Sawtooth Traverse Part 1: Hiking the Sawtooth High Route

That’s right, the off-trail high route was my idea. I was as surprised as anyone. My first high route experience two years ago was… mixed. (I subtitled that post “How I Learned that I Don’t Like High Routes”.)

But we didn’t want to just do a high route. I’m always most excited about trips that link multiple methods of travel. I noticed that there’s a great section of the Salmon River right next to the Sawtooth Range, and since the whole range is fairly compact a bike spot would be pretty easy. So we started planning a hike/raft/bike loop (somewhat similar to our hike/raft/run loop in Glacier a few years ago, but on a larger scale).

We were also aware of the Sawtooth Wilderness Loop (actually, that was our original plan for this trip). Our planned high route overlapped with that loop a decent amount, so we’d have plenty of opportunities to bail onto that trail if we needed to (spoiler: we did).

We all arrived in Boise pretty late and checked into a motel near the airport. The next morning we finalized some plans over continental breakfast and packed the car to the limit. Then we went grocery shopping and made an unplanned stop at a bike shop to buy a replacement tire and tube for one of the bikes (guess which one). We left Boise around noon, which was a little behind schedule.

From there we had a long and winding 3-hour drive to Stanley, which was where we’d start rafting in a few days. We stopped for a late lunch in Stanley, then found a spot to stash our rafting gear. It took a while to find a decent spot. Sean and Siyang stashed their rafts, but I decided to carry my raft with me on the hike, hoping to take it out on some alpine lakes. (An extra 7 pounds won’t slow me down, right?)

Given the late start, our day 1 was obviously very short. We started from the Alpine Creek trailhead near Alturas Lake and only hiked about 4.5 miles. Technically we were off trail for the last mile or so, but you’d never know it—it’s well enough traveled that you’re basically following a trail. That mile was very steep, though, so it wasn’t easy.

There’s a really nice lake at the top of the climb, which is probably why the trail was so well traveled. Since it was already starting to get dark we decided to set up camp by the lake. There was a large group of kids camping across the lake from us. We cooked dinner in the dark and went straight to bed. Sean set up a brand new tent for the first time, Siyang set up his ultralight bivy, and I used my trusty one-person tent.

We slept terribly. It was really hot when we went to bed, and then it rained and got really windy in the middle of the night. Not pleasant, but at least it all happened overnight—the weather was beautiful when woke up in the morning.

Day 2 was our first day off trail! We were off trail right from the start and it stayed that way most of the day. Right off the bat, we found route finding to be pretty straightforward. Trees were generally pretty sparse and our route mostly stayed high, so we could easily see where we were headed. Even when the route went lower, the vegetation was fairly sparse so travel was easy (much easier than some of the low sections I remember from the Wind River High Route). That said, we were still pretty slow, especially in the high sections with a lot of talus.

Early in the day we came to a medium-sized alpine lake. Our route went up a pass directly on the other side of the lake, so we’d have to hike all the way around the rocky shore. Or… I could float across in my packraft! It was my time to shine! While Sean and Siyang started circumnavigating the lake, I inflated my raft and set sail.

Ok, in all honesty it wasn’t the most practical idea. The lake was maybe a half mile wide, probably less. I think I got to the other side first, but by the time I had packed the raft back up, Sean and Siyang had already caught up and begun climbing the pass. But my way was certainly more fun!

We had spectacular views as we climbed, especially looking back in the direction we came. The jagged peaks in the Sawtooths are really striking and there are so many beautiful lakes scattered between them. As with any off trail climb, though, it was tiring. And it didn’t let up on the other side of the pass either—it was a steep and loose descent, so we took our time and went slowly.

We saw another group off in the distance around this time, although we never crossed paths with them so they were likely hiking a slightly different route. We didn’t see any other people for the rest of the trip while we were off trail (although we saw plenty of people on the on-trail sections).

In the afternoon we had a brief respite of a couple miles of on-trail hiking, and it was nice to zone out for a while (I zoned out a little too much at one point and hiked a tenth of a mile in the wrong direction). Toward the end of the day we turned off trail again, and that stretch was not so fun. It started off as a moderate climb through the woods but gradually got rockier until eventually we were boulder hopping over some gnarly talus. Really big and loose rocks. Horrendous. The type of terrain where you could really hurt yourself with a bad slip. It was probably the slowest mile of the whole hike. The vibes were not good.

But finally we reached the end and the vibes improved. We found ourselves in a beautiful lake basin, and since it was starting to get late we decided to set up camp (this made us 2-for-2 on excellent campsites so far). We hiked between 13 and 14 miles, mostly off trail—not a huge distance, but certainly enough to make it feel like a long day.

It was a new moon and we were lucky to get much better weather than the previous night. We got up in the middle of the night to look at the stars and they were spectacular and the Milky Way was clearly visible.

We had a big day planned for Day 3. It didn’t all go according to plan.

The first thing on the agenda was climbing an unnamed pass that Siyang aptly named “Unnamed Pass”. It was a little steep and annoyingly sandy on the way up, but not too bad. I always like climbing a pass first thing in the morning—the weather is usually nice and cool and your legs are well rested. The top of the pass had nice views and we even saw some mountain goats.

The other side of Unnamed Pass was not so nice. It was very steep with lots of sand and loose rock. Not fun. We each fell at least once (Siyang got a pretty good gash on his knee) and it took a long time to make it down.

The terrain became much friendlier once we got down from the pass, but we had a tough decision to make. Our planned route had a lot of off-trail miles ahead, including several passes and an optional summit detour. We were behind schedule due to our late start on Day 1, so we’d have to either start moving a lot faster or change our plans. Moving faster didn’t seem very realistic due to the difficulty of the upcoming terrain, so we decided to take a different route.

It’s important to be flexible and prepared when hiking off trail. Our planned route took us up an over a couple passes, but we noticed on our maps that we could cut off some distance and elevation by staying low through a valley and joining up with a trail. Once on trail, we’d have a few options for getting back to our planned route.

After discussing and plotting a route, we forged ahead through the valley. It was easy travel for a few miles except for one (very short) section of horrendous bushwhacking through some really dense vegetation. Then after a short and steep climb, we stepped onto the Mt. Cramer trail.

It’s amazing how much faster we are when we’re on trail. We cruised through a few miles until we reached the first point that met back up with our planned route—the detour up to the peak of Old Monte Verita. We were pretty eager to get to a summit so we decided to go for it. After many switchbacks, we stepped off the trail and headed for the summit. The climb, like most off-trail travel, was slow and difficult. My map showed an informal trail leading to the peak, but if it exists I wasn’t able to find it. It was off trail all the way.

As we neared the saddle point below the summit, I noticed some dark clouds coming over the ridge and started to get a little worried. I was also a little worried about the looks of the other side of the pass, which we were planning on descending after going up to the summit. It was very steep and rocky—so steep that it was difficult to find a safe place to actually start descending.

In any case, we didn’t have to worry about descending that side of the pass because a thunderstorm rolled in just a few minutes later. After some brief discussion (and some very loud thunderclaps), we decided to abandon the summit and go back the way we came—that direction had some tree cover while the other side of the pass was completely exposed. We were bummed to miss out on the summit, but it was the only reasonable decision in those conditions. We backtracked all the way to the point where we left the trail and, wouldn’t you know it, the weather had completely cleared up.

The trail led us up another pass and, fueled by the disappointment of missing out on the earlier summit, we decided to scramble up to the peak on one side of the pass. It was a short climb (maybe a quarter mile) but it was sketchy and exposed, and pretty scary near at the top. I did some probably class IV climbing on the way up (against my better judgement) and lots of butt sliding on the way down (in line with my better judgement). Was it worth it? Maybe not. But it felt good to reach a peak, even a minor one, after the earlier disappointment.

After scrambling down from the peak, we followed the trail down some switchbacks, then past Upper Baron Lake, and finally to Lower Baron Lake, where we continued our streak of great campsites. After setting up camp we took turns paddling the packraft around the lake (which made it feel sort of worth it to carry those seven extra pounds).

It was a long day with plenty of ups and downs, literally and figuratively. We hiked almost 16 miles and good chunk of it was off trail.

We were faced with another decision today:

• Option 1: Stick to our original route. Roughly 15 miles, mostly off trail, and probably more difficult than the past two days.
• Option 2: Follow a trail the whole way. A few miles longer, but less elevation and much easier walking.

(With either option we’d also have up to 6 miles of road walking into town unless someone offered us a ride.)

We chose Option 2, taking the trail all the way out. If we’d gotten an earlier start on Day 1 and covered more ground, or if we had the flexibility of extending the hike another day, we probably would have continued with the high route. But, alas, we didn’t have those luxuries, and we didn’t feel confident that we could go fast enough through the remaining off-trail sections to finish on time.

We got a reasonably early start (8 AM is pretty good for us) and cruised through the first 7 miles in probably 2 hours or less. It was a nice walk through a beautiful valley, all gradually downhill. At the bottom of the valley we turned onto another trail and started the long and winding ascent towards Sawtooth Lake.

Some wildfire smoke started creeping in from the west in the late morning and it got hazier as the day went on. It was coming from the Wapiti Fire, which was burning near the Grandjean campground. It was far enough away and in the opposite direction from where we were going so we weren’t concerned, but it was a little spooky.

The climb wasn’t particularly eventful. We just plugged along, hardly taking any breaks, until we found ourselves at the top of rocky pass overlooking beautiful Sawtooth Lake. The lake was huge and one of the nicest we saw on the whole trip—no wonder it’s a popular day hiking destination. We stopped for a quick lunch and blister taping break on the shore of Sawtooth Lake. Other than the heavy winds and a chipmunk stealing my granola bar, it was a pleasant stop.

The rest of the way to the Iron Creek trailhead was all downhill and uneventful. Finally we reached the trailhead, high-fived, and… kept walking.

We still had six miles to go to reach civilization—three miles down a dirt road, then three more along the highway into town. We hoped to hitch a ride but we didn’t have any luck right at the trailhead so we started walking down the dirt road, thumbs up. On the bright side, we had cell service for the first time since starting the hike so we were able to check in with the outside world (including with my dad, who had just finished the Colorado Trail the day before).

We probably walked about two miles (and watched two dozen cars drive past) before finally someone offered us a ride. I forgot to ask for her name, but she was from North Carolina and was visiting her daughter who works as a rafting guide in Stanley. She was very nice and drove us all the way into town.

Stanley is a charming little town, and apparently popular in the summer—we had a surprisingly hard time finding a hotel with vacancy. We finally found a room at the Mountain Village Resort after calling or walking into a half dozen other places. Once settled, we ate a delicious burger dinner at the Kasino Club before calling it a night and preparing for the next leg of the trip.