I was at D&B the other day and a U of fence panels with a arched roof caught my eye. The roof was called a corral shelter and covered a 12 x 12 space, they were storing pellet stove fuel in it. The price seemed reasonable and I had seven unused regular panels and a gate panel and got the idea to build a 24 x 24 feeding and shelter area. I purchased two corral shelters and an extra panel to divided the area into two 12 x 12 feeding areas.
I assembled the first shelter frame in place on top of the supporting panels spending a lot of time standing on a ladder, it took me about three hours and was sort of a pain. To build the second one, I contacted Terry MacDonald who came over and we had the second one build and placed on top of the fence in a bit over an hour. 
As only one frame could sit on top of the center fence panel, the other one had to be bolted to the first with some spacers, this approach seems to be working quite well. I needed enough space between the two shelters for the covers.
Side panels are available, but sort of $$ so for this winter I used 12 x 10 plastic tarps.
I have about 8 hours total in putting it together, and hope my stock will enjoy using it when it is raining or snowing this fall/winter. // Rob Adams
After Jefferson County Open Space officials posted signs asking bikers to exercise caution, a vigilante trail user posted more etiquette signs — for everyone. And it was glorious. READ MORE
“Squaw Butte Chapter President Ron Fergie presents $500.00 check to the BCHI Foundation President Bill Holt” says BCHI’s Roving Reporter
Link to more pictures
It is a long way from Mattawan, Michigan to Stanley, Idaho but member Bill Selkirk has made that trek a number of year to work on projects with the Squaw Butte chapter. Life long friend of Rob Adams, Bill joined BCHI in 2004, and has participated in both packing support and trail clearing project. The latest is a pack-in support project for the Wilderness Volunteers.
Central Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Sawtooth Wilderness are known for the rugged grandeur of their soaring 10,000 foot peaks, flowery mountain meadows, crystal clear lakes, towering alpine forests, and abundant wildlife, including elk, mountain goats, black bear, wolves, wolverines and pikas! Backpacking and hiking are spectacular in this country, and trout fishing is exceptional in backcountry lakes and streams. Our journey will begin at the beautiful Stanley Lake – just a few miles outside of the alluring mountain community of Stanley, Idaho. The area has several accessible hot springs, historic sites and other great places to play in and explore.
Our service project will be trail maintenance in the remarkable Sawtooth Wilderness. We’ll set up a base camp at McGown Lakes at 8505’ elevation after a backpack of 7.9 miles with 1,900′ elevation gain with pack support for tools, food and commissary supplies. Crew will camp at McGown Lakes and hike about a mile to project location on other side of 8,800’ pass. Our project will be to assist the Forest Service to complete trail maintenance of many of the trails out of our basecamp at McGown Lakes. Most of the work will be focused on heavy trail maintenance and tread repair (Iron Creek – Stanley Lake Trail 640) above Sawtooth Lake. Tread will need to be regraded to standard width with hand tools, rocks removed with hand tools and some rock wall constructed. Free time can be spent exploring the ever beautiful Sawtooth Wilderness – relaxing, fishing in alpine lakes, taking pictures, or setting off on a more strenuous hike to the secluded Trail Creek Lakes.
We highly recommend that those coming from low elevation (anything below about 5,000 feet) plan an extra couple days in the area before the trip to acclimate to the elevation for your own safety. Altitude sickness is a concern when traveling from low elevation to high elevation and getting acclimatized before the trip is one of the easiest ways to prevent it. If you need ideas on things to do/see before the trip contact your leaders.
Trail Head at Stanley Lake
Elevation: 6,525.59 ft. Lat: 44.255891 Lon: -115.046060
McGown Lake
Elevation: 8,517.06 ft. Lat: 44.178483 Lon: -115.076432
On Saturday August 17, Tom Zahradnicek, David Benson, Bill Selkirk and Rob Adams joined a Wilderness Volunteer seven member crew and Bryce Parker (Sawtooth lead wilderness ranger) at the Stanley Lake overflow area. The WV crew were going to back pack in their personal stuff, while we were packing in tools, kitchen and food. Between us we had seven pack stock and it look like they were going to have light loads. During the night one of David’s mules got her self tangled in high line and lead rope and ended up on her back with her legs tied up like a calf at a rodeo. She seems to have suffered no major damage, but in the morning had a very swollen leg and a nice limp so David and his stock needed to head back to Caldwell and not into the mountains. With five pack stock left, we divided the gear and built loads and by 09:30 were heading up the trail for the 9.8 miles to McGown Lake.
The trail up Stanley creek canyon is a very easy ride for about 2/3 of it length with a number of crossings of the creek for water opportunities for the stock. The last section to the saddle that crosses into the Payette river drainage is a number of switch backs up a steep and rocky wall. At the sign for McGown lake the trail turns into a goat path that climbs over a ridge and down into a basin that contains a number of ponds and small lakes, the largest and most scenic we left the equipment we packed in.
At 5 pm we arrived back at the trailers, tired, sore and very satisfied at the days work. Bill will be heading out soon to visit his brother in New Mexico, but he will have some great memories of his day in the Sawtooth mountain visiting an area he had not ridden before. Link to more pictures
The Bureau of Land Management is accepting comments on the Four Rivers Field Office Draft Resource Management Plan until August 22nd. Once finalized, the RMP will guide the management of 800,000 acres of public land within an 8-million-acre planning area spanning from the Bennett Hills, across the Boise Front, and to the banks of Brownlee Reservoir for at least two decades.
You can submit your own comments here.
Several hundred pages (and even three pages of acronyms) spell out the proposed management each alternative would take, comparing them to the current condition and management directive. Fire management, minerals and energy, wildlife, recreation, grazing, cultural resources, socioeconomics – you name it, it’s evaluated in this plan.
The BLM has set a range of alternatives with varying degrees of resource extraction availability, wildlife protections, and access considerations. Idaho Wildlife Federation urges the BLM to take proactive measures to protect highly productive chukar habitat, pronghorn and mule deer winter range. READ MORE
Aug 2019 – Marybeth Conger
“There is nothing better than having one of your favorite trail friends get that itch!” says Marybeth Conger. Cherokee and Scout are showing us how to get the job done.
Just got home from an amazing backcountry trip. Four great days near the Warm Springs trail head, ID with Bill Conger along with Lynn and Peggy Garner. Our four-legged animals all got along, the weather was absolutely great, we saw some breathtaking backcountry views, and the food/meals got an average 4.5 star rating. All of us had fun even when we cleared trails on two of the riding days. Just need to log our volunteer trail clearing hours since they give the BCH organization leverage in terms of the financial impact they have.
This trip is why I joined the Backcountry organization some 30 years ago. Great riding adventures with friends as we put our mighty muscles to work clearing trails. One difference I did notice between then and now is how I only have so many “get on and offs” before I start groaning!
Pictures & Story by Laurie Bryan
Read the whole story / Link to Pictures
A Better Way to Think About Wildland Fires
911, when Cell phones are not an option
On Wednesday August 7, 2019 Lisa was thrown from her horse while on a pack trip with other BCHI members in the Frog Lake area of the Bolder White Cloud Wilderness. Many of the members on this trip had attended one or more Wilderness First Aid training opportunities and their training kicked it. It was quickly determined that Lisa had suffered a major trauma with possible injury to her head, neck, back and pelvic regions. It was obvious that advance medical treatment was called for and air evacuation was her best option.
Accident > inReach[SOS] > GEOS Response Center > Idaho State Comm’s > Life Flight dispatch > Advanced medical help arrives
