24. May 2009 by Rob Adams.

Bull Trout Lake, Stanley Basin
Latitude: 44.2988 Longitude: -115.2532
Elevation: 6955 ft (2120 m)

Squaw Butte and High Desert chapters of Backcountry Horseman of Idaho will be spending the 4th of July weekend in the Stanley basin camping at the trail head near the Bull Trout Lake camp ground. Directions from Emmett are posted on the SBBCH website or at http://www.sbbchidaho.org/Directions_toBull_Trout_Lake.pdf. Pictures from previous trips are at http://picasaweb.google.com/sbbchidaho2007/BullTroutLake#

The chapters will be camping in the meadow near the trail heads on the south side of the access road. Horse water is near, and it is a short walk to the FS bathroom and a fresh water hand pump. This is a no fee area of the campground. Members will start arriving either Thursday night or Friday morning. Friday is get your camp set up and fun ride or fishing day. There are a number of trails that are available from Bull Trout Lake. On Saturday for those members interested a work party will be formed to work on removing down fall from the Gates Creek Trail [148]. For members not interested in the work party, a ride on the Pass Creek trail [148] towards the Cats lakes by Red Mountain or Dead Man Creek [147] is an option.

Map of Bull Trout Lake trails:  http://sbbchidaho.org/pdf/bull_trout_lake_trails.jpg

Meals:Breakfasts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be communal with members providing fixing like eggs, juice, melon etc. Dinners will be pot luck on Friday and Saturday night. Members should plan on providing one dish for one of the two dinners. Lunches are up to the members to provide for themselves.

Stock: There are good locations for setting up portable corrals as well as high lines. There is good access to water for you stock on the north side of the meadow. The trails in this area have some small bridge crossing. It is a good place to do bridge 101 if your stock has little experience with bridges.

On Sunday for members interested and assuming the trails are open for use (snow above 8,000 feet) an optional ride out of the Iron Creek Trail head to Sawtooth Lake is possible before making the drive home. http://sbbchidaho.org/pdf/Iron Creek Area.pdf  The trail to Sawtooth Lake is full of spectacular mountain scenery and is one of the most popular in the SRA. Bring your camera.

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3. May 2009 by Ellen Knapp.

I welcome all our new SBBCH members and say welcome back to all of our returning SBBCH members. We have a full schedule of events, activities and work weekends lined up for 2009.

We need all of our members to participate so we can achieve all of our commitments. While we do have fun rides, the core purpose of our organization is service. We work to maintain access to trails and trail heads. But we are a volunteer organization; we don’t kill ourselves in pursuit of this work. And we have lots of fun and fabulous food while performing the work.

Food is a core value of our chapter and figures prominently in our work weekends. We make work a social event. Work weekends are a great way to get to know the various SBBCH folks. Our monthly meetings are filled with lots of information, but are not a great way to get to know SBBCH and its members.

So just what are the work weekends like and what are they NOT like?

Work weekends are NOT marathon work events. We hit the saddle Saturday after a very filling communal breakfast. We stop for lunch. We try to be back in camp about 4:30 in the afternoon. Sunday is usually a fun ride in the same general area.

Everyone is NOT required to have pack stock. We usually have a few tools, a couple of chainsaws, and fuel to pack along and only need a few animals to tote it. Everyone does NOT need to run the chainsaws. There is plenty to do lopping out the overgrowth, removing cut logs, and holding horses. If you have a bad back, bad hips, bad knees, or bad whatever, stay in the saddle. But do come and ride with us.

The trails are NOT for ONLY experienced horses and riders. Most trails are suitable for novice horses and riders and riding the trails with the SBBCH folks will increase you and you mount’s experience and confidence.

SBBCH folks observe trail etiquette guidelines. We ensure every one is in the saddle before moving off, we wait to make sure everyone has crossed the bridge or water, we keep tabs on the slower riders and wait for them to catch up.

SBBCH DOES try to make it easy for our members to attend the work weekends. SBBCH provides the certified hay. Trail head directions are available on our web site. Trailer sharing and trailer caravanning is available. SBBCH members are willing to help others learn to camp with their horses and often have excess equipment, like a highline, to lend. SBBCH sets up a communal kitchen, Saturday and Sunday breakfast is communal and Saturday dinner is pot luck.

I look forward to seeing familiar faces and new faces this year at our rides, events and work weekends. I look forward to getting to know each of you better.

Posted in Around the Campfire, Horse Camping, Work Parties | Print | No Comments »