Winter Hiking Kootenai Creek

The Kootenai Creek Trail is one of our favorite winter hikes. Yes, we hike year round and have come to really enjoy the beauty of winter hiking. It's best to pick a trail for winter hiking that's easy to find even if there has been a lot of snowfall and this one is great. To get to the trailhead, from Lolo Montana, drive south on Highway 93 for approximately 15 miles and turn right onto North Kootenai Creek road, this is a well maintained dirt road but it can be icy. Several times this last winter I put my Toyota Tundra in four wheel drive to keep the empty back end from sliding around to get to the trailhead parking area about 2 miles at the end of the road.

The first half mile of the trail is on private property before entering National Forest land. It's easy to follow for 2 1/2 miles as it follows Kootenai Creek north up the canyon. The trail gradually climbs up and out of the canyon but is still fairly easy depending on the snow. The first 2 miles is such a popular hike that we almost always meet people on the trail, most of them hikers, some snowshoeing, a few cross-coutry skiing, and once a woman and her daughter running up the trail. Trail traffic combined with some thawing during the day and freezing during the night can cause some treacherous ice, at least for the first 1 1/2 miles. The first time I hiked on this trail and encountered these icy conditions I slipped and dang near threw my shoulder out of place. I managed to dig the tungsten carbide tip of my hiking stick deep into the ice as I fell catching myself. Otherwise, I would have taken a really nasty fall and probably would have been hurt. Daisy rushed over to check on me obviously very concerned.

I highly recommend you use some kind of personal traction device on your boots such as these Yak Traks. I tried for weeks to get a pair in my size at an outdoor store in Missoula. I finally gave up and ordered them via the Internet from an outfit called Cabela's. They arrived in four days and they are great. Get the pro version because they have a strap that goes over your boot keeping them on your feet even in deep snow. Otherwise you might end up digging for them. Don't forget your hiking stick.

A little over 2 1/2 miles up the trail you come to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area. Depending on how deep the snow is this could take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Amazingly most people will have turned back before now, even people on snowshoes and ski's. We've only seen one other hiker past this sign; a brave young woman, all by herself, who thought Daisy was the "Cutest Puppy". If the snow is deep and the hiking hard work we'll eat lunch here, rest awhile, and then head back down the trail. You don't have to allow as much time for the trip back because it's a gentle downhill hike.

If you're lucky you can find a tree sheltered place so you can have your lunch on a dry bed of pine needles instead of the cold snow. Bring lots of high energy snacks and water. Sometimes Daisy would rather eat snow than drink water out of her hiking bowl. Of course, she also thinks she would rather eat my lunch instead of hers. She uses up so much energy on our winter hikes that it's really important to keep her stocked up as well as myself. We definitely burn a lot more energy during our winter hikes compared to our fair weather ones.

If possible, after lunch, we like to continue on up the trail into the wilderness area. The trail gets steeper and harder to find especially if there's a lot of fresh snow. We may have only seen one person this far back this winter, but we've seen lots of deer, a few elk, and one mountain lion which, thank heavens, wasn't the least bit interested in us. Daisy has learned to get no farther than 20 yards from me, most of the time, and to keep me in sight at all times. She will also stay when I tell her too even when a deer crosses the trail 30 feet in front of us. She still thinks all squirrels should be chased immediately.

We always check the weather forecast before going on a hike. This is even more important during the winter because the weather can change so fast in the Bitterroot Mountains. One day there were no snowstorms predicted just snow flurries. A mile into the hike big fluffy snowflakes started drifting down on us, it was beautiful. We met a couple who had turned around and were heading back to the trailhead because it was snowing. That's okay, they'd reached their comfort level, it's better to be safe than sorry. Looking at the sky I could see patches of blue in-between white and light gray clouds; this flurry would probably last less than 10 minutes. Hiking in the Bitterroots I've learned to keep an eye to the west. If I see dark gray clouds blowing in from Idaho and no patches of blue sky I probably will turn around. But not this day, Daisy and I enjoyed the fresh air, new snow, and hiked all day. The snow flurries came about every hour and rarely lasted more than 15 minutes. We met no one else that day and it was like we had the whole Bitterroot Range for our own personal winter wonderland complete with snow covered Christmas trees.

Winter hiking can really wear you out.

Until next time,

Doug