“Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence...And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives” — Fred Rogers
John Muir is probably the most quoted for any story about wilderness, but the quote from Mr Rogers really sums up my attraction to the wilderness. You really don’t notice how noisy our normal lives are until you’ve experienced true silence. Even a quiet house can’t compare. Sitting alone on a mountaintop and taking in landscapes with millions of years of history is truly amazing.
I got to spend a week trekking through the Sawtooth mountains of central Idaho this summer and managed to be there in the one week that fires and smoke weren’t an issue. A week later, the area in the title photo was closed (for safety — it didn’t burn). The Sawtooth Wilderness had been on my destination list for 30 years and every previous attempt to hike there had been thwarted for one reason or another.
Wilderness in the US has a specific legal definition that limits most commercial activity, prohibits machinery (with a few exceptions) and requires visitors to follow Leave No Trace guidelines. There are no bicycles or motors and all trail maintenance is performed with hand tools. The intent is to leave those areas in a natural, primitive state and allow nature to be nature. The western US is unique in having large areas of wilderness that are easily accessible from urban areas. If you’re able to manage it someday, try to visit a wilderness area even if it’s just for a day hike.
Despite the screwed up politics in Idaho, it was Senator Frank Church (Democrat even) who was instrumental in getting the Wilderness Act of 1964 passed and then managed to get the Sawtooth and River of No Return wilderness areas designated in the 70s. The last one was a marvel of negotiation that probably cost him the election in 1980. In 1984 Frank Church had his name added to the River of No Return wilderness, now locally known as The Frank.
Day 1
I started my trip on the east side of the wilderness and headed up the Yellowbelly trail toward Toxaway Lake before turning north to head up the side of the valley to Edith Lake.
Part way up the trail to Edith Lake, I passed these mounds of glacier-polished granite. This was almost as smooth as a granite countertop. If you look closely, you can see the striations from glaciers grinding down the rock over thousands of years.
When I reached Edith lake, thunderstorms were starting to form so I waited before proceeding on. Soon after, the thunder started and I found a place to hunker down. I got rained on for a while and was then pelted by half inch hail for about 15 minutes. My jacket protected me from most of it, but I did end up with a few bruises. After the storm passed, I started searching for a campsite. My original plan was to go over the pass to Edna Lake, but going to a higher elevation was too risky if more lightning came through.
Day 2
I headed west over Sand Mountain Pass to Edna Lake. From there, I went north to my next camp at Upper Cramer Lake.
From the pass, I climbed up a boot trail to an outcrop above Toxaway Lake for an early lunch. At 9564 feet, this was the high point of my trip. I had been at sea level three days before, so the air was feeling a little thin.
After lunch, I headed down the other side to a more reasonable 8500 feet at Edna Lake. In the photo below, the lake is down in the valley to the left past the ridge of trees. After that, I headed north (right) to a hanging valley just to the left of the ridge. The highest point on that ridge is Payette Peak. Hidden Lake is just behind it.
After Hidden Lake, I climbed up to a pass just to the northwest of a peak named The Temple. This was the last pass of the day.
Overall, it was a good second day and I had a wonderful camp at Cramer Lake. After dinner, I spent a couple of hours reading by the lake before retiring to my tent. I came out again around 11 to admire the stars since it was a moonless night and central Idaho is dark. If you’ve never seen the stars in a completely black sky, I encourage you to make a trip to a dark sky park or reserve the week before a new moon if you can. The Sawtooth Mountain area was the only Dark Sky Reserve in the US until Big Bend was added this year. There are many other dark sky parks which are nearly as good as a reserve (maybe better in some cases). Seeing the sky glowing with stars is astonishing.