The Lost Rivers: July 22nd, 2016

West Fork of the Pahsimeroi

This was one of the greatest backpacking trips that I have ever had, it's going to be really hard to beat this one. I'm not sure how many people actually backpack through the Lost Rivers, the only ones that I have ever heard of are a few boy scout groups who do it over 4 to 6 days and get resupplied at a number of sites.

My idea of the trip was to go ultralight and extremely fast to cover a lot of ground. I wanted to stay at a few lakes and do a little bit of fishing along the way, depending on how well I was doing on the trip.

I started at the Southeast side of the Lost Rivers at the Trailhead that's adjacent to the Loristica campground and headed up the Wet Creek drainage to Nolan Lake. All of this hiking was pretty straight forward, the only downside was that there wasn't a trail. Once I reached Nolan Lake I went over the top and into the Long Lost Valley, that's filled with unbelievable waterfalls and pillars.

My original plan was to stay the first night at Swauger Lake but I had made such great time that I continued on down to Dry Creek. After resting and fishing for a bit at Swauger Lake I found a great place to stay the night in Dry Creek, allowing me a great head start on the next day, most likely the hardest day. From Dry Creek basin I dropped down into the East Fork of the Pahsimeroi. Instead of hiking around the mountains that separate the East Fork from the Right Fork I just climbed up and over to get to Pass Lake, where I stayed the final night.

Dry Creek Basin

The first day, from Loristica to Dry Creek basin, I traveled roughly 13 miles with 5,000ft of vertical as well as climbing over two passes at 11,000 feet and 10,000 feet. The second day consisted of the very same thing, going from Dry Creek basin to Pass Lake; 10 miles, 5,000 feet of vertical and two passes topping out at 10,000 feet. The third and final day was a pretty easy 6-mile walk from Pass Lake over Leatherman Pass (10,500ft) and down to Highway 93. The total trip mileage  was roughly 30 miles with 12,000 feet of vertical.

I've thought about this trip many times and I think about why it was so incredible. What it comes down to was a number of miles that I was able to do and the number of things that I was able to see in such a short period of time as well as the great fishing and lack of people that I saw, when it comes down to it I believe I saw more Bighorn Sheep then people.

Alpine Creek Lakes: July 16th, 2016

Alpine Creek Lake #13

Alpine Creek Lake #14

Alpine Creek Lake #14

I have been to quite a few places in the Sawtooths and every time I go I fall even more in love with them. The rugged beauty of the mountains and the abundance of lakes as well as the absence of people depending on where you go.

Arctic Grayling Honey Hole

This was one of those last minute trips that seemed to work out pretty well. I have been wanting to check out the Alpine Creek Lakes drainage since I saw a picture of them in Backpacker Magazine a few years ago. What I have read on them was that not many people go to them since they don't have a well-maintained trail to them, unlike the rest of the Sawtooths.

Alpine Creek Lakes drainage is split into two different drainages, left and right. We decided on the right drainage for the time being. Looking at the right drainage from a distance there are 4 prominent lakes; Alpine Creek Lake #14,  #15, #13 and #11. But as you look closer the whole drainage is peppered with smaller lakes/ponds making the lake count up into the 20s. Idaho Fish and Game have stocked many of these lakes in the past 10-15 years with Golden, Rainbow, Cutthroat and Arctic Grayling. However, we only came across Arctic Grayling and a few Rainbow/Cutthroat Hybrids.

Flytrip Drainage

Left Drainage of Alpine Creek Lakes

We just did an overnight trip since we had to work the following day but we were able to hit 15 lakes, catch numerous Grayling ranging from 10 to 14 inches from the lakes as well as the streams and eventually peaking out to some amazing views of Sawtooths with lakes scattered everywhere. Even with a handful of backpacking and overnight trips into the Sawtooths, I feel like I have only scratched the surface.

Airplane to Arrowhead: July 2nd, 2016

Old Hyndman (Left), Hyndman Peak (Right)

I do a lot of crazy things in life and this is one of those crazy things. When I told my friend that I wanted to hit Airplane and Arrowhead in one day she asked me why would I want to kill myself. In this case, it wasn't anything near that but it just seemed like that on paper.

Old Hyndman Peak

Arrowhead Lake

Getting to Airplane is one of the hardest and most remote places to get to. Many people get lost trying to find it and the same thing with Arrowhead. Both are very hard lakes to navigate because of the steep area, rugged terrain and only about two miles of trail that really only helps you get up the valley. Airplane and Arrowhead lakes probably receive at the most ten people a year. The lake is not really well known and the risks do not outweigh the rewards at this point because the fishing at Airplane is really not that great, you are lucky if you might see any fish. However I'm very determined to catch a really nice Golden Trout, I caught a 16-17 inch fish last year just as the ice was coming off. On this trip, I was probably two weeks too early. When I got to Airplane it was too frozen and there weren't many places to fish. But the place that I did fish I was able to see a couple of Goldens around 12 inches. 

Airplane Lake

Airplane Lake

Instead of waiting at Airplane to catch a fish I headed over the ridge above Airplane to see if Arrowhead was frozen and if that was the case I was going to climb Hyndman Peak (12,009ft). When I got to the ridge I saw that Arrowhead lake was not frozen so the fishing was on. When I got to Arrowhead there were fish everywhere, so I threw on a black ant and slayed the fish. This was a really fun trip and it wasn't as hard as many seem to be so I would definitely do it again hoping to catch fish out of both lakes. Oh, on the way out I finally saw a mountain goat in Wildhorse after many years of looking for them.

Mountain Goat in Wildhorse Creek, Good Luck Finding Him

White Clouds, Champion Lakes: June 25th, 2016

Champion Lakes Drainage

As soon as I completed all the lakes in the Lost River Ranger District I focused my attention on completing all the lakes in the White Clouds. I have a ways to go but I have a really good head start since I have done a few of the major ones such as the Big Boulder Chain, Little Boulder Chain, and Chamberlain Basin. After looking over the map there are quite a few lakes that sit in certain drainages alone so it's not easy to lump them in a loop or with other lakes, Champion Lakes are one of those drainages.

Champion Lake #3

Lots of Redside Shiners

Champion Creek holds about 6 different lakes but three of the lakes are much bigger than the others and of those lakes two of them have been stocked with fish. Champion Lake #3 is said to have Bull trout (108 stocked in 1993) and IDFG have found Brook and Rainbow trout but I never saw any fish. As I worked my way down the drainage I came across Champion which has not been stocked but IDFG has found Brook trout in the lake system however I did not observe any.

Redside Shiner

Champion Lake #1

I was pretty disappointed in the lack of fish at this point and was wondering if I should even continue to the last lake. Champion Lake #1 has no stocking records and no fish have been observed but when I got to the lake, there was tons of minnows swimming around the lake and a handful of Brook trout. I literally thought that they just stocked the lake just a few day before I got there because there was so many fish. I tried to identify what they were but couldn't until I caught one of the bigger ones. It turned out to be a Redside Shiner which is really uncommon to find in a high mountain lake. I believe if IDFG would manage this lake better some huge fish could come out of this lake because Redside Shiners only get to about 4 to 6 inches and trout can feed on these fish easily. Just food for thought, your move IDFG.

Langer Lakes: June 18th, 2016

I was hoping to hit some new lakes this summer and I wanted to start out with Langer Lakes. I heard about these lakes last year when one of the lakes were producing some decent size fish, pushing 20 inches. So when I got a free weekend I hit the road and wandered up to Stanley.

Langer Lake

Ruffneck Lake

Langer Lakes is actually a really short hike but with all the lakes in the surrounding area, I thought I would stay the night at Langer Lake and hike around to the others. I believe on Fish and Games Website they stated that all the lakes have been stocked and they continue to stock them however I found this not to be true. Out of Langer, Ruffneck, Island and Rocky Lake, only Langer and Ruffneck Lake held fish and both of them were tough fishing.

Ruffneck Lake

Island Lake

Langer lake held true to its reputation of having big fish, the first fish that I had on was probably 18 inches but he broke me off before I could land him. Ruffneck lake contained more fish but still wasn't up to par with my usual high mountain lake standards. Out of all the lakes that I was most disappointed in was Rocky, Rocky lake is supposed to have a lot of cutthroats but when I went to the lake and looked around the Southeast side of the lake no fish were seen and none were jumping. I would probably do this hike again in the future however I would go up to the Ruffneck Lookout that's only 1 to 2 miles away.

Island Lake

Ruffneck Lake

Langer Lake

Rocky Lake

Swauger Lake: June 4th, 2016

Upper Swauger Lake

Since spring is here and the skiing is over its time to hang up the skis and dust off the fly rod. I like Swuager Lake because it's the first lake that you can get to in the spring and it's a great cutthroat fishery. Even though this lake is trophy regulated lake meaning you can only keep two fish over 20 inches, which hasn't been done for a number of years. The forest service has tried extremely hard to change this and turn it back around so that is will produce big fish again like it did in the 90s. The last few years they have stopped stocking cutthroat in the lake because they don't live long enough to reach 20 inches. Instead, they have started stocking California Goldens in hopes that the lake will produce a 20-inch fish. In 2013 they stocked 1,700 goldens and in 2014 2,100. The last time they stocked cutthroat was 2011 and when Shayne, Justin and I went up there I didn't think we would find a single cutthroat, I was wrong. We caught high numbers of cutthroat and didn't see one single golden. The fishing was great and it always seems to be but it will be interesting in the next two years to see if any goldens will show up or if the cutthroat will live a few more years with less fish in the lake system. I will defiantly be back next spring, excited to see what I will find.

Here is a video that I shot of the fish in the lake a few years ago.

Spring Skiing

The Pioneers

The whole reason I got into Skiing was to tour in the backcountry. The places that I go and work in the summer I wanted to see in the winter. I also wanted to pick up another hobby in the winter because all I did was fish which was good but sometimes you need a break. 

Wildhorse Lookout

Lost River Peak

So when I got my skis in the fall I started looking for places to go for the winter or places in the spring that would possibly have good snow and that were easily accessible to get to. With that being said I found a few spots. In the winter, on my days off I came home and skinned up to Wildhorse Lookout which offers some amazing views of the Pioneers in the winter. It was only an hour drive from my house however it was a long tour and I wasn't able to ski the line down that I wanted due to unstable snow pack.

Lost River Valley

Waiting on Jack

This spring I tried a number of locations and had great success. After my month long road trip, Jack and I tried skiing Lost River Peak which is a 12,000ft mountain. After hiking for about 4 or 5 hours we called it good since the weather went to crap and we were too exhausted to make it to the top in a reasonable time. But the ski down was really good with some great snow, about three inches of fresh snow.

Mt McCaleb

Mt McCaleb from the Saddle

Justin and I were able to climb Mt McCaleb on one of the hottest days this spring but since we had great weather we just took our time and eventually made it to the top. The snow pack was so great there was no doubt in my mind that avalanches were an issue and we could ski about anything that we looked at but we settled for the long route that we climbed up. The skiing at the top was really great but once you got lower the snow was pretty cooked and wasn't too great to ski.

Mt McCaleb

The Lost Rivers

Top of Mt McCaleb 11,682ft

The Lost Rivers

Big Black Dome 11,353ft

Skiing Big Black Dome was one of my favorites to do because of the easy approach and long steep line. I will definitely do this one again in the future and maybe even find a few lines of the back side dropping into Left Fork of Fall Creek.

I really wanted to ski every month this year but it turned really hot in June unless I skied on some really ugly stuff. The last ride of the year was Redbird Mountain in the White Knob Mountains and it was also my steepest line for sure. I'm not sure if I would do this one again unless I had better access to it. There's an ATV trail leading up to the mountain, however, this year there was too much snow on it and I wasn't able to get very close. There were a few mountains that I wasn't able to get to this year but I really want to hit them next year when I have more experience in Avalanches and more confidence in skiing.

Redbird Mountain 11,273ft