The Idaho Rainforest That Shouldn't Exist

I'm standing 30 feet in the air in a fire tower, completely off grid in northern Idaho. Places like this are a luxury secluded getaway. But historically, towers like this were not built for vacation. They were built out of pure geographic necessity. This is Idaho's secret rainforest. And today we're going to explore this entire region to answer two very important questions. One, how does a rainforest this deep into Idaho survive? And then two, why don't more people know that this rainforest exists? Well, to answer both those questions, we need to head back to this morning where it all begins. And yes, we will be exploring this fire tower right now, but there's a lot to get to before then. So let's go. Good morning and welcome to Pulaski Historic Trail here in the middle of this beautiful forest here. I'm going to get my gear and then we're going to hit the trail because there's a lot to talk about and a lot to see. We get to that fire lookout later today. While we're getting started here on the trail, I figured now's as good a time as any to talk about where specifically we're talking about with regards to the secret rainforest. And more specifically, what is it that we're even talking about? So first, what we're talking about is the North American Inland Temperate Rainforest, which is its actual name. This rainforest is a bit of a geographic anomaly. You see, most temperate rainforests hug the coast. It's how they're able to get all the moisture they need in order to become, well, a rainforest. But this ecosystem is located 300, 350 miles from the coast. But despite that, it forms a continuous band of lush, humid temperate rainforest along the Columbia and Rocky Mountains. All told, this rainforest stretches 620 miles from British Columbia all the way down to where I am in Idaho. And in its entirety, the rainforest covers about 27,000 square miles, which if you know your state sizes, you're going to know that that's larger than the state of West Virginia. That's a lot of forest. This makes it one of the largest inland temperate rainforests on the planet. However, since it's broken up into scattered patches, depending on things like mountain topography and the various microclimates, the pockets of true, actual temperate rainforest are much smaller. So they're just kind of scattered in the midst of all of this other forest here. But that fragmentation actually means one really big thing. And that is that large parts of this forest actually get pretty dry. And that means big wildfires. Something we're on our way to explore right now. But before we can get to that, we got to keep hiking up this trail because it's going to lead us to some cool stuff. So there's one usual telltale sign of a rainforest. And that is a lot of moss. Obviously, moss requires a lot of moisture in order to grow and survive. But moss on the ground is not what we're looking for. Because moss on the ground, moss can get its moisture from the ground. What we're looking for is moss that would be hanging off of the trees itself. And unless we see that, I don't think we're actually going to be in one of these patches of rainforest. And it's kind of hard because, well, they're not really like called out. Unless we see one, you know, that's it. I think the point to take away is that at any given moment, when you're hiking through the woods here in Northern Idaho, you very well could find yourself in a patch of rainforest. It's not quite like the Olympic Mountains of Washington State. I found some moss on this tree. It's not quite what I'm looking for. You can see some up here as well. What I'm really looking for is that like hanging moss. And you might be asking yourself, why is this so interesting, Jeff? And it's because when we see it growing on trees, that means it shares the same ecological DNA as, let's say, the rainforest in the Olympic National Park over in Washington State, despite being hundreds of miles away. Which, again, is just really incredible. Like, this is not a common thing. This is not something that we would expect to see out here. Nature is interesting, and so are rainforests. All right, onward and upward. I'm going a little off path here, but a local told me, just from town of Wallace nearby, there's a part where a trail seems to go up. And for about 200 yards, you just keep going and going and going. But what you see up there is not only a great view of the canyon that I've been walking in this whole time, but potentially an old mine or some mining equipment. I'm not sure. All that's to say is we are going to go explore a little bit. I will say, now that I've climbed a little bit of elevation, I'm starting to think that down near the bottom is part of the inland temperate rainforest. It just gets so much more dry up here. You can see the twigs. It gets much more, well, for lack of a better word, traditional forest. No moss, not a lot of undergrowth, less organic matter overall. I guess maybe that is the inland temperate rainforest down there. Maybe we already found a pocket. I'm not going to lie, that was a bit of a bust. I don't know if I took a wrong turn somewhere, but did not find the old mine that I was told about. I'm not saying I was lied to. I just don't think I'm in the right area. It's just the way it goes sometimes. Make our way back down. This is quite the detour. Quick for you guys, though. Okay, so I'm now deep into my hike here on the Pulaski Trail. And you might be wondering why this trail specifically, because one, it's just kind of going through this canyon here. I don't even think it leads to a nice view of the entire area, unfortunately. But here's the thing. This forest is incredibly peaceful today. Back in the summer of 1910, this exact canyon was the site of one of the most harrowing survival stories in all of American history. So remember how I mentioned that most of this forest is rather dry and that the rainforest is just kind of fragmented and patchy? Well, the summer of 1910 was historically dry and lightning strikes sparked hundreds of fires all across this region. And then to make things worse, on August 10th, hurricane force winds swept through this entire region. And all of those hundreds of small fires, they merged into something we now call the Big Burn. In just two days, it consumed three million acres of land across Idaho, Montana, and Washington State. And to this day, it is still the third largest wildfire in U.S. history. Which brings us to, well, a man named Ed Pulaski. But before we get to him, there's actually something at the end of this trail that'll help tell his story. Because once again, it is a harrowing story of survival. Let's go. Right behind me, there's a ventilation shaft from a mine that's literally right underneath our feet right now. I don't know if you watched last week's episode when I did the northern panhandle, but I talked all about mining, how it really created the economy of this region early on. And one of the locals told me, you know, from Wallace, which is where I'm stationed, you can kind of just head into any of the canyons around it. And, you know, there's going to be mines that sort of dot the entire way. And I've definitely seen that. And so I guess it's no surprise that there's one down this canyon too. After a couple miles, I think I have finally reached the tunnel, or near to it, which is really just an old mine. Fortunately, in order to actually get to the tunnel itself, you kind of have to scrabble down, which will be really fun trying to get back up. Well, he got a little wet, but I have officially made it to the Pulaski Tunnel. Check this out. Oh, it's so cool. I mean, unfortunately, you can't see much and it's gated off, but this place holds quite the story. Let's get back to a man named Ed Pulaski, who was a ranger for the brand new U.S. Forest Service. So Pulaski was out here with 45 firefighters when all of a sudden the winds shifted and the fire completely surrounded them. And so with the world literally burning down around them, Pulaski guided his men down the mountains, through the smoke and flames to this abandoned mine shaft. The heat surrounding this mine shaft completely sucked the oxygen out of the air and the timbers all around it, well, they were on fire. In fact, Pulaski literally had to draw his revolver and threaten to shoot any man who thought that they could make an escape for Wallace. Eventually, Pulaski passed out from the smoke inhalation, but his quick thinking saved all of the men and Pulaski himself did survive. So it was a trauma of this burn in this area that sent shockwaves all the way back to Washington, D.C. And the Forest Service realized that to protect the forests around here and all of the men working in them, they had to be able to see them coming. And that's why we have fire towers today. Of course, we're going to get up and close to one in a little bit, but for now I've got to hike all the way back out. And then I've got something special planned because all this morning I've been amongst the trees, but I think I want to go above them and I guess also kind of below them. You guys will see what I mean. Let's go. I'll just say as I hike my way out of here, it is just so cool being able to see something like that up close and personal. It's a bit of a scrabble getting down there, which is why I always say I do this so you guys don't have to. You're out this way, you should do this because it is well worth it. All right. This is quite the climb, so I'm going to turn the camera off. See you up top. Hey, I've been building an amazing geography community over at TheBite.co and for a limited time, you can get a free month of ad and sponsor free videos from all of my channels, exclusive articles and a free digital world map of the Koppen climate system over on TheBite.co. Just click the link in the description below or scan this QR code and I'll see you there. Welcome to the Hiawatha Bicycle Trail. This is going to be a very unique and unbelievable experience, but before I talk about it too much, let's go ahead and get checked in, get our bike. But in theory, it's going to take us up to the tops of some of these trees here. I am going to get a bike, but I need to go pick up the bike, throw it in the van and then from there, we got to drive five miles down the road, basically into Montana and then we're going to bike back over into Idaho. So let's go do that. Another correction, the bike apparently already waiting for me at the trailhead. All that's left to do is drive down that way. Do it. All right, finally, at long last, I've made it to the trailhead. This has been quite the adventure just getting to the trail of the Hiawatha, but now that I'm here, just got to pick up my bike and then I'm free to go for as long as I want, I guess. And with that, I am off on the trail of Hiawatha. I'll be making stops along the way. I really don't think you guys can see me right now because this tunnel is pitch black except for my light, but I am currently going through a 1.6 mile long tunnel. At some point, it's going to spit me out into, well, the great outdoors. And I guess the only thing I have to say right now is if you do this, and you should, make sure you bring a jacket because this tunnel, oh, so cold. Hopefully, I'm getting near the end. And just like that, we emerge. Here's what I'll say. You're not a fan of cold, dark, damp, probably not the thing for you to do, but it is super easy. Just need a bike and a light. We're not quite at the viewpoint yet, but I can already tell, oh, I almost lost my hat. This is going to be something else. Welcome to the Hiawatha Bicycle Trail. This is a very unique system of trails converted from an old train track rail. And this exact trail is going to show us that exact rainforest I was in earlier, but from above. But before we really get to the trail, because there's a lot to see, let's talk about the name Hiawatha. Hiawatha, as you may know, was an indigenous leader here in the United States, well before the United States ever existed, hundreds of years ago. In fact, he was the famous leader of the Iroquois Confederacy over back in the eastern part of the country. But if that's the case, then why is this trail system named after him? Specifically, I don't know. All I can tell you is that the name Hiawatha is spread all around the country. There's a national forest named for him back in Michigan, two separate different towns in Iowa and Kansas, and even an Amtrak route running between Chicago and Milwaukee. So suffice it to say, his name is used for a lot of different things and a lot of different places that have absolutely nothing to do with him. Okay, with that, let's get back on the trail and see what we see. Right down here below me, that's a trestle bridge. It used to have a train on it and that's where we're going. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye as I was riding down the path and I figured, well, I gotta point it out. We're going to make our next stop when we're actually down on that bridge because remember when I said we want to get above the trees? I mean, that's where we're going to be able to do it. Don't look right on down on them. Let's go. Okay, I have finally made it to the trestle bridge that gives me everything I want to see, which is just enough to see below and of course, just enough to see off to the sides and be amongst the treetops of this inland temperate rainforest. And of course, to understand just how rugged this region is, you kind of have to look at what it took to conquer it because after all, the Bitterroot Mountains here are incredibly rugged. So I'm currently riding my bike along this Hiawatha Trail. I rode through a 1.6 mile tunnel called the Taft Tunnel. I'm now along a series of trestle bridges. All of this used to be a railway and this railway now trail is, well, nothing short of an engineering marvel. So back in the early 1900s, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, better known as the Milwaukee Road, decided that they needed a route through these mountains and it cost them an absolute fortune to blast their way through the mountains, to create those tunnels and then to also build these bridges that now overlook, well, this incredible forest, much of which is temperate rainforest. Looking out from here, we finally get at least a partial answer as to why nobody really knows about Idaho's secret rainforest. Because the geography is just so incredibly rugged, outside of intense resource extraction like mining and massive bank-breaking railroad projects, this terrain naturally repels settlement. The Milwaukee Road eventually went bankrupt. The train stopped running and the actual tracks were torn up in the 1980s and this incredible ecosystem has mostly been left alone, except for those of us on bicycles, who can kind of ride along, well, the ghost of an American railroad. Speaking of being left alone on a mountainside, I need to hop back on my bike, finish this trail, get a shuttle back up to my van and then finally, at long last, we can go to our fire lookout tower. Finally made it back into the van, which means I can finally make my way back to Wallace and then my fire lookout camp tonight. I don't say this often, but this was a long day and I'm not even halfway over. All right, let's hit the road. All right, we have made it to our home for the evening. I'm gonna give you guys a quick little tour right around here and then I'm gonna give you guys a quick little tour up above. I guess first things first, because I'm just seeing all of this as well. We have our tower here, Half Moon Tower, a bunch of chopped wood in case I get chilly tonight. Check this out. So there's no elevator, there's no escalator, obviously. The only way to get up and down is by taking the stairs, not ADA accessible, which might seem like a real pain if you have a lot of supplies, but they have like a little pulley system that goes all the way up to the top. You can just haul your gear up and then as far as the bathroom goes, I believe it might be over here. Not quite sure where the bathroom is because I do believe this is the sauna. This is definitely the sauna. Oh, the toilet's in here. Okay, so the bathroom's down here as well and so you can kind of make your own little sauna in here. I wish it was colder. Unfortunately, I'm here in summer. It's just not super conducive to a sauna. I'm not really feeling it. This place is open year round, so if you get this during winter, you will have to be snowmobiled in, I think, but then obviously the sauna is going to kick some butt. So with that, I'm going to grab some supplies and then we'll make our way up. I got my backpack for the evening. I'm anticipating needing to come down to the bathroom at least once. I'm a light packer. I feel like this is all I'm going to need at least for now. So let's head on up. You know, after a hike this morning, about a 20-ish mile bike ride, I'm feeling it in my legs right now. It's honestly not that far up though. I've done many more stairs in my day, including in a fire lookout tower in Oregon. Stay in that one though. Oh, wow. The fire lookout tower itself. And here we are. From the beginning of the episode, we've made it back to the fire tower. After hiking through the rainforest itself and biking over it earlier today, being here amongst it in this fire tower, it all hits a little bit differently. I feel much more at one with the rainforest, but we still have one massive lingering question that I haven't answered yet. How does a rainforest survive 300 miles away from the ocean? To be a rainforest, you need an immense amount of moisture. And out here, unlike on the Pacific coast of Washington, the secret isn't in the rain. It's actually in the snow. Here's the geographic recipe at play. You see, powerful storms roll off the Pacific Ocean and they travel eastward up until they hit something called the Columbia Plateau. And when they finally smash into the Bitterroot Mountains, all the mountains that we saw earlier, the air is forced upward and as it rises, it cools. And then as it cools, it condenses. And then it eventually dumps all of that moisture right onto these mountains. In the spring and fall, this means heavy rain. But in the winter, it means staggering amounts of snow, like way more than I've ever seen in my life. And it's that snowpack that is the true lifeblood of Idaho's secret rainforest. It acts like a giant frozen reservoir for half the year. And so throughout the warmer and drier months, when the fire danger spikes on the high ridges, that deep snowpack, it just slowly melts. It constantly feeds the streams. It soaks the soil. And most importantly, it fills those deep shaded valleys, the ones that I saw earlier, with moisture. So these mountains essentially trap all the water, moisture, rain within them. And this is also why that same rainforest is patchy and fragmented rather than a continuous entity like the Olympic National Park in Washington. It's because that kind of moisture can only exist in small areas. Suffice it to say, it's a very delicate balance. A perfectly tuned moisture engine that takes ocean storms, mountain walls, and very deep snow to sustain a localized pocket of coastal ecosystem completely landlocked in the American West. It is undeniably one of the most remarkable geographic regions of the entire country. Well, with that, I need to get settled in a little bit, and then we'll close out the episode. Hey guys, I am up here in the top of the tower, and I'm going to give you guys just a really quick tour just to show you guys the doorway that I came in. It's literally hatching the ground. I don't know if this actually used to be a fire tower. I wouldn't be surprised though, because things like that, I don't think would exist in a luxury, modern, newly built fire tower. Here's the bed. Ooh, firm, comfy. It's actually kind of interesting. It's like built in countertop here. I'll enjoy that. After spending a couple nights in the van, that'll be nice to actually be able to spread out. Over here, we have what looks like a... It's a big sink. And I'm going to guess garbage chute? Garbage chute, yeah. Moving on over here, we've got our sink. Well, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get water. I'm only here for a day, so I might just rely on my bottle of water. And then over here, it looks like it's like a stove, a glass stove of sorts. And of course, this is less of an issue while I'm here because, well, I'm here in summer. You can see right behind here, there's the wood stove and a bunch of wood. So if it got cold, which again, I'm not really worried about, you would just feed wood in there. From what I've read online, it actually keeps this place pretty toasty. Just some additional knickknacks, fire starters. I mean, overall, this is a rustic sort of environment. There's not really power and there's absolutely no internet. The vibes are so cool. Like, I really wish Alexa was here. I think she would get a real big kick out of it. Sadly, I'm bunking it alone tonight. Well, guys, I have hauled up a couple more things. Coming up on 7 p.m. Which, by the way, doesn't get dark until like 10. Not a whole lot of curtains. So it might be hard for me to get sleep for a little while. All that's to say, I am absolutely exhausted. I have been everywhere around this little canyon all day today. I just don't have anything more in me. So I guess with that, I'm going to go ahead and call it an episode. I hope you enjoyed learning all about Idaho Secret Rainforest. It has been so much fun being in Idaho. This was my first time in Idaho and this part of it has blown me away geographically. Come up here, come visit Idaho. You won't be disappointed. Next week, I think we're going to be in central Oregon. It is getting closer to me and Alexa's wedding. And so we're trying to keep our trips a little bit closer to home. You guys know I love showing off Oregon. So as usual, come back next week for another geographic adventure. The going down, oh, it's way more scary as I go down and get more things. Oh, boy. Oh, there we go. Oh, oh, gee. Oh, all right. Make my way down and down and step.