Hiking – Occidentalist

Exploring the Panhandle of Idaho | St. Joe River

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2025-07-26
Post category:2025 Idaho
Post comments:1 Comment

This trip started with a whoosh. Well, actually it started with a long slow drive up a rocky road, leading to that whoosh. The whoosh was the air rushing out of our right rear tire at record speed after being punctured by a rock. There’s nothing quite like spending the day working your way into a remote site in the forest to spend a few days, only to come up a mile or so short of your goal, and then feeling the need to go get a tire fixed. We passed the three options of camps we intended to stay at. They looked very nice. Maybe next time.

We spent the remainder of the day, and most of the next one driving out for a tire repair and then back to the St. Joe. Along the way out we picked up another flat tire. I guess the rocks are sharp on the St. Joe. Or they had a message for us. I’m going with the first option.

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Take A Hike Day 2024

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2024-11-18
Post category:2024 Idaho
Post comments:0 Comments

National "Take a Hike Day" was yesterday 11.17.24). We hit the Johns Creek trail for a couple miles on an overcast fall day. The colors were exquisite brought out by the recent rain: golds, rusty browns, reds on the twigs of dogwoods, white on the bark of birch, contrasted with the shiny green conifers, and massive ponderosa pines towering overhead, 80 feet up to their first branch. The chickadees were foraging and the squirrels were…

Backpacking in the White Cloud Mountains, Idaho

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2024-07-23
Post category:2024 Idaho
Post comments:1 Comment

Summer was turning into a scorcher and I started looking at the weather map for anywhere we could escape the heat for a few days. It appeared the only place in Idaho that might still stay in the 80’s during the day and cool into the 50’s overnight would be the high elevations of the Sawtooth and White Cloud mountains in the middle of the state. The White Clouds had been on our list as a backpacking “want to do” for a while, so we loaded the packs and headed that direction.

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