Can you believe it? I’m off to another week long trip into the Frank Church Wilderness! For y’all who are counting, this is the fifth week this summer. Not to shabby!
This week, we are flying into the Cold Meadows Airstrip and working our way to Black Lake. This is my third hitch to this area and there is a reason, it happens to be one of my favorite places in the world. Peace, solitude, and beauty only partially describe the experience here! A big thanks to the ITA and the Payette National Forest for making this trip happen.
Let me introduce our team. From left to right, myself, Art, Gary, hiding behind the flag is Anne, Dan, Craig, Dagmar, and Alex.
After a safety and logistics briefing, we set off down Cottonwood Creek. Today, we needed to establish our first base camp then get a little work done.
Our first glance at Middle Meadow. We will camp here for two nights and work the trail both up and down the meadow.
After camp was set, it was time to work. The trail here runs along the edge of the meadow and the trees all seem to fall into the meadow and across the trail.
Alex joins us on his first ever ITA trip. Nothing like being thrown right in with the wolves…… literally! With an average age over 60 and a team with of decades of backcountry experience, Alex got a good dose of old schooling! He took to trail work and backcountry camping like a fish to water and makes us look good at the same time!
Alex, Gary, and Spike working in the meadow. Yes, there is a trail below in the grass.
Spike takes a well earned break. He has been on every trip with me this summer and I recon he has cut over 1000 trees.
Anne works her way along Middle Meadow. In the distance you can see that the threat of thundershowers looms nearly every day. That is one of the reasons we establish a good base camp before working into the afternoon. More to come soon!
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