Boundary County High Point Trip Report
Date: October 1, 2000
Author: Ken Jones
Leave US Highway 95 in Bonner's Ferry on the south bank of the Kootenai River. This is signed "Main
Street"; keep right just after the turn and pick up Riverside. With the odometer reset to 0.0 where you
leave Highway 95, you'll follow the paved road westward along the south bank of the river. A little over a
mile after entering the Kootenai NWR, the road turns north and becomes Westside Road. The pavement
ends at 12.0 miles from the highway. At 15.2 miles turn left up Trout Creek canyon on the signed Road
634. Follow this dirt road 5.2 more miles to the signed "Fisher Peak Trail No 27" on your right. This
point is easily reached in a passenger sedan. Road 2425 shown on the left at this point is signed but
heavily overgrown and impassable; don't count on it as a landmark.
The Fisher Peak trail heads steeply upward, and crosses the creek in the NE corner of Section 12 at about
4950'. It reaches an old logging road at the bottom of a clear cut at about 5600', then continues up the SE
ridge of point 7680'+ to about 7300'. Here it crosses from the south to the north side of the ridge, and the
summit area of 7680'+ is clearly visible, an easy scramble above you on the left.
The ridge between 7680'+ and 7709' is readily passable; it does not go beyond class 2 with a bit of route-
finding. Bob Packard has left a cairn and register on point 7709'. Another cairn and register are found a
couple of hundred yards south, still within the same 7680' contour. My sightings show that: (a) this more
southerly point (~7712') is certainly higher than point 7709', probably by 3 feet; (b) point 7680'+ is
certainly higher than point 7682' (which is not listed in Andy Martin's book); and (c) point 7680'+ is
probably lower than point ~7712' but I would go to both to be sure I'd gotten the HP.
On my return to the trail, I contoured south of point 7680'+. Pay close attention, as the trail is somewhat
faint in this area.
Overall, a glorious Fall hike in a beautiful area. Although it was a weekend,
I never saw another person all day.