By early March the south-facing slopes above the Thompson River Valley were dry enough for hiking and exploring.    I have hiked a series of hills and ridges that rise above the west side of the Tranquille River Valley a number of times.    There is an old double track for part of the route, but the rest of the route is off-trail, following the ridgeline all the way to The Pimple.    Most of the route is through sagebrush grasslands with only a few trees in gullies.    At the upper end there is open forest.    The final section is a steep scramble to the top of The Pimple.    Every time I do this hike, I vary the return route.   For this particular day I chose to go about 2/3 of the way up Tranquille Ridge, then loop down on the ridges and hills closer to the river.

Most of the route is steep and some of it is on loose material, but the whole way is scenic.     There are no trail signs, nor much of a route to follow, except for some faint game trail routes, so anyone who does this route will need to have an exploration mindset.

I took a number of photos along the route and have included them in a slideshow:

The album can also be seen on Google Photos at this link.