Summer Wanderings - August

While Pete and friends did more flying (and parawaiting) in Golden I took a few days off and explored the scenery around Lake O’Hara in Yoho Park and the alpine flowers at Idaho Peak in the Selkirk Mountains near New Denver. The morning bus to Lake O'Hara was full, but hiking in along the 11 km road was surprisingly quick and painless as most of it was still in shade. From the lodge I took the trail to Wiwaxy Gap and Huber Ledges up to Lake Oesa and then returned via Yukness Ledges and Opabin Lakes to the lodge. It felt like a long day, although it was not even 25 km. But I had put in a 10 hour day, starting just after 8:30 until 18:15, so I was happy to find a seat on the bus back to the highway (later I heard that everybody gets to ride out as long as one doesn't miss the departure time). Have to come back next year and check out MacArthur Lake!



Having heard of the amazing flowers at Idaho Peak I detoured on the way back from Golden. Driving through the dark ghost town Sandon and up the steep windy gravel road was somewhat nerve-racking, but I still had a good night of sleep in the back of my trusty Patriot. And what sight to wake up in a mountain meadow full of flowers.

Hiking Lost River Range, ID

From the road less traveled we take a side gravel road up to Two Springs Pass at 2300 meters through the Lost River Range just north of Mt Borah (Idahos highest peak). An earthquake in the 80s caused the valley bottom to drop 9 ft and the sheer line is still clearly visible for 20 miles. From the pass we hike through low forests to an alpine ridge with big gnarly whitebark pine trees.

A big landscape with an even bigger sky. And no other human being around. Except on the next day when paraglider pilot Gavin McGlurg crossed this range on a 387 km record flight to Montana. http://www.xcmag.com/2013/07/footlaunch-paragliding-record-falls-in-the-usa/

Wildlife Viewing Salmon River, ID

On the way back from Utah we found a nice camp spot at one of the river access sites to the Salmon River, up the side road to the Middle Fork take-out. After we finished dinner and settled in the camping chairs beer in hand Wildlife viewing program was on for evening entertainment. It started with a gaggle of nearly 20 mergansers. Never seen so many of these birds in one spot! The mergansers scurried away when a beaver surfaced splashing its tail. Meanwhile a little downstream a deer stepped into view. Its two fawns did some crazy jumps to get rid of annoying bugs. The program was completed by the appearance of two elk cows just upstream contently grazing and lifting heads occasionally to check their environs.

Idaho MF Salmon: June 3 - 9

Detailed trip report and pictures coming soon...

High water and a tense start. We played it safe, lined the rafts through Velvet, the first sketchy rapid. The rest of the trip was sweet, good whitewater, great weather, nice hikes, excellent food, a great time with old friends and a bunch of new ones.

Selway Hummingbirds

Don't seem to get around to editing videos these days (it's summer after all!), so here are a couple of frame grabs.

It's well known that hummingbirds like all things red (or is it the beer he is after?).



But what about Pete's ears? Is it the red color or the flower shape that makes them so attractive?


Approach


Insert


Retract

Idaho Rivers: Selway May 10 -- 14

Paradise Put-in

This year a last minute opportunity for a pre-season trip on the Selway worked out. The Selway is one of the great multi-day trips in Idaho. A permit is difficult to get, so river runners try to get a run in before May 15th, when the permit season starts. Pre-season trips can pose a few problems: snow on Nez Perc pass may require an expensive shuttle with balloon-tired vehicles and river levels could be too low or too high (trips in early permit season have the same problems). Luckily, we didn’t encounter any of them. The pass was plowed a couple of days before our trip and water levels were fine for us kayakers – albeit a bit bony for the raft on the first day.


"You are here"


Typical River Scene

It was the first time I put on for a multi-day trip when there were no leaves on bushes and trees. As we moved downriver spring arrived at time-lapse speed. Hummingbirds checked out our camping equipment every time we set up camp (and Pete’s ears!) Seems the little birds are starved for the color red in the green forest of Idaho. Not sure Pete’s ears look like flowers? Maybe we should take a feeder next time? Whitetail deer wandered through our camp. When startled they disappeared flicking their tails. Most impressive wild encounter was a big sand-colored wolf on shore. As we floated by, she/he watched closely, put her ears back, then grabbed the fish she was eating and moved into some bushes. Just to drop the fish and roll in it.

Despite the low water level (1.7 – 2 at the paradise gauge) I would have preferred my bigger boat on day 4, when we hit the more interesting rapids. After a prime session of side-surfing in Double Drop (I was sure I was on line… until I saw the hole), I had some problems keeping tops up and bottoms down. The positive outcome of this little rodeo session was easy decision at Ladle - the high and dry line. After all the excitement I didn’t think my shoulder was up for paddling on the last day, so I hopped on the raft and got some excellent rafting instructions for John on the easier drops.


Double Drop. The green tongue and the hole.


Start of Ladle

The take-out weather was Idaho style: sunny and hot enough to change into shorts and Ts. After we de-rigged and packed all our gear in my trusty Patriot Pete and Ben run the Lochsa above Pipeline. This looked a lot more exciting than when we did it in 1999 (checking the records, we had half the water). Karen and I opted for being on the photo and beta crew. In the evening we started the long drive back for a nice run close to home on the Wenatchee the next day.

Middle Fork Salmon, May 15 - 20

The Middlefork of the Salmon is a much sought after multi-day river trip in Idaho. Compared to the rivers in Northern BC, it’s not quite as remote as labels like “River of no Return Wilderness” and “Largest Road-less Area in the Lower 48” may suggest, but it’s pretty awesome for scenic value. This is also the reason that permits for it are difficult to come by – the chance to win the lottery are less than one in twenty.

The organizer of our trip decided to go for a pre-season permit, which are given out on a first come first serve basis. Pre-season runs can pose a couple of problems: snow on the put-in road may require a flight to access a lower put-in, logs may have accumulated in drops over the winter, levels may be very high and the weather can be very variable.

We were pretty lucky and only had to deal with one of the above. Weather was sunny and warm when we started; the levels around 5 foot made for exciting but still friendly big water, the road opened two days before we showed up, one log jam that would have required an arduous portage washed out just prior to our trip. All that was left was a couple of nasty trees standing in the middle of a newly created river channel – and a couple of hours of portaging rafts and gear around it.

Not a big price to pay for a fantastic trip, thrilling rapids, relaxing hot springs, weird critters (like rubber boas) and wonderful evenings with friends around the campfire. The expected cold front came in on our last day on the river and surprised us with some fresh snow up in the Montana mountain passes.