Coeur d'Alene River National Recreation Trail Coeur d'Alene National Forest, Idaho

All right well we are here on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. Been here quite a few times doing a route that I've done once before. I mean we've done a lot of routes in here before but I'm doing the full National Recreation Trail loop this time. It's pretty late in the day. Trying to get up to Cataract Creek I think today. I think that's as far as I'm gonna try to get. But I got a mile road walk and then some climbing before we drop down into Cataract Creek. Let's get going. It had rained the whole drive to the trailhead. That meant once I got off the road and onto the brushy trail I was gonna get wet. I was stopping short of where I usually camp on this route and that meant that the distance would have to be made up one of the next two days. All right here we go. Getting my least favorite part of this route out of the way right away. One mile road walk. Just left the road. Now the worst part of this route is over but now we just got a bunch of climbing and a little ridge walk before we drop into Cataract Creek for the night. I had to change my glasses. Pretty dark out here. I should be here today. A bit of a ridge walk. Map says it's still gotta go up. This feels great and it feels good to be hiking at home again. We kind of started downhill so I assume we're headed into Cataract Creek. As soon as we get down here we'll I'm gonna try to see if I can find that place I camped before. If not we'll just find a spot. Pretty wet. Hopefully I can get a fire going. All right we made it down onto a branch of Cataract Creek. This is way steeper getting down here than I remember and way longer drop. It looks like we gotta climb a little bit and then jump into the other channel that's over there. I've never seen that sign before. A few people must be coming through here because you could see the trail. Time to find a place to camp. Well I'm about 95% sure that I have found the campsite that Jeremiah, Sarah, Val and I used. I've looked for this campsite every time I've come down here. Usually I get lost trying to find the trail. Now there's a sign. Won't get lost. Found the campsite. I'm pretty sure. How cool. A lot of nostalgia on this trip for me. I woke up to rain falling on the tarp. I was in a weird place and the weather was dragging me down. I had the longest hike of the trip ahead of me with about six miles of road walking to get to the far end of trail 20. From there it was about 15 miles back to the truck and I planned on camping somewhere on the river tonight. The more miles I could knock out today the less I would have to do on Sunday. Well I'm sitting here enjoying my morning coffee. Kind of contemplating the trip really. You know I don't want to fight the weather. It's looking like we're socked in. Today was supposed to be the best day for this trip and it still could be. Maybe this is fog. I don't know. But I was in a weird spot on the drive up here because it rained all the way up. Hit the trailhead. It wasn't raining but everything was soaked. So today's the biggest day. I mean I gotta decide from here if I'm gonna bail four and a half miles back or I push on and do the longest day of the trip. Guess we'll figure it out. A lot of plane activity right now so I'm thinking this might burn off. All right heading out. We're pushing through. It's really chilly this morning. I got some hopes it might burn off but either way we're pushing Got the big climb. I think maybe the last big climb of the trip right in front of us as soon as we step on the trail here. It looks like the clouds are burning off. It might be the nice day that was forecasted. Just took a little pit stop. I don't know we got four to six miles. I don't even remember how much. It's a ways. Let's knock this out. Made it to the end of the single track. A little more uphill than I remember. Oh now it's the road walk. To the 412 junction. We're staying left. All right there was the last road junction. All right leaving the road for good. Trail 20 all the way back. We're at about eight and a half miles for the day and we need to bang out a few more on the trail here. Put us in a decent position for tomorrow. I think the early parts of this trail are very steep so there won't be a campsite for a while. Oh let's go. Well I was gonna stop back there. I stepped out through four hammock spots. That would have worked. I don't know. I just felt like I wanted to keep moving but it's starting to get late in the day. I think we're getting close to Clark Creek. I was trying to make some time now. I was wearing down by the time I got close to Clark Creek. I remembered a spot on the trail where I'd have to ford a creek and I was trying to get past that so I could stay dry the next day. A log has fallen over the waterfall. Well I just did the ford. That's what I was pushing for. So now really any campsite is game. Still shooting for the one that Val and I camped at. It's kind of just before Jordan camp I think. Yeah sun's going down. It's going to be pulling into camp at dark I think. Well I found a spot. What a day. Long day. I haven't done this many miles in a long time. Almost 17 miles today. No fire. No hoopla tonight. Filter in some water. Gonna have some ramen. Go to bed. But I am just beat. Well good morning. Morning day three here from the north fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. Sounds like we got a little drizzle going on but coffee's on. Waking up to rain again put me in a weird place. I could wait out the weather but the brush was already wet and there was no avoiding it. I had an extra cup of coffee and hung out until I had my mind in the right place and then it was time to go and finish out the loop. All right well we're just pulling out of here. I tried to wait out the rain and it seems like it might have might have worked. You can kind of see maybe that we're kind of on a game trail. Last night a deer or something came through and timber spooked it away and I'm guessing it just went to the hillside there and was snorting at us. For a long time he was pissed. That was pretty cool but we got between seven and nine miles back. All I know is we're trucking for home now. Let's do it. Way farther than I thought. On the hike out I was moving along at a good clip and knocking out the miles. Just clearing with the campsite that I love. Normally I'd stop and take a shot drop pack for a minute but not today. I am wanting to be done so we're gonna push through. I picked this route again because I wanted a good hiking trip and I felt like I didn't get enough of those this year but you have to be careful what you wish for. I got all I could handle on this trip and had one of the biggest mileage days that I've had in the last few years. Having done so many trips in this area I was having a lot of fond memories as I made my way through the route. Just reminds me how lucky I am to live where I do with so many fantastic places to wander.