Ted McManus | SBFC Board Member
SBFC Volunteer Trail Project on the Salmon River, Idaho
May 1-7, 2024
I woke each morning to the sound of laughter. What a wonderful way to start each day - the sounds of laughter and bird song and a rushing river, the sight of mist rising up the canyon walls to reveal fresh snow 1000 feet above us, and hot coffee, of course. The three late 20’s SBFC staff and one Forest Service trail expert, who were our leaders at Yellow Pine Bar for the week on the Salmon River, woke before we late-middle aged volunteers did. As they prepared coffee and breakfast and laid out lunch food for us to pack, they talked and joked and, especially, laughed.
We arrived at Yellow Pine Bar Campsite on May 1st after a 90-minute jet boat ride up the Salmon River from Riggins, Idaho. The boat crunched into the rocks along the shore of the river as it pulled close enough to the shore for us to disembark. Under the leadership of our SBFC crew, we quickly formed a fire line to unload our prodigious pile of gear onto the beach, scrambling for jackets and shielding our faces from the pelting snow/sleet/hail. Situations like this bring a group of strangers together in a hurry. We had no choice but to work together. Our tarp shelter and tents went up without a hitch. Within a few short hours, we had bonded as a group, aided by the crew’s light-hearted leadership.
Our fearless leaders taking a moment to refuel
Our leaders were the new field staff for SBFC, the confident, experienced trail professionals who will lead the Wilderness Ranger Fellows in the summer of 2024 as they clear and improve hundreds of miles of trail in the two wilderness areas. The five of them - Robbie, Wyatt, Phoebe, Joe, and Emily - come from a variety of backgrounds and areas of the country, but they seem already in sync with one another, as if they had spent years working together - which Phoebe and Emily did in the Bob Marshall. These people work hard and laugh harder, completely comfortable in the wilderness. It’s a beautiful sight to see.
Working on some big rocks!
That type of leadership was so important, because the work we faced was not tossing rocks and sticks off the trail. It was hard work, building rock walls from 50-100 pound rocks to keep the trail from sliding into the Salmon River hundreds of feet below, and widening the tread of the trail by cutting into the hillside with nine-pound hammers/pick axes and smoothing everything out with the McCloud tool. We were clearing and improving the very heart of the Idaho Centennial Trail - the section where hikers drop down from Chamberlain Basin in the Frank Church Wilderness, walk along the fabled Salmon River, and then hike up and out on the Bargamin Creek Trail toward the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. So, as representatives of SBFC, this section of trail is particularly exciting because it’s, in a way, the heart of it all.
The gardens at Yellow Pine Bar (Photo by Stefan Turneaure)
Each day’s hike to our work site took us along Yellow Pine Bar, where an old backcountry ranch is cared for by two of the friendliest people you’ll ever encounter - caretakers Greg and Sue, whose Minnesota-nice personalities in the middle of the Frank Church Wilderness are like a sun-dappled forest after a rainstorm. We were the first people other than the mail plane pilot to stumble into their homestead in many months. We were treated to lemonade and a tour of their blacksmith shop and greenhouse/garden. The pride they have for their work there is palpable. Greg crafts beautiful knives of Damascus steel in the 100+ year old blacksmith shop, and Sue grows 75% of the food they eat each year. They were drying gallons of morel mushrooms to last them until next year’s crop pops up. This is their 17th year at Yellow Pine Bar and their 36th year in the Frank. What a wealth of knowledge!
The thoughts of comfortable beds, running water, and loved ones pushed us to pack up on the morning of May 7th. However, as the jet boat muscled its way back down the river to the Vinegar Creek boat ramp, we looked back at the wilderness with longing and a desire to go explore more and more of those trails in the Frank and the Selway-Bitterroot. Soon enough!