Yesterday we covered the first three miles or so of this gorgeous trail. In its entirety it’s quite long, about eleven miles, starting at an elevation of about 2,600 feet where it leaves the Dry Creek road and ending at 6,000 feet at the CC Divide.
At about the three mile point the trail crosses a corner of an isolated section of State land which was logged quite some time ago, leaving a mostly bare ridge and a web of old logging roads (which provides what looks like great feeding grounds for elk).

From the ridge looking north, the small town of Thompson Falls is visible beside the Clark Fork River.

At the skyline to the south the high ridge line of the CC Divide can be seen about eight miles away.

The bad news is that trail 578 is now open to motor vehicles, in this case dirt bikes, and with the trail erosion already beginning to take place because of their careless use on the very steep sections of the trail, this trail will not exist for very long. Its upkeep and repair will be too expensive for the agency already facing budget deficits due to tremendously high fire fighting costs.
