Sandpoint IDAHO Oreille. The valley was filled with up to thousands of feet of glacial ice that at times extended all the way to Bayview and beyond. At other times the ice dam may have only advanced as far as Green Monarch Ridge. The generally rounded, lush, green, forested mountainsides and clear blue waters make it difficult to fathom that this idyllic setting for the ice dam and breakout area has anything in common with the barren, scarred landscape wrought by the same Ice Age floods downstream in the Channeled Scabland of Washington. In 2009, the U.S. Congress recognized the importance of the Ice Age floods to the Pacific Northwest and the nation by authorizing a firstof-its-kind, Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail (NGT). The NGT will be a network of marked touring routes extending across parts of Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, with several special interpretive centers. – Excerpted from On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: The Northern Reaches Available at area retailers or SelkirkLoop.org
Scotchman Peaks Proposed Wilderness
F
rom Sandpoint along the Lake Pend OreilleKootenai River Super Side Trip, serious seekers of solitude can easily access the 88,000-acre Scotchman Peaks roadless area that spans the Idaho-Montana border. Since the 1970s, when the U.S. Forest Service carried out extensive evaluations of lands suitable for wilderness, this rugged, scenic and biologically diverse portion of the Cabinet Mountains has been managed for its wilderness potential. Scotchman Peak, at 7,009 feet, is the highest peak in Bonner County and one of the best-loved hikes in the Cabinet Mountains, a range that runs for 150 miles and spreads across two states, Idaho and Montana. The views from Scotchman Peak are magnificent: the expanse of Lake Pend Oreille to the southwest, the rugged proposed wilderness to the north, and the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness Area to the east. Some say that the views are better than Washington’s Abercrombie Mountain, Hall Mountain and Copper Butte, or Idaho’s
58 bridge street at city beach, sandpoint
208.255.7558 • www.trinityatcitybeach.com
www.selkirkloop.org
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