MT/ID Itinerary check please - backpacking advices requested!

[stupendous man]

The SO and I are headed from boulder to ....somewhere in MT/ID. The motivation was Glacier, but with one week we are thinking it is too far. Our goals are 2 night backpack trip and to get on a class III river, perhaps renting boat or ducky.

Here is the itinerary I put together. Not sure what region is best if you had one shot to meet the real montana, but we think it may be the Bitteroot.

night 1 - drive to salmon idaho 11hr 45 min
drive to backpack and backpack night 2 and 3 looks like 2 hours from salmon
drive back to salmon or stay in hamilton, mt area night 4
salmon mtb night 5 salmon
ducky or boat night 6 salmon and goldbug
night 7 chill in jackson? or no night 7?
head home

Any recommendations on 2 night backpacks in the area?

thanks minions.

[yeahman]

Couple suggestions from my Bitterroot peak bagging days. Kinda short on details so you will need to do some research. Both near Darby south of Hamilton.

1. Hike up Tin Cup Creek trail. After a few miles go right (north) on a climbers trail up to Kerlee Lake. Nice place to spend a couple nights and you can do a day climb of El Capitan peak from there.

2. Take the road that leads to Baker Point. Hike to Baker Lake, a good basecamp for climbing Trapper Peak. There are also a couple lakes above Baker Lake that make for good day hikes from Baker.

Both these options IMO make for better trips than just hiking up a Bitterroot drainage and camping somewhere.

Third option from Hamilton is to take the Skalkaho Pass road east and hike to Fuse Lake from the trailhead. Easy hike, nice camping, and you can fish for arctic grayling in Fuse Lake. It is a nice spot.

Good luck and have fun.

Sent from my SM-J500M using TGR Forums mobile app