Only-Two-Meadows Creek

If you are expecting a post about Glacier this past weekend, you will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow after I load the pictures.  Instead, this post is going to be about my backcountry trip the previous weekend, since I didn't get around to writing about that last week.

The trip was originally supposed to be up at Lake Pend O'Reille (pronounced pond o-ray), but due to some issues with getting out of town on time (which somehow Christie and I have never been able to avoid in all of our camping trips), we changed plans and headed back down to the Selway Wilderness.  Just to switch things up, though, and to avoid all of the 4th of July weekend traffic along the river, we headed up Meadow Creek.  As the title of the post implies, the name of the creek was pretty misleading.  We were actually pretty worried about whether we were going to be able to camp or not, since the first good meadow we found was ten miles in.  The second was about 12 miles in.  And after our afternoon hike, which we made it about 14 miles in, those were the only two meadows along the creek.  At least the side we were on.

The name of the creek was also misleading because it really wasn't a creek.  As you will see from the pictures, it was much more the size, speed, and awesomeness of a river, so that was a pleasant surprise.  With the exception of way too many bugs, it was a pretty awesome weekend.  We were the only people on the entire trail, so we didn't see a single other person all weekend, so it was very secluded.

Enjoy the pictures.  Remember, to see the pictures full size, simply click on it.  To exit the picture viewing mode, either hit the ESC button, or click outside of the picture frame.

Even though the trailheads for this trail and the last one we did were right next to each other, the flora was much different (and much more dense).

We got a little higher than last time, too, which gave us some nice views of the canyon.

Like I mentioned, it was a very big "creek."  

Christie and her happy horse.  Also, notice that this time we have saddle bags.  They were awesome, especially because I had much less to carry this time.

This was a pretty cool creek crossing with a nifty little waterfall where we crossed. 

Christie and blue posing in front of the waterfall.

This was a pretty big creek almost where it drained into Meadow Creek.  It was our water source for the weekend.

Our camp was situated right next to the big creek  feeding into Meadow Creek and Meadow Creek, so we got to fall asleep to rushing water again.

We made sure to stay somewhere where Blue could eat some dinner, too.

My second time hanging a bear bag in the backcountry was much more successful than the first.  This wasn't quite ten feet high, but it worked just fine to trick the black bear that was in our camp when we came back from a hike.

I liked the couple pictures we got as the sun was dipping below the mountains (from our point of view at least).  The picture at the top of the post was around the same time.

This was a very impressive structure.  I am still not sure if it is beaver formed or not, because it is so big.

Butterflies again.

We went further down the creek for our evening hike after we set up camp.  It was nice to hike without a pack.

Taking a look at the map on a cool bridge about 12 miles into the woods.

Here is a nice shot of the creek on our way out, about 3 miles from the trailhead.

I thought this was a pretty cool waterfall.  It was on the other side of the creek, so I couldn't get a better picture.