Backpacking Again (Finally!)

I am finally on track to take a wilderness backpacking trip, after far too many years since the last one.  I am excited about it and am spending a lot of time preparing to go.

When we first started planning to move to Idaho, I started buying books about hiking and backpacking here.  There are so many wilderness areas and so much National Forest, BLM (Bureau of Land Management), and other protected lands that it is almost bewildering to try to decide where to start.

I fully intended to be out in the wilderness with a pack on my back the first year we moved here (2019).  But almost as soon as we moved into our home, my right hip started giving me a lot of pain, and I had to have it replaced, which happened in September.  So I missed that first summer.  Then in 2020 I had to have back surgery .  In June 2020 I had five disks fused together (L2-S1).  Now they are held together with spacers, screws, and rods, and I've had a year of recovery for the bone to grow around all these artificial parts and anchor everything in place.  Last week I had my one year post-op visit, and the surgeon said I was good to go. 

One challenge has been finding a place that I can get to early in the year.  Most of the true wilderness trails are snowed in (or at least the trailheads are inaccessible due to snow on the roads and in the passes) until sometime in July.  Then there is a short season (July-October) when you can get in and enjoy the wilderness.  I found a couple that said they open in June, so I picked one and started planning.

The place I intended to go was called the "Chamberlain Basin Loop" in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.  I learned of this loop trail from the book "Backpacking Idaho" by Douglas Lorain.  Normally I don't like to use books like this - it seems like too much of a "cookbook" approach to the wilderness. I'd rather just pick a trailhead and hike in to see what's there.  But the state is so vast and there are so many alternatives, I feel like this is a better way to get started.  Good thing, too, because when I called the ranger station to discuss this trip, they said I was unlikely to be able to reach the trailhead until early July, even though the book said June.  As it turns out, the trails in this area are fine in June, but you have to fly in to an airstrip to get started.  The approach roads gradually decline in quality from county highways to Forest Service Roads to Jeep trails to "maybe you can go here if you are bold enough to try".    Somewhere in the middle is a pass called "Profile Gap" that remains impassable due to snow.  They said the rangers have a pool every year to bet on which day the pass will be open, and it's usually around 1 July.  So that is a no-go for this trip. 

I found another loop in this book that says it's open in June, so I decided to try that one.  I have to choose loops so I can come back to my Jeep at the trailhead.  Later I may be able to try some long-distance through hikes, but that will require more detailed advance planning as well as support from someone who can drop me off and pick me up at the end, or else shuttle my Jeep to a trailhead there.  That comes later.

This hike is in the Lemhi Range.  The book says "To call the Lemhi Range remote is a little like saying the weather in Siberia can get a bit nippy".  Apparently very few people go there.  Almost all the references I can find online are climbing sites.

Lemhi Range Climbing Guide

Salmon-Challis National Forest

The "Central Lemhi Range Loop" is about 45 miles of hiking.  The books rates it on a scale of 1-10 as an 8 for scenery, a 9 for solitude, and an 8 for difficulty.  It says it takes 4-6 days, but I am planning to allot a full week, and take ten days' worth of food as well as a fly rod to stretch my food with trout.  :)   I also plan to take it easy the first couple of days, as the route goes over 10,000 feet in altitude in some places, and altitude sickness is a potential danger.  We live at 2600 feet here in Coeur d'Alene, but I'll need to acclimate myself for at least a day or two to make sure I can keep myself oxygenated.

I have been wanting to write this entry for some time, but now that I've finally sat down to do it, I am impatient to actually get back to preparing my gear and planning for the trip.  So for now I'll content myself with posting a couple of photos of myself.  I'll write more about the trip plan, my gear and other preparations in a few days, and of course I'll write a full report after I get back.

This is me at about 16 or 17, in 1975 or 1976.  I was on my way into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  The pack is a Trailwise Model 72L.  It served me well for many years and many miles, but is now retired.

And this is me at 62, preparing to head back into the wilderness again.  The pack is a Frontier Gear of Alaska Freighter Frame with Yukon Pack.  It's made for backcountry hunting in Alaska, and carries the load really well.  

That's it for now, just needed to drive a stake into the ground and get the trip blog started.  

Mood:  Happy

Music: Silence