Cutting teeth

By John Doran - 09/17/2008

Photos by John Doran / Helena Independent Record jason hertel, of madras, ore., sips a cup of coffee on a brisk late-summer morning as the peaks above Ingeborg Lake reflect on its glassy surface.

Use all the superlatives you want. Spectacular. Stunning. Striking.

But the one word you'll keep coming back to is "wow." The Sawtooth Wilderness is as ruggedly magnificent as any place in the Northwest.

With its ominous, sky-piercing granite peaks and pristine alpine lakes, this wilderness and national recreation area is one of the premier backpacking destinations in the United States — a little-known paradise sandwiched between the grandeur of popular national parks to the north and south.

Tucked in the serenely remote mountains of central Idaho, the Sawtooths literally resemble a saw laid on its spine. At 217,000 acres it's a small wilderness, but don't let that fool you. Tucked within its boundaries are 50 peaks over 10,000 feet and 250 miles of trails.

Within the national recreation area, roughly the size of Rhode Island at 765,000 acres, there's another 500 miles of trail.

The highest point is Thompson Peak at 10,751 feet, followed closely by Mount Cramer at 10,716.

The wilderness's 300 high-mountain lakes, most packed with hungry native brook trout, sit cold and blue in shale basins beneath towering granite peaks in every direction.

When you're there, perched on a rock slab after a grueling day's hike, sun blazing down on your brow, cold water lapping at your toes, and the wind singing its sweet mountain melodies, there's no better place on earth.

"This is fantastic," Jason Hertel, an avid backpacker and experienced mountaineer from Madras, Ore., said while standing on top of an unnamed 10,000-foot peak above Hidden Lake. "It makes a guy want to get a little sentimental. It's really spectacular." With just 40,000 visitors to the wilderness area per year, it's easy to find yourself all alone — especially if you enter via one of the less popular access points.

"You're in an area where not a lot of people know about, and you can get a lot of solitude," said Garold Waggoner of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. "It is a lot (of visitors) from one angle and from another it's still a secret, which is good for the people who know about it and go there." The Iron Creek Trailhead and the Redfish Lake areas in the northern wilderness boundary are the most popular entry points, says John Reuter, who works at the Elephant's Perch outdoor store in Ketchum, Idaho. But if you enter elsewhere, you can have the wilderness to yourself — except, maybe, for a few mountain goats and the wilderness's namesake peaks.

"I always notice that the namesake of the mountains is so evident in all the ranges," Reuter said. "Just these jagged and crumbling-down mountains.

"That means really cool rock slides and cool granite spires." Many of the 10'ers are not climbable because of their vertical, unstable nature. But most offer a quick and untechnical scramble to the summit for fascinating views across the Sawtooths and into the White Cloud mountain range to the east. Rock climbers could also have a heyday on some of the peaks.

The backpacking routes are near-endless, and all provide glimpses into the grand beauty that lies within the wilderness.

To find solitude, all a back- packer needs to be willing to do is push deeper into the wilderness where the general crowds fade.

A terrific loop of nearly 48 miles takes you beyond the popular Toxaway-Alice lakes loop. (See sidebar on Page C2.) There are also plenty of through-hiking opportunities to experience all the mountain ranges within the rugged wilderness.

"This is one of the best backpacking destinations there is," Hertel said, rating it above the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Eagle Caps in Oregon and the Alpine Lakes circuit in Washington.

One look at these mountains, and it's easy to see why.

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