Thursday brought a beautiful day and the official start of the 2025 hiking season for me. I headed over to Montana to the Saint Regis River Trail. I started at the Ferry Landing Trailhead & Boat Launch just past the 14-mile bridge. My plan was to take the connector trail that was completed a couple years ago over to the overlook above the Muchwater Campground along Hwy 135. It was a brisk 37 degrees at the start. The deep draw at the start had a bit of snow but that quickly went away as I switchbacked up to the overlook of the Penninsula Campground & Clark Fork River. The connector trail that goes over to the old Iron Mountain Wagon Road and eventually to Cascade Falls was in good shape with some snow and ice in the draws and deep shade. There are a couple new bridges that were built last summer. The main flat was relatively clear of snow and it was a very pleasant walk. The ponds were still frozen over so no swim for Skye. We had lunch at the overlook, took a couple pictures and headed back. We met a couple from Utah just before we got to the Pennisula Overlook and chatted for a few minutes; we didn't exchange names though, my bad. It was about 6.25 miles round trip.
