It is that time of year where we begin our Frank Church Wilderness trail work. First up, we needed to get dropped into a very remote location and assess a burn area which had been torched last year. Our mission was to first address any drainage issues which might cause extensive damage to the trail tread. As usual, the great folks at Sawtooth Aviation would drop us in.
We knew that the first half of this week would present some weather challenges, luckily Mother Nature gave us a window to fly. You can however see that there is a bunch of moisture in the air.
After a goodly amount of time, we had the Flying B Ranch and its airstrip in sight.
We landed and unloaded our gear, no baggage handlers here.
A couple minutes later, the second half of our team arrived.
This will not be the first time I thank the staff at the Flying B as they where amazing. Without their support, our job would have been much more difficult. The help started with a shuttle ride for the half mile walk to the Ranch. Thank you! FYI, the Flying B is a private holding within the Frank Church Wilderness hence the motorized vehicle.
We had first thought that maybe we would break our climb to base camp into two days, one with full pack and one with packer support. After further review, we called an audible and decided to climb the full 5500 feet to base camp in one day with just day packs. This would effectively give us one additional work day on the ridge. After some hasty gear roulette, we began our safety meeting. Our crew this trip from left to right is Alexis, Brian, Art, Craig, Jenny and myself behind the camera. Collectively we are know as the “McCall A Team”. Like Winston “The Wolf”, when you have a difficult problem you call the “A Team”. FYI “A” stands for aged.
We loaded our day packs and left our base camp gear for the Flying B to haul up by pack team later today. Job one, cross Brush Creek right after departure. COLD!
The forecast called for afternoon thunderstorms but for now things were great!
Soon we were looking down on the Flying B Ranch again. Notice the rafters in the river? That seems a little more mellow that what we were doing!
Sheep Creek! Notice Craig lurking in the background. We all were looking forward to see if he was going for a swim.
Hiking out of Sheep Creek and gaining elevation fast, we noticed the clouds getting dark and started hearing thunder in the distance. The trail will hit the ridge above which is about 6200 feet then we climb another 2500 feet or so to base camp.
Alexis and Art nearing the ridge.
Up on the ridge, break time and what a nice place to learn where the thunder was coming from…….
Luckily, we dodged that storm and kept going. I hope we see our base camp gear soon……
About the 7000 foot elevation, the pack team caught us and we had a nice break and visited with Val and Marge. This climb would be almost impossible to complete in one day without their support. Thank you again Val, Marge and the Flying B Ranch!
On up they go to drop our base camp gear.
Meanwhile, we trudge on, soon to find snow.
Now with near 360 degree views, we can see the next storm.
Nothing like being on a tight ridge in the Frank Church Wilderness during a thunderstorm. I hope nobody in our group has pissed off the big guy recently!
After about 7 hours of climbing, we have our base camp location in sight just below the last big snow patch. Also notice the Bear Creek Point Lookout on top.
We arrived at base camp and quickly set up some rain protection just in case.
Did I mention that we had no water source on this ridge. The pack team hauled up about 40 gallons which needed to last all week or we would be eating snow…. Keep in mind that 40 gallons is about the average water use per American per day. By that measure, we would need about 1500 gallons this week.
Once our camp and some rain shelter was set up, the trail gods were no longer interested in testing our will and the skies parted for a nice evening. Tomorrow, we hike the 5 miles to our burn area and assess our work requirements. Stay tuned.
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