Salmo-Priest Loop, Shedroof Divide, Hall - Grassy Divide & Noisy Creek — Sunday, Sep. 26, 2021

I came up with this hike idea when other weekend plans were cancelled, and fortunately I have one friend who is just as nutty as me who was willing to give this route a shot. This is admittedly a crazy idea as a day hike, but it could easily be transformed into a multi-day backpack trip.

We met at the Noisy Creeek TH late in the afternoon on Saturday & dropped off my car. Then we carpooled in my friend's car to the Salmo Loop TH, ate dinner, and slept for a few hours. We knew this route would take more hours then there was daylight available, so we were up & on-trail by 4am on Sunday morning.

The route starts by dropping into the Salmo Basin, all of which we experienced by headlamp. Even so, the many mushrooms along the side of the trail were spectacular! I've hiked this trail on numerous previous occasions, but if anyone plans to re-create this route & has not seen the Basin in daylight, don't start so early as the forest is also beautiful.

We were within a couple miles of the Shedroof Divide by the time the sun came up, and stopped at the last water source for our first real break of the hike so we could top off water bottles for the long dry section ahead. The fall colors are fantastic in the upper reaches of the Basin trail, and especially along the Shedroof Divide. The larch haven't really started to turn yet, so this one will continue to offer great fall colors until snow prevents access.

We didn't need the water break at the camp below Cabinet Pass, but did stop again at the source just before the Salmo Divide junction. There were small water sources available at seeps along the trail near Thunder Mountain, and we stopped for another fill-up just past the junction with Thunder Creek & Jackson Creek. The hike up the steep switchbacks at Helmer was interrupted by several "tourist stops" to take in the colors on the burned landscape, all crimson & gold.

The fatigue of all the miles started to hit us around Pass Creek Pass, where we stopped for a snack break & had a hard time standing up and walking again! But again, this section was beautiful and all of the fall colors offered a good distraction from sore muscles. Sunset on the Hall-Grassy Divide was spectacular!

We didn't really start to suffer from this crazy hike until the sun went down. The lower portion of the trail has experienced several burns in recent years, so my usual landmarks to help me judge distance were impossible to pick out. It really wasn't until the last 7 miles that I struggled, but not enough for me to consider stopping early. We exited the Noisy Creek trail just a little after 9pm.

Total distance was 43.16 miles with about 7500' elevation gain. The route is within the Salmo Priest Wilderness from the TH to Pass Creek Pass. A large portion of this route is also a segment of the Pacific Northwest Trail. It's a very easy route to shuttle, and could even be made a little longer by ending at the north end of Sullivan Lake.