Hello again, I realize it has been over a month since I last wrote. I was afraid that starting a blog would be difficult for this reason...
Where to begin? From the beginning, I guess. So last I wrote, we were packing to go out and test gear before floating the river on June 1st. We did go out, and a variety of things happened. We ran into snow, more than we expected and sooner. The road we took to get us into the wilderness was blown out. Our trucks transmission boiled over and began spewing fluid long before the pass we were attempting to get over. And my body decided that it would be a good time to not work so well, in the form of joint related difficulties. So, once back home and packing for the river trip, we made a new plan.
We would float the Middle Fork of the Salmon River as planned, but instead of Isaac and I getting dropped off to hike into the wilderness a few days later, Isaac and his brother Gabe would be dropped off, and I would continue on down the river to fly out a few miles farther down on the mail plane, back to McCall where I would spend a couple weeks trying to figure out health issues.
To make a long story short, all went smoothly. The river was great: big, frothy, and exciting, Isaac and Gabe got dropped off at Cougar Creek to hike eight miles basically straight up with extremely heavy packs, filled with camera gear and food for two weeks, and I got dropped off at The Flying B ranch, a bit farther downstream to fly out on the mail plane the next morning.
But that was all over a month ago now... time flies. Gabe had to be back in town to begin summer work on June 15, so basically it was a changing of the guards. I had been feeling really good, and felt ready to brave the Idaho hills by the time they returned to civilization, and after a few days of re-packing, re-supplying, and re-configuring, we were off again.
For those of you who want to check out a map, we have been hanging out in the area of Loon Creek, Little Loon Creek, and Castle Fork Creek, and here are some names of places we hiked around to: Cougar Point, the Fur Farm, Blue Lake, Loon Creek Lookout, Falconberry Ranch, Indian Springs. This is in the Southwest portion of the River of No Return Wilderness.
We are writing now from Stanley, a tiny town in central Idaho where we have come out to check in and re-supply. Things are going well, although we are definitely getting a bit of a reality check. It is just plain difficult to get very far in this wilderness, on foot, hauling film gear. On the map, our mileage looks downright meager, but in reality, our legs are telling us they have been long and hard-fought miles. The mountains here are steep. There is no such thing as flat ground. And the gear is HEAVY.
The reality of spending a full year, completely submersed in the wilderness with nothing more than a few re-supplies is fading. It would be one thing if we were just backpacking around. But when you add the filming aspect, not just hauling gear, but charging giant energy-hungry batteries, downloading footage onto hard drives, collecting sound, and keeping ourselves healthy and happy, it all becomes a little unrealistic.
This last stint, we hiked in with all the gear we could carry (which wasn't everything), covered as much ground as we could (which was a lot, but mostly without camera gear) and saw everything we could (which ended up being a lot of fun). So, as I said before, the plan is every changing. We will do our best to follow our original plan, but we are trying to also be flexible and smart.
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