UPDATED, 4 p.m. -- The dynamite has been cleared from Myrtle Creek Road but the route up into the Selkirk Mountains remains temporarily closed to the public because of a soft and unstable roadbed, Forest Services officials say.

PUBLIC LANDS -- There's a potentially explosive new twist today on the road washout warnings that have been regularly in the news this spring. A washout in the Bonners Ferry Ranger District has exposed two cases of dynamite.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forests has just posted a request for the public to stay away from Forest Service Road 633 (Myrtle Creek Road) where the explosives were discovered on Sunday. The road will be closed for several days, according to Shoshana Cooper, forest spokeswoman.

"The cases were found in a section of road that had been washed out," she said. "The dynamite appeared to have been buried for some time."

She said the Spokane Bomb Squad is on the scene today assessing the situation with assistance from Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers, Boundary County Sheriff’s Office, and the Boundary County Office of Emergency Management.

"The lower portion of the Myrtle Creek drainage is the municipal watershed and the primary source of drinking water for the City of Bonners Ferry," she said in a release. "Myrtle Creek Road has a history of recurring washouts and unstable roadbed."

Info: (208) 765-7211.