ICT meet IBT

I am posting this on behalf of Mike O'Brien.   Mike successfully thru-hiked the Idaho Centennial Trail in 2010.    He has gone on to make two successful hikes around the perimeter of Idaho.   Mike, along with his friend "Yeti"  has pioneered a route they are calling the Idaho Boundary Trail.    Information about this trail is now posted on a new website:                                                            

http://www.fultek.com/ibt/

ICT East alternate route

it was planned as a 30+ mile section of the Idaho Centennial Trail, East alternate route, from near
Alturas Lake, through Johnson Creek, over to Emma Creek, up Emma Creek to Big Smoky Creek, then down FR215 to Highway 75 below Galena Summit.   Jerry Finnegan and I planned it for Labor Day weekend.   We started on Sunday, August 31st, at the trailhead near Alturas Lake.   Things went well for the first 6 miles or so.  We reached the Idaho Centennial Trail near Mattingly Divide, and were on the main ICT for just a half mile or so before reaching the junction with the ICT East trail going into the Johnson Creek drainage.   About a mile and half down this trail, my ankle suddenly gave way beneath me.   My momentum caused me to do a complete somersault, and I landed on my back with my feet facing down the slope.   Fortunately I didn't continue to roll.   The damage was done, however.   My ankle was severely strained,  though not broken.   Through the rest of the afternoon I hobbled on down the trail.   Our campsite was not the greatest, but we made the most of it, and the next morning we continued on.   We had accepted that we would not get done by Tuesday and were trying to figure out how to get a message out to our wives.    As the day progressed, it became apparent that I was not going to get even to the half way point of the hike.   We decided to come off the trail at Emma Creek, where it meets the South Fork of the Boise road (NFD road 079).  

We were helped by Roger and Mary Ann on their ATV.   They got us down the road to a Methodist church camp where we were able to send messages out by satellite internet.   Jerry's wife Betty and son Brian came to the rescue.    Sometimes it's better to live to hike another day......


pictures here....

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0ActGbJq2YsWrDTA



Ron

http://llamasyndrome.blogspot.com

Two Walk North

I'd like to introduce myself and say I'll be posting periodically on the ICT Blog as Leo was gracious enough to give me permissions.  My name is Mike Ingram and I live in Mountain Home, ID.  I'm 55 years of age and retired from the Air Force in 2008 after a 30 year career.  I'm hoping you won't be able to tell from my writing, but you certainly could if we met in person, that I'm originally from Georgia.  Even though I left there at the age of 19, the accent is still distinctive and ever present.  I got involved with the ICT after meeting my lady friend, Cindy Miller, who lives in Sweet Home, Oregon.  Cindy and I both like to hike and I have a good bit of experience with long distance backpacking.  Even though I'm retired, Cindy works as a pharmacy technician.  While she has a significant number of paid vacation days each year, our backpacking has to be done in smaller chunks of a week to 10 days duration.  So starting back in 2011, I mentioned we should backpack the Idaho Centennial Trail, attempting to do 130-150 miles per year, with a goal of finishing it before I turn 60.  We started that first year at the Nevada state line.  It didn't take long to realize we weren't as prepared as we'd thought.  After getting the truck stuck on the first day, we began our hike on the 2nd day and made approximately 20 miles before my feet were so blistered from a poor choice of shoes that Cindy had to call a friend to extract us.  We were determined though and came back the following season to hike from where we'd left off the first year, across the Owyhee Desert, over the Bennett Hills and to the Castle Rock road.  It seems like a long time and distance ago now, but we've just recently completed a section from Thunder Mountain to Dagger Falls and next week will do a short section from the MacGruder Corridor towards the Selway.  I'll have to do my end-of-year calculations later this year, but I know we'll have somewhere between 350 and 400 total miles at the end of this season.  We've completed the southern portion up to Thunder Mountain and are now working on the middle section.  Luckily, we've been keeping photographic and written records of our trips and I'll also add some of those as I have time over this winter.  We're both feeling healthy and energized at this point and it's five more years before I'm 60, so I'm expecting we'll pull it off.  I'm looking forward to sharing our story on this blog.  

re: Long Distance Hiking Class

I was able to attend the Tuesday session of Michael O'Brien's  Ultralight Backpacking class.    It was very interesting and he had a lot of stories from 2009 ICT and from his "Around Idaho" perimeter hike last year.    The slide show had a lot of great pictures and it was fun to remember places I have been along the trail.    He is having the second half of the class tonight Thursday 1/30  @ 6:30 pm  @ West Junior High.     one of the slides that he showed was meeting Marcia Powers, who thru hiked with her husband Ken in 2009, then solo hiked southbound for about half the ICT.     I like to try to make sure we get the names of ICT completers on this blog, since it's still fairly new and a rare accomplishment.  

so Michael O'Brien   Class of 2009.    Well done!    that was a big year for the ICT.
 Ken and Marcia Powers, my friend Jerry Finnegan, Bart Robinson, and Michael 0'Brien.

any others out there that I missed from 2009?


Ron   (Class of 2011)


http://llamasyndrome.blogspot.com

Long Distance Hiking Class

I'll be teaching an evening class in lightweight backpacking gear and long distance hiking: Class # 14W-GAR-002 Tu and Th from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM January 28-30, 2014 (Tue, Thu) West Junior High Also, a suggestion for a scenic alternate route south of Clark Fork: This route is longer, but avoids heavily traveled roads. It has plenty of water, unlike the official route. It's much more scenic Turn off Forest Service Road 430 on the good trail down to Jordan Spring Continue on the trail down Alden Creek (There were several blowdowns across the trail in 2012) The trail crosses Alden Creek at the confluence with the North Fork of Coeur d'Alene River Hike downstream on Coeur d'Alene National Recreation Trail There is a damp crossing of some beaver ponds at Deer Creek Downstream from there, the trail is one of the most scenic I've seen in Idaho Turn north on the Clark Fork Road #306 at Big Meadows At the road junction at the border of Shoshone and Bonner Counties, take road #1066 north Turn right on mountain bike trail #606 This leads you back eventually to road #1066, which takes you to Clark Fork I plan to walk around Idaho again this summer. Mike O'Brien boisemobrien@gmail.com