Groups planning work on Idaho trails into the Salmo-Priest Wilderness

No part of Idaho is officially included in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, but you can get there from a few trails that begin in the Panhandle.

As long as someone maintains them, that is.

Volunteer trail crews with the Idaho Trails Association will be working over the next few years to make sure hikers and horseback riders can use the routes that begin in the Gem State and head into the 41,000-acre wilderness area.

Barbara Sammut, the North Idaho program manager for the group, said the group has two work trips planned for the forest northwest of Nordman this summer, including a clearing and re-treading project on the Jackson Creek Trail – a route used by thru-hikers on the Pacific Northwest Trail.

“It used to be a really popular loop to hike,” Sammut said. “Over the years, it’s become less and less accessible to hikers.”

Idaho Trails Association is returning to the area after being forced to stay away for a season because of a lack of federal money. Patrick Lair, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, said a delay in Great American Outdoors Act funding caused the agency to cancel the work because they couldn’t get an agreement with the nonprofit done in time.

With that problem solved, an agreement is in place and the organization is planning to get a lot of work done in the area in the years ahead. In addition to working on Jackson Creek, the group scheduled a scouting trip to check on a number of other trails in the area. They’ll use that information to plan their work in coming years.

“There’s a ton of deferred maintenance in this area,” Sammut said.

Downfall and undergrowth have long been problems on the Jackson Creek Trail, said Holly Weiler, the Eastern Washington regional coordinator for Washington Trails Association. A fire in 2017 exacerbated its woes.

“After the fire the alder grew in so lushly it’s hard to find where the trail is even located,” Weiler said.

Volunteers with WTA will be working on the Jackson Creek Trail the same weekend – they hope to meet the Idaho crew in the middle at some point. Weiler said WTA had a trip to the area last year but didn’t make it far because there were too many downed trees. They had to log their way up to the boundary of the wilderness area and again to the Thunder Creek trial.

WTA has six projects planned this summer in or on the edge of the Salmo-Priest Wilderness. Among them is a “jamboree” at Gypsy Meadows, where they’ll attack a series of trails from a base camp at the meadows.

Trail work in national forests depends heavily on volunteers.

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest recently boasted on social media that it was “first in the nation” in trail miles maintained in 2025, with 2,273. Most of that work wasn’t done by Forest Service staffers – about 77% of it was done by partners and volunteers, according to Lair.

Sammut said the Idaho Trails Association is still looking for people to join its Jackson Creek trip.

It’s a three-day car camping trip from July 10 to 12. Sammut said they need about 10 people, and that all experience levels are welcome.

• More information is available on the Idaho Trails Association website at idahotrailsassociation.org/volunteer.

• Information on volunteering with the Washington Trails Association is available at wta.org/get-involved/volunteer.