Friday July 26, 15.8mi/25.4km

Fiest Creek Restaurant (230.2/2520ft) to Hwy 95/Bonners Ferry (246.0/2536ft) (ID)

It felt strange to be camping, but also next to a restaurant. I wanted to get up the big climb early in the morning while it was still cool, so I headed out at 7:30am. I passed a big fish pond and the waterfall as I left the restaurant.

For the next 5mi/8km and two hours, I climbed UP 3400 feet, ouch! The trail was nicely switchbacked , but it was tiring nonetheless.

At the top of this monster climb was Brussard Mt, and it was perfect weather to be up there. Looking south, down into the valley with Bonners Ferry:

And Northwest:

The next three hours was easy downhill, all the way to the highway. It had some really nice bridges, and someone had left handprints on one of them.

The handprints reminded me of the PCT, and “bridge push-ups”, a game that Cheshire Cat and Bonus Miles had invented. Ha!

One part of the descent trail was pretty trashed by dirtbikes, fortunately this was short-lived.

And the last few miles were on a dirt Forest Service road, with zero cars. Nice!

I got to the highway at 2:45pm, spent about 25 minutes hitching, and got picked up by a rather entertaining fellow with a passion for religion. It’s a topic I usually ardently avoid, but he was my ride for 15 miles into the town of Bonners Ferry. The town is very spread out, so I opted to camp at the RV park across from the Safeway (grocery store here). I even met two other PNT thru-hikers, Ghost and Emily. Other hikers do exist! We socialized after dinner over ice cream and… 2nd dinner? Meals are hard to classify on these hikes! So, food. And then bed!