Shawn Donley | SBFC Board Member
Salmon River Trail #96
Volunteer Project- May 1-7, 2024
Traveling by jetboat up the Salmon River
The further we traveled up the Salmon River, the more apprehensive I felt. This was my first multi-day trail work project and the reality of it was starting to set in. I’ve never done a full week of manual labor and I wasn’t sure how my body would hold up. Most of my working career had been spent in front of a computer dealing with a daily barrage of emails. This week would be a totally different experience.
Volunteer Beth: “I like big rocks and I cannot lie!”
By the time we arrived at our destination, Bargamin Creek, we had traveled 40 miles upriver and were nearly 70 miles from the closest town. I felt lucky to be in this beautiful, remote location with such a great group of folks. The three other volunteers in my crew all had a fair amount of experience. Beth is a founding member of the Salamander Trail Crew in Oregon. Her level of commitment to trail work is exemplified by a tattoo of a crosscut saw on her bicep.
John from Boise is the owner of Trailhead DesignWorks, which makes reproductions of Forest Service and Wilderness Area signs. His signs of the Selway and the Frank are available on the SBFC site. Karen from Garden Valley is a veteran of several volunteer trips, including the annual maintenance of the St. Mary Peak trail in the Bitterroot Valley.
After unloading all our gear from the boat we set up camp along the Wild & Scenic Salmon River in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. The goal was to spend the week improving the Salmon River Trail #96, which was severely damaged by the 2023 Elkhorn Fire.
Wyatt and Emily cooking up another delicious breakfast.
Our days started at 7am with a big pot of coffee and a hearty breakfast prepared by Wyatt and Emily, our SBFC Trail Crew leaders. Wyatt used to work as an outfitter in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and served up some tasty breakfast sandwiches, french toast, and chocolate chip pancakes.
After packing our lunches and washing the dishes, we’d all do a yoga session led by Silas. He’s a Forest Service worker based out of Missoula and joined our crew to learn more about technical trail building. It was nice to start the day with some stretching, getting those tight muscles loosened up before a long day of trail work. The leader of our crew, Noel, works out of a local Forest Service Ranger Station and has overseen these trails for more than 14 years. He is also a rockwork guru. In a previous life I’d swear that he was the project manager for an epic site like Machu Picchu or Angkor Wat.
Wyatt, Noel and Karen at work building a retaining wall.
The whole week was spent working on a one mile section of trail. In a Wilderness area with thousands of miles of trail, I was surprised to learn that we would be focusing on such a small section, but Wilderness rockwork is labor intensive and the structures we were building are meant to last for decades.
Moving large rocks over uneven terrain is a challenge, so we set up a skyline, which is kind of like a zipline for rocks. Once a good building rock was found, it would be carried in a sling, attached to the skyline, raised by a hand winch and then jettisoned to the building site. It was a super cool process and an efficient way to move a lot of rocks a long distance.
The two crews meetup midway between our camps.
After four days our retaining wall was nearly complete. To get a break from the heavy lifting Beth, Karen, John and I spent the first half of Day 5 brushing and scouting the trail downriver from our camp. We had been working in a relatively small section, so it was nice to finally see more of this incredible area. We hiked past Allison Ranch, much of which had been destroyed in the fire the previous year. The trail continued west, staying high above the Salmon River. We were just about to turn around when we saw the familiar yellow SBFC hard hats in the distance. It was fun to connect with the other crew and compare notes. We were jealous when we heard that they were given lemonade and rhubarb (which they baked into a crumble) from the Yellow Pine Ranch.
The weather the whole week was very agreeable, not too hot or too cold and the rain we did get mostly occurred at night while we were sleeping. Every evening after dinner we would sit around a campfire and share stories. Some of my favorites involved ghosts, aliens and questionable Bigfoot encounters. The last day I spent with Silas and Beth brushing the adjacent Bargamin Creek trail and removing large rocks and downed trees. It was very satisfying to see the fruits of our labor while hiking back to camp on a clear trail at the end of the day.
When the boat came to pick us up on the last day I was both excited and a little sad to leave this beautiful place. Any anxiousness I had felt before the trip had completely dissipated. I realized that no matter how tired I was at the end of the day, a warm hearty meal and a good night’s sleep was all I needed to feel completely rejuvenated. It was very rewarding being part of this team and seeing all that we accomplished over the course of a week. If a multi-day trail work project is something you’ve ever thought of doing or have always wanted to do, I couldn’t recommend this special experience highly enough.
Lots of smiles at the end of a productive week in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
Shawn Donley
Board Member
Stevensville, MT
Shawn is originally from Pittsburgh, but has lived in Oregon, Washington and Montana since 1991. He recently retired from the book publishing industry, where he served on the board of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. He has also been a member of the Mazamas, the Forest Park Conservancy, the Pacific Crest Trail Association, the Rocky Mountaineers and Run Wild Missoula. Shawn is an avid trail runner, mountain climber, backpacker, and has lived, worked and traveled in more than 60 countries. After having spent most of his adult life enjoying wilderness areas across the Western United States, he feels lucky to now have the time and energy to help maintain and protect the wild places that have given him so much pleasure. Shawn and his wife Susan live outside of Stevensville with a beautiful view of the Northern Bitterroot Range.