At Sandpoint Junction (MP 118.7), the BN-built connector over to the ex-GN line turns away west-northwest, a connection to the UP (SI) line continues straight ahead, and the former NP line now owned by Montana Rail Link turns away northeast, single track, CTC, with speed limit 50 mph, along the north side of Lake Pend Oreille, almost down at waterside, past the 16,670 ft. north side siding at Kootenai (MP 116.9), where the speed limit is 60 mph and Montana Rockies Rail Tours has its headquarters and storage tracks on the north side of the line, leaving the lakeshore behind and jogging east-southeast and then northeast again, and then turning southeast, past a detector at MP 111.8, where the speed limit is 50 mph, and Oden, and then to the southeast, as the shore of the lake, which the line rejoins, curves similarly, the 8,845 ft. siding at Hope (MP 103.5), where the speed limit is 50 mph, and the 1,992 ft. siding at Clark Fork (MP 93.8), where the speed limit has risen to 60 mph.
The line leaves the lake behind and continues south-southeast at water level along the Clark Fork River, bridging to the south side of the river on MRL’s longest bridge across the river (1,174 ft. long), past the 12,256 ft. siding at Colby (MP 91.1), and turning curvily east, along the south side of the river, past the 365 ft. Cabinet Tunnel (MP 85.9), the boundary between Idaho and Montana, the 11,232 ft siding at Heron (MP 80.1), and a detector at MP 77.4, where the line turns curvily southeast, still following the river, after which the line runs along a path that was relocated from the valley floor in the 1950s when the Noxon Rapids Dam was built, and now bridges the river and runs along the north side of the resulting lake, with girder bridges across side arms of the lake at intervals.
There is a 10,820 ft. siding at Noxon (MP 72.5), curves south, southeast, and south again, following the lake, the 8,990 ft. siding at Tuscor (MP 61.6), a turn southeast, a detector at MP 59.8 , a bridge back to the south side of the river, the 4,560 ft. siding and detector at Trout Creek (MP 54.0), where there is a girder bridge across the eponymous stream, a detector at MP 53.0, Vermillion, where the line turns curvily just east of due south, still following the river, the 7,820 ft. siding at Childs (MP46.4), White Pine, Talc, Belknap, where the line bridges back to the north side of the river, a turn east-southeast, still following the river, the 11,430 ft. siding at Thompson Falls (MP 31.5), where there is a 45 mph speed restriction, Brownman (MP 30.3), where the speed limit is back to 60 mph, a spur at Pipeline (MP 29.4), where the siding ends, a detector at MP 28.5, the 3,778 ft. siding at Woodlin (MP 28.0), a spur at Woodlin Pit (MP 27.7), and a spur at Thompson River Lumber (MP 27.7).
The line turns east, just north of east, and then east-southeast, following the north bank of the river, past the 11,227 ft. siding at Eddy (MP 20.6), and a spur at Weeksville (MP 13.5), where the speed limit is 55 mph, and turns south-southeast past the 11,360 ft. siding at Plains (MP 6.0), where the speed limit is 50 mph, a detector at MP 2.0, and the 12,307 ft. siding at Paradise (MP 0.0), where the depot is on the north side of the tracks, and the remains of the yard on the south side, west of the junction, the 4th subdivision to Missoula via St. Regis turns away to the south over a long bridge over the Clark Fork River, and the Flathead River joins the Clark Fork River (which comes in from the south), while the line over Evaro Hill turns east-southeast, along the north side of the Flathead River.