The ITA had requested we put the McCall “A” team together for a fly-in trip deep into the Selway – Bitterroot Wilderness and work on an extremely remote section of the Idaho Centennial Trail. On this particular morning we had a bit of weather which always makes wilderness flights exciting….
Turns out the flight was quite smooth and amazingly beautiful.
After an hour flight we landed at Fish Lake. The ground crew goes to work unloading the luggage.
It is always intimidating when the plane leaves and then slowly disappears….. the entire canyon grows dead silent and the mind wonders to my backpack and if I included all the necessary gear and food for a week….
Job One the crew must find a trail.
After mucking around at the airstrip for a while, the race was on to the ridge. Clearly I had disrespected this hike into base camp as this hike up the ridge was kicking my rear. I was rethinking the few extra luxuries I pack and lamenting yesterday’s climb of Platt Peak and Golden Lake Peak. As you can see from the trail, not many folks get back to these parts.
After a good long grind we are looking back down on Fish Lake and the Fish Lake Airstrip.
Same image with a zoom.
Once on the ridge, the climbing continues.
Each time we reached a saddle, we found another ridge.
Fall colors!
Our crew reaches a nice saddle about noon and we took a break for lunch.
Back on our feet and headed for base camp. We are setting up our base camp at Upper Two Lake where we will be for a few days. The total hike in from the air strip was about 8 miles and 2000 feet of gain… with full packs and lots of tools.
We walk above Grotto Lake and finally see our ridge and drainage beyond in the near ground.
A view looking back while hiking above Grotto Lake.
Finally, the drop in to our base camp! This was the longest 8 mile hike I had ever been on!
As we descend the ridge a bit, we get our first view of Upper Two Lake and the Selway Crags.
We make it to work project and drop the tools. Let me introduce our crew, from left to right: Dan, our mighty leader Clay, Brian, Carl, Jenny, Anne and of course your’s truly behind the camera.
We have about a mile commute to our base camp and the fun was not over yet. We have a little brush swimming to get there. Yes, there is a trail under all that brush.
A view looking down to Lower Two Lake. Our trail project works down the ridge above and behind Lower Two Lake. Notice that much of that ridge burned last year so that should be fun!
After about 6 hours we reach our base camp on Upper Two Lake and set up our camp.
You would think that after a beat down hike that these old farts would kick back and relax…..nope… we needed to clear some brush on the trail back to our tools to make our morning and evening commute more pleasurable.
Jenny works on the first log, it is always nice to have a sharp silky. After spending some time on our commute trail, we head back to camp and settle in for the evening. Stay tuned!
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