Northern ID/WA -- NW Passage Route

[yohavos]

I graduated about 10 days ago and have a few days of freedom left before I start bar prep... having been here for three years with only limited jaunts into the National Forest up north, I've decided to step up my game.

I used to get out every weekend. The lady and I camped regularly, and I remember thinking that I'd never let "adult stuff" ruin that. Well, it has, and it sucks!

With that being said, I've decided to start working on the NW Passage route that's popular with the dual sport folks. My father was in town for graduation, and we had some time, so we loaded the dog and the fishing poles up and took off.

Our plan was to scout both sections of the route that cross the ID/WA border. We headed to Priest Lake on pavement and started with the southern section, run East-->West.

Here's a shot of Priest Lake and the two routes west (from the North and South tips of the lake)

Our first attempt at getting over on the southern route was stymied by snow just past the intersection by Petit Lake. We were able to get to the lake, and cleared some deadfall that made us think we may have been the first truck up there this year. It's a pretty neat area with several dispersed camp sites right on the water. There were small fish jumping, but without a boat I'm not sure you can get to the slightly deeper part of the lake (the campsites are all on the shallow side from what I could tell).

From Petit Lake we headed back south on our original route--where we were stopped by snow.

We had almost made it over--maybe 300 more feet of elevation to go, but alas, the shade of the trees helped this snow hang on.

Of course, Floyd didn't mind the snow too awful much:

 

[yohavos]

After finding snow on the southern route we weren't too hopeful about the northern route, but we pressed back east towards pavement to investigate anyways.

We stopped in Nordman, ID for a quick snack. The general store is attached to the bar, and you ring a bell to get the bartenders attention when you need assistance. This was my kind of place!

From Nordman we headed north in an attempt to pick up the northern section of the NW passage. We passed a few folks on UTV's and were feeling pretty good about the road.

Unsurprisingly, our trek on that section ended abruptly with snow. My father remarked something to the effect of "When you're following snowmobile tracks, it's probably not a good sign."

The 80 is kind of terrible in the snow, and although we had a winch, chains, shovels, etc. there wasn't any way we would make it far enough to matter, so we turned around. I didn't grab any pictures from this section, but you guys know what snow looks like.

Floyd, on bear patrol:

 

[yohavos]

So, Day 1 of our NW Passage scouting was pretty dull. It took a lot of driving to figure out where the snow was, but I suppose that's worth it.

We did stop by Priest Lake via pavement on the way back, and it did not disappoint:

 

[yohavos]

That was the first weekend my father was here on 4/30. A week and a half later, we headed back up the "Southern" route from the west side (we had been fishing on the Pend Oreille and wanted to see how far we were from getting over).

After a few miles up the road, we came upon this guy strolling along:

He was gracious enough to let us take a few pictures from down the road, then disappeared into the woods. We decided right then and there that checking this route was worth it!

After the bear took off we continued our ascent towards the elevation we hit snow at coming from the opposite direction just 10 days earlier. It had been warm and rained over the past week, so we were hesitantly optimistic the snow would be broken down enough for us to push through.

As is often the case here in the PNW, the views did not disappoint:

 

[yohavos]

Tracking us on the GPS, I got excited as we got closer to the section that stymied us previously. At one point we passed a puddle in the road and I joked "well, that's what's left of the snowpack."

Apparently it wasn't a joke... because before we knew it, we popped out to the clear cut section that we stopped at on the prior trip!

I had to line the truck up for a shot of the now open road:

We popped back out over south of Nordman and called it a day. It's nice to know that section is open, and I'm looking forward to getting back up to see how the northern section looks. I'd love to get out for a few days to run it, but snow is a real buzz kill when you don't have time to re-route.

I'll be checking this route out in sections throughout the summer and hope to be organized enough to invite some other folks along if anyone is interested.



Mike

 

[helimech]

that looks like a great route on a bike or cruiser. i grew up in colvile and have wanted to try and find the route from ione area to the west into the aladdin rd/ valley. it would tie in with your route for a long fun trek.

 

[Aaron225]

I own property in Priest River near Laclede on Hwy 2. I have ventured around the PR area, but have only gone up to Priest Lake a few times, and didn't do much exploring. Next time I'm up there I will have to try some of those roads. Looks like fun.