Arnot Creek/Clark Fork

[balzaccom]

We're back from a short trip up Arnot Creek out of the Clark Fork Road, exploring a section of this wilderness that sees a lot less traffic than you'd think. We spent two days there, and saw a total of seven people, all on our way hiking out. The first day we were on our own.

The trail starts out easily enough as a old logging road for the first mile or more. Then after a fording of Woods Creek, it starts to climb up the beautiful Arnot Creek Canyon. Because snowmelt was in full swing, the creek was roaring and made for an impressive companion on the way up.

The views began to open up, both of the peaks on our side of the highway in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness and on the other side, in the Emigrant Wilderness.

We crossed a series of smaller tributaries, some on the map and some not, and reached the first fords of Arnot Creek by lunchtime. Sadly, these fords were not marked on our map...and that led us to believe we were about a half mile further up the trail than we were.

After lunch, we came to the second set of fords, and they looked a little less inviting, with slick rock, fast water, and no easy entry and exit to the stream.

What the heck, we decided. Let's just stay on this side of the creek and meet up with the trail a but further on, where it crosses back. How bad can it be?

Well, it could be very steep. There's a reason that trail crosses the creek, and as we struggled up towards the top of the ridge, we finally took a few photos and called it a day, heading back down to that ford to camp.

That night the wind howled (just as well we weren't camped farther up) and there were a couple of times that we felt a possible raindrop. But this trip was a test run for our 4-season tent, and it did splendidly. M loved it. I wasn't so happy about carrying seven pounds of tent...

The next day we had an easy stroll back to the car, and made it back to our cabin in time to eat a late lunch, take a nap, and then clean up the yard for the rest of the afternoon.

Which made Sunday a delicious day of rest.

The rest of the photos from the trip are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/balzaccom/ ... 2300067281

[wildhiker]

Thanks for posting the report and link to the photos. I've always wondered what that canyon looked like. Nice to see that there are open areas and views - I imagined it all as deep forest. Maybe I'll plan a trip there.
-Phil

[maverick]

Thanks for the TR and pictures. Nice shooting stars and snow plants, thanks B.

[k9mark]

I wonder if there are still fish in either arnot or disaster creek?

[justm]

Thanks for the TR and info. I've always wanted to get into that area.