Loon Lake - Salmon River Mountains

There's not much to do around our apartment in Moscow when it's 90+ outside except swim. But most of the swimming holes near us in Latah County seem to be filled with more algae and duck feces than water. Why not go to an alpine lake for the weekend with perfectly crystal clear blue water at the base of 9,000' mountains?

Emily Seaman, Kim and I decided to do just that and left for Loon lake, Located in the Lick Creek Mountain subrange of the Salmon River Mountains, early Sunday morning. We drove through Riggins and turned off in beautiful McCall to head north into the wilderness. At the trailhead we rearranged our packs and distributed the weight and took off for an adventure in God's pristine backcountry.

The hike began along the Secesh river, the largest river in the area that feeds the Salmon River, and continued at a level elevation for about four miles. This part of the hike was gorgeous and the perfect temperature at 10 in the morning. We could always see the river on this section and rarely had any elevation to climb. The river was a copper color and a spawning point for chinook salmon later in the summer. We didn't see any, but had we i'm sure i would have jumped in and captured it for a dinner feast. In parts the river was 30 yards wide and in others it was only 5. This was the first real river hike I had done, though Kim had done plenty in Colorado so it didn't impress her as much as it did me. At the four mile mark we crossed the river on an old bridge built in the 1910's and had lunch along side the running water.

After our PB&J heaven, we entered the final stretch of the hike to Loon lake. We hiked away from the Secesh river and up along Loon Creek for a mile and a half. It couldn't be considered strenuous simply for how short it was, but we climbed a considerable amount of elevation in a mile or so. This part of the hike was through a beautiful sparse forest that kept the sun off us for the most part. About a half mile before the lake we crossed loon meadow which was fantastically beautiful on the eyes for how green everything was. We met up with loon lake at its outlet of Loon creek and were stunned by how clear the water was. No murky algae here. Although we saw plenty of tadpoles, frogs, minnows, and water snakes to remind us that this was still a rugged lake. After our first step into the water we were overjoyed by how warm it was. But first we found our campsite and unpacked our tent. Then we put on our bathing suits and hit the lake running. The amazing thing was we walked a quarter of the way across the lake and the water never got above our chests. It was a shallow lake and that was the reason for why it was so warm. The clay and seaweed mixture farther out gave us the willies at points but it sure was the most refreshing event of the day.

Afterwards we gathered wood so we wouldn't have to do it in the dark and hiked around the east shore of the lake to reach a famous B-23 Bomber crash site. It was a bushwacking adventure but the plane itself was very large. The wings had been snapped off when the plane crash landed during WWII but the fuselage was still in tact. It was quite the site to see after our hike. We made dinner and had an evening fire and called it quits for the night.

The next morning we cooked some oatmeal and packed our gear up. The hike out was a mile shorter than the hike in. We left loon lake and traveled in and out of meadows and over creeks on the west side of the Secesh river, stopping for cliff bars and water at the various bridges along the way. It was through a burned region of the forest from the 1994 burn which gave us beautiful views through the twig like trees. 2 hours later we had arrived back at the trailhead and completed our loop in the backcountry. Till next time...