Blog Entry 3, 2010

6/17/10

Segment 8, Bannock Pass to Lemhi Pass: Beaverhead Mountains.

Word was that the Trail ahead would be impassable because of the unusually late, heavy snow. We spent an entire day looking at Trailheads, and ended up choosing to skip segments 6 & 7, and hike Segment 8, this in spite of the advice of the Forest Service staff in Leadore, ID.

Mike Strang found another Trail Angel for us, Mike Hall of Lima, who with a friend of his, George, followed us to the beginning access point at Bannock Pass and drove Big Yuke to the end of the segment at Lemhi Pass. We hiked a little more than 8 miles the first day. The snow was deep and difficult much of the time, but we did find a decent camp site for the night.

Towards the end of the second day, it became obvious that we were NOT going to find a place to set up the tents, for we were in deep snow with no prospect of any clear space until close to the Trailhead. Pem found us an escape route down Peterson Creek, and we camped just below the snow near the creek. We had hiked 9.5 miles, but we were off the Trail with no intention of trying to continue.

On the third day, we awoke to about five inches of new snow. Our tents were covered, and we had to struggle to get up, get the wet tents packed, and go on down the creek. We had the good fortune to be on the correct side of the creek when we suddenly came to an abandoned road. We trudged on through the snow into wet grass and on into the mud of melting show on a dirt road that took us down towards the highway between Leadore and Salmon.

After about 8 miles of hiking, I came up to where Pem and Roderick had stopped to wait for me. They had their tents laid out to dry in the sun. We visited briefly and decided we’d try to hitchhike into Salmon that day and figure out how to get the Yukon the next day. I hiked on while my partners packed up again.

I stopped at the very first house I came to, thinking I’d ask to make a phone call to try to figure out if there was a way to get a ride without hitchhiking. What a surprise awaited me there! The woman who came to the door was polite and pleasant, and after visiting with me for a few minutes suddenly said, “I think I’ll just take you up Lemhi Pass and save you a lot of hassle.” (words to that effect anyway) She called her husband, a seasonal forest ranger, who had just arrived at Lemhi Pass and verified that Big Yuke was parked there! (He later stated that if his wife had called a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later, he would have been out of cell phone range.)

When we got to Lemhi Pass, it had not occurred to me that this gracious woman and I had not exchanged names, and I had, indeed, slept much of the time as she drove. When I got out of the truck she had used to get us there, her husband came over to me, shook hands, and said, “Hi, I’m Shane Matson.”

So, that’s how we met our new best friends, true Trail Angels into the bargain, Shane and Julia Matson. We were fortunate to be able to share a pizza party with them and their family a few nights later in Salmon.