Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Day Hike, Grave Peak Lookout&Wind Lakes

I started my Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Day Hike to Grave Peak Lookout and Wind Lakes on a slightly cloudy morning. I had looked it up on the Internet and it had been suggested it might be a difficult hike, but I thought it's only 4.5 miles, how difficult can it be? Well, I'm about to find out. I drove up Elk Summit Road until I came to the turn off to Kooskooskia Meadows. Again, I had failed to remember to bring my chain saw. The road is a bit rough in places and there can be downfalls from a previous fire, but it wasn't bad and just about any auto can traverse it. The trailhead has no facilities, but in a pinch you could camp there. The trail to Kooskooskia Meadows is good and there you could camp there and there is water. Soon after the meadows, the trail starts to climb to Friday Pass and it is steep in places.

Rob has been working up above Lochsa Lodge. He has a wonderful camp site. It's on private ground located off the road that goes to Elk Summit. It's very quiet, very secluded.

I don't think I've ever hiked where the views started so soon and lasted almost the entire time. It's just a beautiful hike. Ivy, what are you doing? I evidently took the wrong trail and I'm at the lower lake. Who knew? I thought I was at the lower lakes of the Wind Lakes, but I wasn't. This is Swamp Lake and I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I was really happy that these little creeks showed up every so often because when I left the camper in the morning I meant to grab another bottle because I only had two bottles of water, but I had forgotten to grab that third bottle so it was good we had water because I'd almost used one bottle on Ivy before we started getting to the little creeks.

The trail just keeps going up and up. I'm grateful it's not sunny, I think I'd be dying. I was pretty sure if the sun was out there was going to be another grave at the top of Grave Peak Lookout and it was going to be mine! I missed the turn off to the trail that goes to Grave Peak Lookout so I just walked over to the edge of Friday Pass and looked around and saw all these beautiful sites. I went back and picked up the trail and it still looked like a long ways to the lookout. One of the rocks on top of this pass looked exactly like a rabbit and I took tons of pictures of it, but I never get it to turn out. I never got the right angle. Well, this is the trail so I'm on my way to the lookout I guess. We'll see what happens. I didn't bring my GPS with me, but I prefer not to rely on one of those. I have a pretty good sense of direction and things can happen to mechanical items as you know and batteries die so I just prefer not to rely on then. Although a backup would be OK. To say this has been challenging is an understatement. I'm on the last leg to the top. Please Lord, give me strength. I'm so grateful it's not sunny and hot, I don't think I'd make it. Nope, I don't think so. As you can tell from the grass and the trees the wind is picking up as I get closer to the top. There's a storm to my left and a storm to my right ad I'm a little concerned, but I just decide to hurry up and get there and get off the mountain. When I get to the lookout, it's really windy so I don't waste much time up there. I wander around the outside. I hear thunder in the distance which also encourages me to get back down the mountain. I didn't realize I'd missed the steps up to the lookout, I just kind of climbed around on the rocks. This is the steps right there.

When I turned off the trail to come to the lookout, there was a trail that went down toward the lakes that looked like it was in better shape. I decide I might as well drop down into the lakes and go out that way. We ran into a boulder patch and Ivy and I just had to mutter through it. I couldn't find a trail so I thought if I just walked around the mountain I should hit the trail coming off of Friday Pass--and it worked! There was no one at the lake when we got there so we ate our lunch. There's no signage around this lake, as usual, so I didn't know which trail to take. Coming back a different way. I don't really know where I am, but I finally saw a sign so I know I'm headed to Friday Pass. This trail is a lot nicer--there's shade and it's not as steep. I left the p/up at 8:15 a.m. and got back at 5:15 p.m.

Resources: http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/id/grave-peak-lookout/
https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/grave-peak-by-dan-saxton/
https://www.evansoutdooradventures.com/?p=1885
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_v_61QqiNo&t=19s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Apm-ZIfyY