there is not much in life i enjoy more than bikepacking in the mountains. this time i planned a 4-day loop with a couple buds into Coeur d'Alene national forest in the Idaho panhandle. it was the most mileage (230+ miles) and climbing (16,000 ft+) we'd done, and it ended up being my favorite so far!
primitive camped in hammocks on top of Spyglass Peak and then Moon Pass, and the 3rd night in an actual campground along the St Joe river. my friend brought his fly rod and caught some fish for dinner on day 3 which ruled bigly.
if you are allergic to sun flare, strap in bc this post will be tough sledding for you
morning on spyglass peak
north fork of the CDA river
descending from Moon Pass on day 3
this is the part i am most proud of. when i was researching the area, i came across an old blog post from some guy who found a beautiful "secret" waterfall. while he would not say exactly where it was, from his description it sounded like it would be near our route. i got a little hung on up on finding this particular waterfall, and after some more digging i came across a random FB comment on some other post where somebody said what creek that the waterfall was maybe on. i tried to find the post later but couldn't, so it was pretty flimsy info at best. i found the creek on the map and marked the spot and thought if we have time maybe we can poke around for a minute. anyway on day 3 we get to the spot i had marked, and as soon as we stopped biking we could hear the sound of a waterfall. i got really excited like holy crap i am irl sherlock holmes. we eventually found a tiny opening into the woods that was the entrance to an umarked hiking trail. i should mention and you can see from the photos above that the terrain everywhere around is pretty dry and Colorado-y. after about 1/4 mile on foot we enter like a completely different dimension and there is moss, ferns, etc everywhere. anyway of course photos and videos can't do it justice but it was crazy to experience. peaceful and violent at the same time. quiet and deafening at the same time. ?!? VQ ass moment in time for me.
