The Bighorn Crags

I spent the past week off-the-grid backpacking in central Idaho. The area has several names including the Bighorn Crags, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, and the Salmon-Challis National Forest. A crag is a steep rugged mass of rock projecting upward. Frank Church was a senator from Idaho who was instrumental in the creation of the wilderness area.

As usual, all of the planning for this trip was done by my dad. Having never been to the area he planned our route with the help of Margaret Fuller's book titled Trails of the Frank Church: River of No Return Wilderness, even going so far as to contact her with the help of her daughter who happens to live somewhere in the Tri-Cities. He also got information from Don Evans who posted a trail report to one of the lakes we would visit on the web.

I drove back to Richland after work on Thursday so that I could have lunch with my grandma. Turned out my uncle and his boyfriend were also in town so the four of us went to Anthony's at Columbia Point. A few hours later I arrived at my dad's house, ate dinner, and spent the night.

DAY 0: I woke up at around 6 AM and we were on the road at 6:30 AM. About nine hours later we were in Challis, Idaho where we met my dad's friend Don and bought fishing licenses. We ate our "last supper" at the Challis Village Inn Restaurant, loaded our gear into Don's pickup and headed off to the trailhead. It was approximately 50 miles from Challis on rough road so it took more than 2 hours for us to reach the Crags Campground. We slept there, opting not to pitch our tents because there was no threat of rain.

DAY 1: After repacking our sleeping gear and filling our water bottles we hit the trail at about 8:30 AM, our destination: Welcome Lake. Much to my chagrin, my pack weighed in at 52 pounds (about 8 pounds heavier than I'd ever carried before) due to the food and fuel required for a full week. We arrived there sometime before noon after hiking roughly 7 miles from the campground. We set up camp and tried fishing but Welcome Lake was clearly overfished as one of the most common destinations for all who come to this area. Mosquitoes were terrible here so after eating dinner we all retreated to our tents. Before trying to sleep I spent 20 minutes squishing all of the mosquitoes that had followed me in.

DAY 2: We left Welcome Lake for Reflection Lake and were fortunate that the trail climbing out was on the shady side of the mountain since it hadn't cooled off much over night. We hiked 5 miles and set up camp on the northeast of Reflection Lake. Don and I spent most of the day fishing Reflection while my dad ventured off to check out Echo lake. He returned to report great fishing there and was surprised to find that Don and I were struggling to catch anything big enough to keep. I also lost my only #2 Mepps lure in a log at the south end of the lake. But we still managed enough for our first trout dinner.

DAY 3: This was the only day in which we did not move camp. We bushwacked our way up to Echo and Turquoise Lakes since there are no established trails. Neither was difficult to reach considering we only had daypacks. Fishing at Echo and Turquoise was indeed great and would turn out to the be the best of all of the lakes we visited. Most of the fish we caught were fat and in the 12" range. We returned to camp at Reflection with all the trout we needed for dinner. My dad and Don then went off to check out Twin Cove Lake. I decided to go back to the south end of Reflection and wade out in chest deep water to retrieve my lure and wash off three days worth of stink in the process.

DAY 4: We packed up and backtracked 1.3 miles on the trail we had taken from Welcome Lake. There we bushwacked our way 0.5 miles to Skyhigh Lake. We set up our tents at the north end of the lake since that was going to be the next day's starting point. All three of us then fished Skyhigh with varying degrees of success. Foul weather that included heavy (but brief) rain and gusty winds made it a challenge. As usual, my dad found the sweet spot on the lake and caught good sized trout on 10 consecutive casts. Most were released since we already had kept enough for our third trout dinner. Cooking the fish also proved challenging due to the wind but my dad pulled it off.

DAY 5: We broke camp and climbed about 300 feet over a saddle and then dropped about 600 feet over 1 mile until we reached Barking Fox Lake. I tried a few casts there and caught two fish before losing my #2 Mepps lure for good on a cast caught by the wind. We continued on for another 1 mile reaching the Terrace Lakes. We set up camp at the second of the four lakes we encountered. By then it was getting colder and the wind more fierce. We spent the next few hours catching enough fish for dinner (including a 15" whopper that my dad caught and few that were gold, possibly rainbow/cutthroat hybrids), eventually returning to our tents to take shelter. Unfortunately the weather never calmed down that night so we were forced to bury the fish and eat one of our freeze dried meals instead. Don had a watch with a thermometer and it read 37° F when we retired to our tents for the night. I was wearing nearly every piece of clothing I had brought with me.

DAY 6: I awoke to find the window on my tent frosted over. When I emerged I saw that the entire northfacing side was also frosted. Don's watch said the temperature had fallen to 24° F but fortunately the wind had stopped blowing. I rolled up my icy tent and we departed the Terrace Lakes for Cathedral Lake, our final stop before departing the wilderness. Our route would cover 7.9 miles, passing by Heart Lake and connect up with the trail we first came in on near Welcome Lake. We dropped about 600 feet from the main trail and chose a campsite on the north side of Cathedral Lake. Our later arrival at this lake (due to the longer distance we traveled) meant we needed to start fishing as soon as possible. By this time I was running on empty and only managed to catch three fish, two of which I released because they were sardines. The one I kept was marginal but I had hooked it through the eye so it was a keeper. As usual my dad compensated for Don and myself so we could enjoy our fourth and final trout dinner.

DAY 7: We woke up at 6:30 AM and started packing. Unfortunately, it took more time for me to get ready because I had to tape up my heels to prevent blistering (which actually worked great using white athletic tape—my first backpacking trip without blisters, yay!). My dad and Don were both ready before I had my tent down so they headed up the trail. I followed about 5 minutes later but I had burned a lot of energy on the rush pack job and didn't get a chance to eat or drink anything. Needless to say, this day sucked for me but 4.2 miles later we were back at the trailhead. Don drove the rough road back to Challis and had another hamburger before parting ways. My dad and I arrived back at his house in Richland at 9 PM.

If you do the math I think we hiked about 30 miles with 7,000 feet of elevation change. I enjoyed this hike but it was probably a day or two too long for me. It is nice to be completely cut off from the unnatural world we all live in. Not getting any blisters on my feet was really nice (in addition to the tape, I used a pair of gel heel cups my dad gave me). My separated shoulder didn't cause me any problems other than difficulty sleeping that I have even when sleeping in a bed.