Chamberlain Basin was the heart of the portion of the Frank Church Jason and I backpacked across. Our ten day, 100+ mile adventure took us from the South Fork of the Salmon River up and over into Chamberlain Basin. From there we worked our way to Big Creek, which we followed to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. From the Middle Fork we worked our way into the Big Horn Crags where we met up with John, Derek, Lizzy (dog), Red and Bo (horses).
Day 1
Jason met me at my house in the early afternoon. We took our time eating some good food, visiting with David and putting our geer together. After we got packed up, David was generous (thank you) enough to drive us to the trail head. We stoped by the McCall Brewery and had one last good meal before being droped off along the South Fork of the Salmon River. David returned to Boise, leaving Jason and myself at the begining of our journey. We set up a quick camp and didn't get up until the next morning.
Day 2
After a nice breakfast and packing up our bags we began to work our way across the Wilderness. As we passed though the South Fork Ranch, we ran into a Rancher and he shared some knowledge about the trail ahead of us. We worked our way though the ranch and made it to the trail down the South Fork.
After a few miles we hit the bridge across the river at Porphery Creek. There we took a nice break and checked out a good camp along the otherside of the river which had an old orchard (a few apple trees) and a possibility of a structure. After enjoying a nice snack and the site we had found, we got back on the trail.
From here the trail went up twoards Chicken Peak. The start was a massive number of switch backs heading up out of the river valley. And we started with our heavy packs this first day on the trail trying to make it up them to a camp near Chicken Peak. According to the rancher there was a nice place where we cross water about 3/4 of the way up and it was a psuedo goal to make it there for the night.
After getting beyond the initial switchbacks and on the long ridges that worked their way up a large thunder shower rolled into the valley. So as we made our way up twoards Chicken Peak we begin to get rained on and have lighthing in the hills a ways above us. I was determined to make it to the place near water and call it a night. The thunder had stoped after a bit, and the sun had set, while the rain continued. I had ended up taking a quicker pace than Jason as I was on my way to the speculated camp.
After walking for a little over an hour in the pitch black with my head lamp, and still haven't made it to the camp site, I drop my bag under a tree on the edge of the mountain. We are now out of the valley in moderate forest with lots of underbrush. Everything is soaking wet and the rain is still droping on us fairly hard, I decide that I must find Jason and we need to at least not be seperated. Without my pack I continue back down the trail to find Jason and group up. Behind me about half a mile I do find Jason, who is also soaking wet and tired as this first day's challenge was a bit much. We made it back to where I had stashed my pack and made a decision, to either bunk up here until the rain is gone or make it to the known camp. With the fatigue we have generated by walking though four miles of hard rain we decided to bunk up here as the camp was an unknown distance along the trail. Throwing up Jason's small 2 man tent, we found a flat spot under a tree and tried to stay as dry as possible though the night.
Day 3
After a rough night, I crawled out of the tent and was looking at a nice cow elk looking back at me. Getting out of the tent I threw on my wet cloths and began moving around to warm up for the day. After packing our wet packs together as best as we could, we ate a light breakfast and continued up the peak. We got on the trial and found the camp we were hoping for about 20 minuets up the trail, go figure.
We finally made it to the top of Chicken Peak and noticed that the rain clouds from the privious night were starting to clear up. We decided to make camp on the side of Chicken Peak to give us time to eat a good hot meal and dry out our wet geer from the night before.
We spent most the afternoon drying our stuff out, sitting around and enjoying a fire, a good hot meal and the view from the old lookout that was sitting atop Chicken Peak. After a relaxing day on the peak we saw all the clouds brisk away and give us a beautiful sunset followed by a starlit night.
Day 4
After a restful night sleep on Chicken Peak, we got up the next morning, enjoyed a good hot breakfast, packed up and hit the trail. This day's plan was to make it to the lakes on the back side of Sheapeater Peak. The trail was well matianed and worked its way down and back up a real nice broad ridge. We got to walk though all the major forest types that day. The older forest that is fairly dense and healthy, the recently burnt forest and the beautiful areas that have recovered from a burn a few years back and are recovering nicely, full of fresh life and smells.
After a full day of walking along Sheepeater Ridge we made it near the Peak. Here I droped my pack and walked up to the peak while Jason headed down to the lake to test his fishing ability. I made it up to the modern lookout atop Sheapeater Peak. The area was well matained and had a great view of the heart of the Frank Church. There was no one at the lookout and the flag was only raised to half-mass. Slightly courious as to the reason, I finished my time atop the peak and headed down to the lakes.
I found Jason fishing at Sheepeater Lake. I droped my pack and made my way out to the fishing point he found. I get there just in time to see him reel in his first fish, a 16-18 inch cut throat. We tried to get another fish, but after a few casts we got a few bits and one fish on the line shortly but were not able to reel him in. We didn't spend the time to get another, lucky that one fish was big enough for the two of us, and we set up camp and cooked it up for dinner.
Day 5
Chamberlain Basin was our destination. I usually prefer to walk up on the ridegs and follow nice forest trails though them as opposed to being down in a creek valley. This is important because we had two options for heading to Chamberlain Basin, one along a ridge, called three-blaze trail, and the other down the drainage from Sheepeater Lake.
Three-blaze trail was our decision, and we headed twaords it. The back side of the trial up out of the lakes was fairly nice and we made it to the small summit where three-blaze trail cuts off. At this point we saw the burn that had covered the ridge the trail was on and the unforntate part was the trail has not been matianed since before the fire.
The trip down three-blaze was more working our way down a ridge with no trail and having to cross over tons of fallen trees, like walking though a huge pile of toothpicks. Though use of the map we were able to follow the basic direction of the trail and found ourselves finding it and loosing it serveral times down the ridge. So what I was hoping to be a nice easy walk down a ridge like Sheepeater Ridge the day before turned into a slow tough treck down the edge of a partially burnt ridge.
It took us a bit longer to get down the ridge than had hoped, but we finally made it down to the main trail. There we took a break and had a good snack as we needed a bit more energy to finish the few mile treck to Chamberlain Basin Guard Station. Slightly before dark we made it to the guard station and air strip. There we saw a group of two biologists tagging the wolfs in the area and a camp of two back country piolets in an old cesna. After talking with both groups briefly we made our way to our camp site and set up for the night.
Day 6
From Chamberlain Basin we headed in a southern direction twards Big Creek. We found our trail and began to work our way over Moose Meadows Point. This area deep in the Frank Church is mostly rolling mountains covered with forests, thus the meadows in the dense forest stick out.
After making it over Moose Meadows Point and to the meadows beyond it we ate a late lunch. From there we had a few more hours until dark and contiuned on. According to the map the next nice place was Club Meadows about 3-4 miles away. This seemed doable and we ended up on an extreamly nice trial that has been recentally redone though the forest. The disavantage of this nice trail is it had been completely rerouted from what we had on the map. So after walking far longer and it gettnig dark we found the four way trail junction that let us know where we were.
The trail had been rerouted to stay up on the ridge line and never droped down into Club Meadows. We ended up walking around Club Meadows and made it to a trail head another few miles on the back side of the meadows. We were tired and I had been walking on a sore foot for about half the day now and was ready to find camp. We headed down into Silver Creek from the ridges and by some strange act of luck found this wonderful camp site slightly off the trail in the pitch black.
Day 7
The next day we took our time getting moving. After the extra long hike the day before and the fact my foot was still sore we decided not to push it. It turned out that I had a slight sprain in my left ankel, which I assumed came from walking down three-blaze trail. The sprain slowed me down slightly but wasn't so bad that I couldn't go on, it was just slightly painful each step for the rest of the trip.
While we rested our tired body, I took a slight hike back up to the trail junction above us to get a look around. This hike was nice as it gave me time to walk out the sprain before I put my full pack on. From the top I was able to see all the forested hills and feel that I was deep in the Frank Church. The trail junction had no markings and from here it was a long walk to anything that would of resemble civilization.
From our camp on Silver Creek we worked our way down to Big Creek. The trip was mostly downhill except for a small ridge we walked up and over to save our selves some distance. We made it down twoards Big Creek fairly smoothly and only at the end did we miss the trail and were halfway up another hill before we realized we had gone the wrong way. After correcting this slight misdirection we made it to Big Creek and set up camp.
Day 8
Big Creek could easially becalled small river. This grand creek was like another fork of the Samlon in both size and climet. By now the smoke from the summer fires had filled up all the vallies and we weren't forntante enough for another rain storm to clear it up. Day eight consisted of a long 20 mile walk down Big Creek in a hot and smokey summer day.
The walk down Big Creek was long and steady, but we covered lots of ground and got to see lots of area. We got to check out the cave at Cave Creek and really enjoyed how the valley widened out at Cabin Creek. Though the area at Cabin Creek it was like we were in the movie 'A River Runs Though It.' It was just sureal and peaceful as we saw a lone fly fisherman on the creek testing his luck.
From cabin creek we made it Tailor Ranch, A Unviersity of Idaho research station. After a long day we made it to Big Creek Gorge, a deep caynon right near the mouth of the creek before it emptied into the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Right on the otherside of the Middle Fork, slightly up Water Fall creek we found a great camp that John had told us about before we left on the trip.
Day 9
This was going to be our final climb, from Waterfall Creek to Barking Fox Lake on the back side of the Bighorn Crags was 14 miles or so up hill. By this time in the trip we were low on supplies and food and just worn out from multiple 20 mile days. We just set out on a slow and steady pace and worked our way out of the Middle Fork up into the Bighorns.
After a full day of hiking we make it to Barking Fox Lake where John and Derek were waiting for us. They had arived at camp a few hours before and already set it up. Alas most of our trip was over and we felt like worn out champions after crossing the majority of the Frank Church. We set up camp and spent the rest of the eving eating fresh food that John was nice to bring us.
Day 10
And on the tenth day we rested. We spent the whole day at Barking Fox Lake and the Terrace Lakes slightly above us. A storm had blown in the night before but the day was nice and peaceful as we fished and relaxed and just enjoyed the fact we didn't have to carry our packs. After a full day of rest and relaxation we ate another good meal and then didn't wake up until the next morning.
Day 11
The rains had moved in on us and we woke up wet from the night before. Though our orginial plan was to stay in the Bighorns another day we decided that it would be best to get out a day early and head back to our other life, which by now seemed only a distant memory.
After spending most the morning and early part of the afternoon waiting to see if the weather would clear up we discovered it wouldn't and packed up and headed the last 14 miles to the Crags Campground. Luckly for this last part of the trip the two horses Red and Bo were nice enough to cary our luggage and we were able to spend the day walking with just a day pack on. After one last full days hike we made it to the Crags Campground and headed back to Salmon. After a long trip in the mountains our hike was over and will now be a memory to charish for the rest of our lives.
