Idaho Backcountry Adventure
Fish Lake, Moose Creek, Indian Creek, Soldier’s Bar, Upper Loon, Cabin Creek, Flying B – destinations in the Idaho Selway/Bitterroot and Frank Church River of No Return wilderness areas that are accessible only by small airplane. One sunny spring day, my flying mentor, Stan, and I decided to land at as many as possible in one day. We packed a picnic lunch and launched in the old Sedan, pointing its nose west and climbing up Lost Horse Canyon.
Our first destination was at the northern limit of the Bitterroot/Selway wilderness, a rocky basin containing Fish Lake. The lake had a nasty reputation for eating airplanes flown by pilots who didn’t respect wind, heat, sinking air over the lake, moose on the runway and tall trees in the vicinity. At least five small planes, including another Sedan, had crashed into the water, killing a number of people on board. My heart was in my mouth as we circled the landing strip, checking out the situation. Stan gave me last-minute instructions, and we dropped down to landing pattern altitude. Once we turned on final approach, we were committed to a landing because of the high, snow-crowned cliffs at the other end of the airstrip. Fortunately, as we glided across the sun-sparkled lake, no moose stepped out of the willows into our path. We touched down gently and taxied to the upper end of the airstrip to park.
We took a short stroll, swatting at pesky mosquitoes swarming out of the bog just south of the runway, then decided to head to the next stop before the wind changed and the temperature rose enough to degrade the Sedan’s performance. The turf was slightly soft, and the Sedan was reluctant to get rolling fast enough to lift off. Just as we reached the end of the runway, at the edge of the lake, the mud released her wheels, and she decided to soar. Our climb rate was miserable. We hugged the shoreline, circling to gain enough altitude to clear the 100-foot spruce trees at the other end of the lake. The Sedan came through for us, and we were safely headed south.
We skipped Moose Creek, as we had been there a number of times before, and flew on to Shearer, another challenging airstrip. We checked out the runway, making sure that a herd of elk hadn’t chosen that spot for a mid-morning siesta, and set up for landing. The approach required us to fly upriver on the Selway, descending to land in the blind, following the curves of the river until at the last second we swerved right through a gap in the trees and dropped to the runway. The Sedan slowed down on the grass, and we had to add power to taxi up the little rise on the south end of the runway to park. We shut down the engine. The only sounds were the ticking of cooling metal, the wind sighing in the pine trees, and the Selway River gurgling over rocks. We had no time to linger, though, and soon swooped back through the gap in the trees, turned downstream to gain altitude, and made a one-eighty at the next wide spot to fly south across the divide to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.
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