Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation
Expect Nothing, Pull Saw, Slay, Repeat
Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation
I'll Tell You What
Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation
Why Work in Wilderness
WRF
Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation
Wilderness Growth

Forrest reflects on his first hitch in the Bitterroot National Forest.

Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation
Moments in the Mountains

Smiles for Miles

Hitch #5 Blog Post by Jesse Bergeson - Powell Trails Liaison

The Selway intern crew spent their final field days working the beautiful Walton Lakes Trail.  We are happy to report that the trail is clear from the Walton Lake TH all the way to Savage pass.  They were lucky to have beautiful fall-like weather while they cleared fallen trees in this lovely (unburned) area.  

The crew was not alone as they enjoyed warm sun, they also witnessed a marmot defend his rock crag home with high pitched chirps and warning calls.  The lakes are a popular overnight trip or day hike for fishing.

Huckleberries can still be found if you know where to look, with some green ones still on their way to sweetness.  

Get out and explore the area during this great time of year!

A Legacy of Self Reliance

Hitch #4 Blog Post by Lida Wise - Payette Lead Steward

As far as the eye can see for 360 degrees -- mountains.  Not a single road or roof in sight.  Standing on top of Lookout Mountain in the heart of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, I slowly spin around and around, soaking it all in.  I’ve had a tough past couple days, and this vista was just what I needed to reaffirm my desire to be out here.  I remind myself, Wilderness is not supposed to be easy.  If it wasn’t challenging at times, it would not be wild.  And that’s exactly one of my reasons for coming out here - to overcome the challenging times so I know how strong I can be.  I lay under a pine, close my eyes, and listen to the soothing sound of the wind in the needles.  The breeze is a welcome respite on a hot day.  I watch a cloud shift shapes - just a bunch of dust particles rolling around itself.   These simplicities bring me back to center.  I am content.

Later, we fix dinner on the remains of a fire lookout tower.  Who lived here before?  What was their story?  More than ever before in my life, I feel a part of a legacy.  With no signs of recent human activity and very rare visitor contact, we are always surprised to come across such permanent-seeming signs from the past quickly vanishing back into scree and soil.  Besides the old concrete lookout foundation, we come across telephone insulators, rusty tin cans, an old game of horseshoes.  Humans have forged into remote rugged areas for years before I’ve been around, and it hasn’t been easy.  I like to think that I am continuing the legacy of self-reliance in Wilderness.  Like the lookout who occupied this mountaintop before me, I am living devoid of modern communication, technology-dependent entertainment, and easy access to food and water.  It is not always a stroll through a green grassy park - sometimes the trail is steep and hot and dusty and you take it one grudging step at a time.  But inevitably, you emerge a more resilient individual, more capable of appreciating simple things, and with a respect for the legacy of self-reliance in the Wilderness.

Warm Springs to Grave Peak back to Saturday Ridge

Hitch #4 Blog Post by Eric Schweitzer - Fenn/Moose Creek Trail Liaison

For Hitch three I joined the four Nez/Clear Interns to work from the Warm Springs Trailhead, towards Grave Peak, and loop back around on “Saturday Ridge” Trail #89 through “Warm Springs Pass” and back to the trailhead. You can never be sure what a work rotation will hold for you. How many trees will there be? Will we have mostly digging to do? Did I bring enough food? Are three packs of Ramen healthy for an average adult? I don’t know! Our base-camp was located in a prime spot, used by an outfitter, and was a treat to be at for three nights. There were many downed trees on the trail; beetle-killed, burned, and some from wind events which made our work difficult at times.

With such a high volume of trees we were all able to improve our skills with Cross-cut saws and axes. Calle enjoyed using a double-bit ax she took to calling “Lucy”, Mickey and Mark were an effective team clearing trees with the saw, and Dani was able to move large logs without needing to cut them using lifting techniques she uses in the gym. We were moving well through our time to Grave Peak and enjoyed a night at Wind Lake looking up at the Look-out. I was able to put my fly-fishing rod together and through the clouds of mosquitoes caught a nice Cut-throat Trout. After that we continued to hit large sections of downed-trees on the trail and eventually had to walk over 78 logs after working our full time. It’s always an experience to be out in the Wilderness and even if we didn’t get all of the trees we still got 1,076 off the trail. See you out on the dusty trail!

 

2 Miles, 6 Days & 900 Trees later....................

Hitch #4 Blog Post by Calle Ries - SBFC Wilderness Ranger Intern

As we first approached the trailhead of the Swamp Creek Trail 22, we had no idea what was in store for us. It was just the four of us; Jesse, our trail crew leader, Mark, one of the ranger interns, Kelley, our ambitious volunteer who was coming out on hitch with us, and myself. When we first saw the beginning of the trail we knew that we were going to be cutting a lot of trees, but we couldn’t guess just how many there would be.

During our six days of clearing Trail 22, we covered 2 miles and cut out around 900 trees from the trail. It was slow going the first few days, and we could hardly walk for 30 steps before we approached the next jumble of trees. On the bright side, at the end of the day when we walked back through the trail we had just cleared, it was a shocking difference to see how nice of a trail it was. There was a certain sense of accomplishment felt when we could enjoy the trail we had put our blood, sweat, and tears into clearing, and, in my opinion, that’s one of the most rewarding feelings.

On the third day of the hitch, we saw a fire start up that was only on the other side of the ridge right next to us. We saw the smoke plume get bigger as the days went on, and by the last day the entire sky was filled with smoke. We were never in danger from the fire, but for me, I felt a sense of awe at being so close to this wildfire. It turned the sun a strange orange hue, and it was as if we were in a perpetual golden hour, or some kind of apocalyptic world. Luckily, between the smoke and the heat, the insects were mostly kept at bay besides some flies that pestered us a good while. The fire definitely added an interesting element, and it made my experience richer and just that much wilder.

All in all, it was a fantastic hitch and we put in a lot of good work. Our volunteer Kelley was a hard worker and helped us get to our lofty total tree count.  Kelley made the hitch that much more enjoyable! I hope that whoever goes out on that trail next is able to enjoy the scenery and the wildflowers as much as I did, with a clear trail hike on.

Huckleberries & High Spirits - Nez-Pearce/Clearwater NF

Hitch #3 - Blog Post by Mark Vandlik - SBFC Wilderness Ranger Intern

Despite a shaky start, the 3rd Hitch went smoothly for the ranger interns working in the Nez-Pearce/Clearwater National Forest.  Inundated with heavy rain and crashing thunder on our hike in, the first night was a rather wet one.  Despite waterlogged boots, however, the crew's spirits remained high and the weather eventually shaped up.  Interns Danilo “Mickey” Figueroa, Dani Jones, Calle Ries, and Mark Vandlik hit the Warm Springs (Jerry Johnson) Trail #49 with Moose Creek Trails Liaison, Eric Schweitzer.

Our plan was to clear the trail in a loop from the junction of Warms Springs Trail #49 and Wind Lakes Trail #24, up to Wind Lakes, along Saturday Ridge (Tr. #89), and back down the Warm Springs Trail— a total trip of around eighteen miles.  The going was rather slow with a lot of downed trees and several stream crossings, but we eventually made our way up to Wind Lakes, battling bloodthirsty mosquitoes and nettlesome no-see-ums all the while.  The ladies on the crew decided to forgo the bites and instead donned black funeral veils, adding a somber tone to the days’ work.  That evening made up for all the trouble, as we watched the sunlight slowly recede along the rock face above Wind Lake’s seemingly out of character placid waters; casting our flies to rising cutthroat in the shadow of the old Grave’s Peak lookout, made famous by Missoula’s Norman Mclean who stood atop the point back in 1919. 

After climbing out of the lake and taking to the high country, the bugs subsided enough to allow us to gorge ourselves on the prevalent huckleberries in relative peace.  And so we ended our hitch fat and happy, just like the black bears we shared the trail with.  In the end, we weren’t able to finish the entire assigned task, but our work was admirable as it opened up that much more beautiful territory to be enjoyed by our fellow lovers of wilderness.  

 

Clearing Blodgett post Microbursts

July 14-17 was spent getting the Blodgett Trail cleared.  A series of microbursts left a multitude of downed trees in tricky jacksaw configurations that required a ton of limbing and site clean-up before any good assessment of how the trees could be cut and moved could be done.  The project went well, thevolunteers had fun, but the work was tough going.  We were able to cut about 1.25 miles of trail beyond the campsite at 7-mile meadow.  Four saw teams cut 151 trees, many of which were in the 35-40 inch diameter range.  That said, they had some dynamic trees that moved a lot when cut and quite a few root balls that stood up with quite a bit of tree trunk still attached.  With safety and caution a priority we completed the project in good shape. 

Hikers who came from the Elk Summit/Big Sand Lake area in Idaho said the blowdown continues to the junction of trails 19 and 310 with a considerable amount of blowdown over in Idaho as well.  The hikers estimated that there are about 300 more trees down on the trail between where we finished and Blodgett Pass.

We are moving hitches around to focus on getting Blodgett cleared which means other trails will be left for another year.

Another successful 4th on St. Mary's

St. Mary’s Peak is a moderately strenuous climb, just a short 3.5ish miles to rewarding views into the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness at 9,351’. It is one of the most accessible peaks in the Bitterroot, therefore making it a very popular trail. However, if you’ve done this hike before you may know that the trailhead fills up quickly and if you happen to bring horses, there is rarely a spot to park a trailer. In order to provide access for horse users, the Forest Service, partnered with the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC), designed and implemented a new trail about 2 years ago that tied in to a pre-existing “old” trail that adds provides parking for stock trailers at the trailhead. The trail that was constructed by an MCC youth crew was designed with grade reversals and winding switchbacks. However, the old trail, which we don’t know too much about, simply climbs straight up hill, with a few switchbacks, but without any consideration of erosion prevention. So, with the help of 3SBFC interns and 5 volunteers, we spent 2 days building 16 waterbars and placing them in areas where water needed to be drained off of the trail. We were fortunate enough to have assistance from Bitterroot National Forest trails foreman, Steve Bull. After completing the waterbars we moved on to general maintenance on the main trail, cleaning drains and replacing the broken Wilderness sign post. With a lovely, sunny, lunch at the summit, I’d say it was a successful volunteer trip! Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers for the hard work and fun. Special thanks to Renee & Jay for going above and beyond while hosting us!

 

Monumental on So Many Levels

HITCH #2 BLOG POST BY - Jake Candeub –               SBFC Wilderness Ranger Intern

Our trip started at the Lick Lake Trailhead and we started clearing trail June 28th and cut out trees with axes, a crosscut saw about 6 feet long, and Silkey Saws.  Lida, AJ and I working as a two man/one woman wrecking crew, hiked uphill and made the trail passable for people and for stock.  The first night was spent at Lick Lake about four miles from where we started.  Day two took us up and over a pass near the summit of Cougar Peak and into Cougar Basin.  The view from the top of the pass was very cool and was over 8,000 feet in elevation.  It was extraordinary to see the area that we were about to hike into from the vantage point above.  We then continued on to Bear Lake and obliterated some campsites and fire rings that were within 200 feet of the lake, which was within the camping restrictions set by the Forest Service around that particular lake.

The hike out of Cougar Basin the next day was pretty tough with some trees in the trail, but we made it up and over using our strong determination.  We then followed the West Fork of Monumental creek and camped in a stand of trees for the night about 200 feet from the creek.  After we set up camp, the ominous sound of thunder, which had started a little earlier in the day, continued until a giant hailstorm started and left us laughing under our shelters at how big the hail actually was.  Each piece of hail was at least as big as a large grape.  The storm passed pretty quickly and was calm for the rest of the night, but was pretty intense there for a while.  The next few days were spent hiking way less miles and cutting out way more trees in the next section of the trail.  We camped for a few more nights and then hiked out of upper Monumental Trailhead and got picked up by Don who drove us back to Big Creek.