It’s been a while since winter rolled into the rear view mirror, (a month if are a meteorologist, or almost two weeks if you are an astrologer) so there’s a bit of catching up to do around here. It seemed like February was more spring like than March here in North Central Idaho. Here we are at April 1st and we have a winter weather warning that extends into the next couple days. Go figure. It’s been a weird few months of weather across the west.

Selway River

With 50’s in the forecast for a few days in February we loaded up the truck and headed to the Selway River for a few days of hiking trails and nights around the campfire.

In a couple days of hiking we didn’t pass another person on the trail, so apparently February is a good month to go for a walk up the Selway.

We found a quiet place to camp and enjoy the warmth of a fire for a couple nights. The days were warm for February, but they are still pretty short and it was plenty cold as night set in and the stars (and satellites, wow, so many satellites) came out.

The following day we wandered up the Meadow Creek trail, but we didn’t get too far.

Although the forest reported the trail being cut out in the summer of 2025, there must have been a microburst or a hefty windstorm since then. After about 20 trees over the trail in the first mile and a half we gave up and turned around.

Meadow Creek – there is supposed to be a trail here

Still, a couple sunny days in the woods was sure nice in February (and we didn’t ever get enough snow to go skiing this year).

Salmon River

March found us looking for more opportunities to stretch our legs and see the changing of the season. We headed south to the Salmon River to some early season trails (a.k.a. you don’t want to hike there in the summer).

The first spring wildflowers were up and blooming.

We noted a few of these cut off stakes. A survey marker of some kind?

Then we found a ‘full size’ one, and the mystery was solved. An old telephone/radio line ran along the river with the wire supported by several of these poles. I always find it interesting to find areas with more signs of activities in the past than we see today. Now that is progress.

River trails generally don’t follow too close to the river, just in the general direction (and a shot of camp later that day across the river)

After a night of owls hooting in the hills around us we packed up camp and headed to another trailhead.

Across the Salmon and up the Wind River we went.

More signs of spring along the way.

And up, and up and up we went. After about 5 miles of climbing we were about ‘mid-slope’. This is steep, big country. Time for lunch with a view before we turned around and headed for home. It was a glorious hike, even though we did see one other person.

Wind River Hike – yes the bridge and the truck are just down the ridge and across the river if you look close

CJ Strike

Another sign that spring is here and winter is in the rear view – the boat is out of its winter storage and back on the water. We headed south to CJ Strike to hunt down some crappie.

The blackbirds were singing non stop. And yes the fish were biting, even if not quite as much as we would have liked. We settled for 42.

I guess we can’t complain, we did come home with several pounds of fillets off these massive crappies. Never had crappie? You are missing one of the finer things in life.