So many adventures lately!
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| Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness |
I did actually break down and have a panic moment (or few) when I realized how abysmal my financial situation truly is. Living off of credit cards because you have such a huge negative bank balance and zero savings is hella stressful. Tack that on with impending homelessness makes for a stressful time. I have greatly curbed back my adventures since part of the issue is paying for gas to get to them. Or I try to carpool to them. I have sold many items and most of my furniture. Sleeping on the floor is not as bad as everyone seems to indicate it is. We live in such a cush society and loose our base roots in the name of comfort. With the help from family and friends I am on the right track and have an action plan.
I ate out for the first time in weeks the other night after hiking 8+mi (when originally intending only to hike 5mi) and being in the foothills for almost 6h. I was so tired and really wanted a big juicy green and fruity salad. So Zupas it was. I did not feel guilty for it either. I’m thinking maybe I can treat myself out to dinner once a month and buy fru-fru coffee once every two weeks or less as a way to treat myself.
The first weekend in August I went on a weekend backpacking trip with some friends. We intended to do Rainbow Lakes in the Trinity Mtns, but missed the turn off and decided to do Trail Creek Trail Loop near Sun Valley (https://www.alltrails.com/
That night it got cold. I am thankful for my woobie and using my air pad in my hammock to help keep me warm. The next day we hiked on and the trail kept disappearing. The day before we hiked through an avalanche field filled with broken trees. Fallen trees are evil and are out to hurt you, I swear. Eventually the trail disappeared altogether and we used the GPS to follow our track on the map we had on someone’s phone. It was slow and frustrating going. But reaching the top was totally worth it when we got to a 10,000’ cirque surrounded by high peaks all around us. We could not find the trail and decided to retrace our path back since light would soon be a limiting factor. What should have been an 8mi loop and roughly 6mi of hiking ended up being 12mi out and back and a 10mi day. Yup. Adventures in hiking mountains in Idaho!!
This past week I volunteered with the Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation to do trail maintenance along the Middle Fork Trail along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Frank Church Wilderness. I carpooled with some other volunteers on Weds to where we would be camping the night, at Boundary Creek CG just past Bruce Meadows/the Horn of Hwy 21 just outside Frank Church. This is also the put-in spot for rafters to begin the 100+mi rafting journey along Middle Fork of the Salmon. The wonderful thing about Wilderness designations is that no motorized anything is permitted in it (aside from back country air strips where planes bring in supplies to outposts). Which means no motor boats, no 4-wheelers, no chain saws (yup, we had to remove trees/debris totally manually with crosscut saws, katanaboys, silkies, wedges, etc.). It also means no glass products and you must pick up your own poop (woo Wagbags or “groovers”!).
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| Raft put-in at Boundary Creek. Hella steep! |
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| Dagger Falls w/salmon chute on right so salmon can bypass falls to migrate upriver |
We camped at Boundary Creek and hiked the 8.5mi to our base camp the next day. Base camp was a short ways past Trail Flats Hot Spring. The Backcounty Horsemen Treasure Valley Chapter camped with us and used their horses, ponies and mules to carry our base camp supplies. I am so very thankful for them for helping us in that way. Two of them stayed at base camp and were the camp chefs and maintained camp while we were on trail during the day. I got my first experience using a cross cut saw and learning that the trip to clean a trail is called a "hitch". I learned how to use wedges when crosscutting. And what underbucking is. Lots of work. Glad I do the rowing machine! We cleaned a few logs off trail on the way to base camp.
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| View of Middle Fork of Salmon nearish Ramshorn Creek |
We camped at base camp for four nights. It was wonderful to get back to base camp after a long day of cutting trees, brush, moving logs, lopping stinging bushes, etc. I used the Middle Fork to clean myself. The water was shallow enough in most areas that you could wade almost all the way across. It was so peaceful. Sitting there in my swimsuit or underwear. Taking in the world around me. Cooling off and relaxing and cleaning out in nature. I swam in the river. The whole trip was hard and hot and tiring and yet so wonderful.
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| Middle Fork near Deershorn Creek |
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| Water was so crystal clear you could see bottom from way up on mtn-side |
One day we hiked all the way to Sheepeater Hot Spring, roughly 6+mi from camp. Which meant a 12mi day. It got hot that day. And a group of us lopped the shit out of hackberry bushes that had taken over the trail. The bushes are dense and full of thorns. Then we hiked multiple miles on a steep talus slope. No wind. Just hot. Heat radiating off the rocks on the slope. The views made it all worth it. To experience this trail, a part of the Idaho Centennial Trail, and to be a part of keeping it maintained, was all worth it. We hiked pass Joe Bum Cabin on the way to Sheepeater. Veal loaf rusty tin on a shelf in the cabin caught our eye.
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| Lunch break! |
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| The beginning of the talus hike |
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| Joe Bum cabin |
One section of trail we called the bog and discovered a beaver had dammed it up and cause water to be blocked across the trail for about 20' and was under multiple feet of water. One volunteer spent the day digging a trench to the river to drain the water. The rest of us had to wade in the river to get around that section. He did a wonderful job and it stayed clear the rest of the day we were out there. There was much burned area all over. It appeared old and from my research, looks like the area burned in 2000.
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| my view every day hiking farther into Wilderness |
I think one of my most thankful moments was when we got to Sheepeater CG and were so hot and tired and saw the rest of our group, along with some drift boat guides who stopped. The guides offered us beer. A cold drink! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! And this is why I truly appreciate river people. Almost every rafter and boater we encountered thanked us for our work on the trail. Someday I will get to boat the Middle Fork in the Frank Church. But till then, I am thankful for those with a passion to keep the river wild and scenic. :-)
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| Sheepeater bend in river and pool we swam in behind me |
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| View of trail going along talus slope as seen from promontory point |
In all, we cleared roughly 7mi + 8.5mi of trail on that trip. We hiked out and cleaned some more trees that had since fallen. Saw wolf print in the trail. Heard juvenile bear calls while hiking out. And observed elk in the morning as we set off. I miss waking up each morning in the chill. Grabbing my camp coffee and breakfast and setting out hiking along a trail. Working my body all day taking in the awe inspiring sights of the natural world around me. And coming back to camp and swimming in the river or soaking in the hot springs. Sitting on the pine needled earth or on rocks. No modern creature comforts or technology. Just life. Going to the river to get water and gravity filtering it. Washing your body and clothes in the river. Talking to people. Genuinely talking and listening to them. That is life. And I miss it so much. I begin to question whether the life I live in town, working and driving and using my phone is my reality. Or if going out backpacking and living in nature, surviving the the gear and tools and food I brought is my reality. I wish the latter was more often my reality because I miss it so much. And would so very much rather be there.
More interesting info on the Middle Fork/Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness:
- Men's Journal Article: "The Middle Fork Revisited"
- The Big Outside: "Big Water..."
- US Forest Service: Frank Church Wilderness
