Bluebird Day: The Lochsa Historic Station

I just returned from a week at the Lochsa Historic Station in Idaho. We were doing different types of training, including cross cut saw certification and defensive horsemanship.

It would take days for me to write all of the details of the wonderful week, but one of the many highlights was having a dinner with the Selway Bitterroot Frank Church Foundation board members. The board is comprised of retired wilderness rangers (with the Forest Service), professors, ranchers, journalists, etc. and it was an incredible opportunity to be able to talk with them. We (the interns) were excited to meet to board members and we were truly touched by how excited, friendly, and encouraging they were!

Defensive horsemanship was a great one day training that we had with several horse packers from the area. Horse packing is a traditional skill used to help lighten backpackers' loads. The main horsepacker that was teaching us is extremely well respected and experienced, and joked that he had been horsepacking for 70+ years (because he joked that he was packed in when he was a baby!). Horses wear a special type of saddle that holds one wooden box on each side. The boxes are packed with food and supplies, and are wrapped in canvas, tied with rope, and secured onto the horse or mule. Typically the horse packer rides a horse that leads several loaded mules along the trail. The horse packers were so kind and explained to us that horse packing is becoming something of a lost art, because people who used to horse pack are aging. This summer I'll also be working with a cross cut saw, which is another traditional skill. One of the goals of the internship is to educate the younger generation on these traditional skills.

We also had two days off during our time along the Lochsa. On the first day off, we visited two different hot springs, which were absolutely incredible. The first hot springs that we visited is called the Weir, and we had actually been working on creating a new trail to the hot springs during National Trails Day the day before! It was so relaxing to soak in the warm water, and when we got too hot, we could just wander down to the creek and dip ourselves into the frigid water, then run back to the warmth! The second hot springs we visited was further down the road. It actually started raining (and then hailing slightly) while we soaked, and it felt incredible to have cool drops of water hitting my shoulders while my legs were in a hot-tub temperature natural spring!

On the second day off we went rafting on the mighty Lochsa River. This rafting trip was SO much fun, and included some class 3 and 4 rapids with names like "The Grim Reaper" and "Hospital Hole". Our raft only tipped once, during a rapid called "Termination". It was pretty scary to be under water in a rapid, but we all made it out okay and managed to get the raft to shore. After resting a bit and returning to good spirits (everyone was okay and the only losses for the day included several paddles, sunglasses, a shoe, and a few harmless scratches), we jokingly called ourselves the "Lochsa Swim Team" and finished the remaining rapids. What a fabulous bonding experience!

Well, I'll write more later!