[mtn_wanderer]

Late July, 2019. My nephew had decided to join the army and before he shipped out for basic, he wanted to go backpacking one more time with his old uncle. We were trying to decide where to go and finally settled on the Mallard Larkins Pioneer Area in North Idaho. We did a trip here 3 years ago and the place blew my mind. While not being far from civilization when you look at a map, being there is another story. As the crow flies the trailhead is maybe 40 miles from where I live. To get there though, takes about 3 hours. We hit the trailhead early and started down from Sawtooth Saddle down to Sawtooth Creek. This is the same way we went in 3 years ago, but once we hit the creek crossing we were going to go a different route. We split away from the Northbound Creek Trail and took the Martin Creek trail bound for Skyland Lake. Once across Sawtooth Creek the trail became over grown, though still easy to follow. It was just as beautiful as I remembered it. From the main trail it was a short climb and then a decent into Skyland Lake. I was pleasantly surprised by the lake. I know that Skyland is not visited much, though there was plenty of sign that pack stock had been in there. The main campsite is large and has plenty of room for many tents and hammocks. We were there by noon and had camp set up and wood gathered in no time. It left us the rest of the day to explore and hang out. The next day we hiked back to the Martin Creek trail and started the climb up to the ridge line to hook up with the Heart Pass trail. Not even a mile up the Martin Creek trail it was so over grown that we lost the trail. We knew that we had to gain the ridge to make it to the Heart Pass trail so we just started climbing up the mountain through a brushy meadow we were in. We stumbled on the trail part of the way up and tried to follow it the best we could. It was really over grown, but if you took your time you could follow it. We lost it a couple times where it switched back, and another time when we stopped for a break underneath some shady pines, but each time we were able to located it again. The higher we got, the easier the trail was to follow. Near the top the grade got steep and we switchbacked our way up to the ridge and the Heart Pass trail. From the Heart Pass trail we were going over to Heart Lake. We had camped there on our previous trip, but I just had to go there again. The main campsite there is one of my favorites. The hike over to the Heart Lake cutoff from the Martin Creek junction was tougher than I thought that it would be. The trail is in good shape though a bit brushy in spots. There was more elevation gain than I remembered from our first trip in there. When we got to the lake a few people in our group decided to cool off in the lake, but not me. There was still snow on the far side of the lake against the rock wall, so that was enough to tell me that I didn't want to get in. The next morning it was over cast and even rained for a few minutes. This seemed to be the perfect conditions for mosquitos. They were out in force. I couldn't even stay in one spot too long before I had to move out of the swarm that had developed around me. I can only think of one time that I've been in mosquitos that bad. Once every one was awake, we packed up camp in record time and were on the trail. We were going to be ridge walking most of the day. We retraced our previous days route past the Northbound Creek junction and past the Martin Creek junction and started towards the Mallard Peak Lookout. The trail was in good shape with just some small sections that were brushy. There were many great views along this section. We dropped our packs at the junction to the Mallard Peak Lookout and started the climb up. It was a steep climb, but short. The lookout itself was in decent shape, though there were plenty of ladybugs inside along with mouse droppings. We came down from the lookout and continued on the trail towards Fawn Lake. More beautiful views along this stretch. Fawn Lake was the one that stole the show though. I didn't have big expectations for this lake since it was the smallest one that we were camping at, but it was breathtaking. It was a great place to spend our last night of the trip. The next morning right out of camp we lost the trail. We had to bushwhack up the hill to find it, but eventually we did. We crested the short hill out of camp and walked a ridge for a bit. When we started down the mountain to link up with the Northbound Creek trail, things got brushy. Really Brushy. We never lost the trail, but this brush was different than the brush we hiked through coming out of Skyland Lake a couple days before. This brush was fighting back and trying to push us off the trail most of the time. It was rough going. Eventually we made it down to the Northbound Creek trail and went to the creek to rest and cool down before the final climb. The climb out of Sawtooth Creek was tough. It's a little more than 1700' up, but there are no breaks and it's steep. None of the hikes on this trip were that difficult when you look at the milage and the elevation gain/loss, but hiking in this country is hard. Some of the toughest I've done. The Mallard Larkins doesn't seem many visitors either. Over my 2 trips here, I've traveled this country for 11 days and I've yet to see anyone on trail. It is wild country. Maybe that is the reason I love it so much.

[RichP]

Enjoyed the video. The ML is indeed a special place. I'll be headed back up there soon.

[mtn_wanderer]

Nice! Are you going in from the south?

[RichP]

Probably up from The Nub. Talk about a climb! https://peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=86815

[mtn_wanderer]

WOW! That looks like a rough climb. Over 5k of gain? Have you been that route before? Looks like it could be an incredible ridge walk once to get past the Nub. I remember seeing the sign where it hooks up with Mallard Peak. I've tried to create some loops out of the southern section of the Larkins, but it seems hard to do without a road walk. Are you familiar with any?

[Pyrites]

Ah, the Nub. Right where they caught the Ridgerunner, after his many years on the run. At least in his mind. Best.

[Felpudo]

Nice! What a video, I felt like I was there. Curious about the video actually - what software do you use to edit it?

[mtn_wanderer]

I just use iMovie. Nothing special, it comes with every Mac. I'd like to move to something better eventually because there are things that I would like to add that iMovie just isn't built to do.