Clark Fork population 575.

Locals chatted with us at breakfast. They know the area well. When we mentioned the dilemma of trespassing on Viggo Mortensen’s property as opposed to a road walk on the flood destroyed road they told us what a good guy Viggo is.

The Post Master was glad to see us and carried a stack of boxes to us. Thank you friends for all the treats from home! We settled at a picnic table to open boxes, eating treats the entire time. While Ken sorted resupply food and maps, I stood on the yellow line of the highway running through town to make phone calls. When that spot finally failed I found that I could get service while standing on the bench of the picnic table.

We passed the library as we walked out of town, still not sure which route we were going to take. We stopped at the library. As we left the library we decided on the longer road walk which would be shorter if we were turned back on the private property.

The traffic free road was a pleasant walk. We ran into heavy construction equipment working on rebuilding a bridge. Soon after that we were sharing the road with a deer. Late in the day we waded the still bridgeless Lightning Creek. The road from that point became an ATV two track. Bushes and downed logs almost closed the rough track at several points. The forest is quick to reclaim untraveled land.

We talked to two Forest Service Surveyors. One had just missed us at Wilderness Gateway!

Porcupine Lake is gorgeous nestled below the mountains. We both took several photos of the spectacular sunset while Ken filtered water and scouted for our trail leaving the lake. Camping doesn’t get any better than this!

We set off on the trail that Ken found last night. It lasted only a short while. Our goal was to climb out of the lake bowl to the ridge above in order to meet up with the ICT. What a miserable slow climb through dense tortuous bushes. Game trails faded in and out, giving us hope for a trail then dashing that hope. Frustration ensued; we finally climbed our individual routes steeply up to find the trail.

Once we got to the ridge trail hiking was fun. We dashed along. I don’t know who was more surprised when we ran into two commercial huckleberry pickers raking the bushes with their picking cans. One also worked as a guide. We stayed to talk too long, especially after our slow morning.

After more great trails we dropped onto a dirt road below Lunch Peak Lookout. A few cars passed. I decided I would stop the next car when we realized that we weren’t going to make it all the way to the lookout for camping. The driver might be able to tell us if terrain leveled out.

The Stout brothers were eager to talk to us about hiking and camping. They described a flat, less rocky spot to camp on a turnout just ahead. That spot had our last distant views of Lake Pend Oreille with another colorful sunset above. We also saw the Seven Sisters that we would walk near in a couple of days. Wow, thanks for the camp site tip, Stouts!