Loon Lake Backpacking Trip

I think the last backpacking trip I went on was to Mount Borah... maybe 10 years ago? It's been a while for sure. Well, this weekend I dusted off my backpack, packed it as light as I could, and headed just north of McCall, Idaho to Loon Lake. Reviews raved about Loon Lake's beauty and about how you could see wreckage from a WWII bomber in the forest. I was definitely excited for this adventure!

Jen & I researched Loon Lake in order to get a good idea of what was in store for us. We thought we were completely prepared, but we did end up with a few surprises along the way. I decided to make this post a little more detailed than I normally would just in case it might help someone else out one day :-)

The Loon Lake trailhead his 36 miles north of McCall on Warren Wagon Road. The last few miles are on a dirt washboard road - talk about bumpy! We noticed as we got closer to the trailhead that a fire had devastated much of the area, and we hoped that the trees around the lake hadn't been affected (no such luck!). There were a couple different trails that we could have taken up to the lake. We chose the slightly longer (but definitely prettier) route. Trail #80 led us along the Secesh River for about 3 1/2 - 4 miles, at which point we crossed over a bridge and hooked up to trail #84. We followed this trail for a couple more miles to the lake. There was a decent incline on trail #84 (rising 800 feet over 1.3 miles) - although we noticed on the way back out that we had done quite a bit of ups and downs all along the way.

The girls (me & Jen)... just getting started
The boys (Tim, David, & Chris)

Once we got to the lake, we took the trail around the right side of the lake hoping to find a place to camp. After about a mile of wondering if we had gone the right direction, we finally saw a trail that headed in closer toward the lake that we thought might lead to campsites. Unfortunately, all the camp sites there were full! We ended up making our own little campsite not far from there. After setting up camp, we had a delicious dinner (thanks to Jen & her mom) of shepherd's pie, garlic bread, and brownies.

Ever heard an elk bugle? We decided it must be elk mating season because they bugled (loudly!) all night long. This video will give you an idea of what we heard!

The people at the nearby campsite happened to be a group of aviation archaeologists there for the weekend to survey the old bomber at the crash site. We were glad they could give us directions to the site - which included either wading across a shallow "river" or trying to walk across a precarious looking log. I don't know that we would have found it otherwise! The crash site really was incredible, and it was neat to hear about the background from one of the archaeologists. In January of 1943, a group of 8 were on an army training mission. The weather was bad, so they ended up getting lost over the forests of Idaho. The crew knew they needed to land, so they decided to try landing on the frozen lake. Unfortunately, the flaps that are supposed to help slow down the bomber were iced over and wouldn't open, so the plane ended up crashing into the trees just off the shore of Loon Lake. The amazing part is that all 8 crew members survived the crash. The lead archaeologist explained to us that this WWII B-52 is one of the best preserved crash sites in the nation. Even the fires a couple of years ago didn't seem to affect the state of the wreckage much.

The tail of the bomber

Overall, I loved this weekend. We were all pretty tired and sore once we made it back to the car, but a it was a good kind of tired :-) We're already talking about our next outdoor adventure... although I'm pretty sure it will end up being a day hike instead of an overnight backpacking trip!