the day.
This climb was the last of the day, and with some climbing smarts, we top roped this sucker.
Keep Calm and Ride the Hiawatha Trail
This was most
likely the highlight of Nate’s trip. We did this in the end because it was
fifteen miles of straight downhill beauty, allowing us to rest easy and ride
free. So we packed up in Post Falls, and drove to Wallace for the Hiawatha
Trail. Again we looked for camping, this time down by lookout pass on the boarder of Montana. We found a beautiful spot that looked out to the mountains beyond, but then turned
back and camped in a dirt lot closer to the exit. Why might you ask would we do
that? Two things. One, we found bear scat everywhere by the campsite, and two,
there was a fire ban in the area. And what is camping without a campfire?
Parking lot campsite.
Beautiful Idaho sunsets.
S'mores on the gas stove we carried around.
The next morning,
we packed up one last time, bought tickets and drove to the Taft exit in
Montana to start the trail. After getting our bikes ready we rode through a 1-½
mile long tunnel (which was pitch black without a head lamp, mine being almost
dead, so I had to follow the light of Nate and Shane). After the tunnel, it was
all downhill from there, signs here and there of the history of the place, and
breath taking views of the mountains in Idaho and Montana. We got to the end of
the trail and thought to ourselves, that’s it?? It was very quick. However,
buying a pass for the bus to take you back to the top allowed you to ride the
trail as many times as desirable. We only rode it once however. The bus ride
back up was like a mini tour because the driver talked about Taft, a no longer
existent town during the railroad days. I should mention that the Hiawatha was
originally a railroad afterall. Look up the history of Taft when you get a chance, for
it is very interesting. For example, Taft was burnt three times, one in
particular during the huge 1910 fires. During that fire, firefighters asked
anyone and everyone to help calm the uncontrollable blaze of the fire. When
they came across the town of Taft, the people refused to help, and rather took
to drinking their lives away (Taft was known for its extreme drinkers and “rowdy”
women if you know what I mean). As the fire came rushing to the town, some
died, while others were eventually forced to evacuate.
Just before the mile and a half tunnel.
It was very cold going through, with mountain ground water running down the sides to six foot deep drains running on each side.
Us on one of the multiple bridges of the trail.
Some of the views we were able to witness.
At the end of our
first ride down, we decided to head home. Upon leaving, low and behold we find
perfect camping sites around Taft that were secluded, free, and beautiful. It
appears to me that even after much preparation, there is always something
forgotten, or something that did not happen as planned. That, in a nutshell, is
how this trip ended up for us. But we had loads of fun, and were easily able to
adapt to each situation.
