Plans for 2024
Some projects for 2024 will be similar to 2023, while early in the season we’ll be working on a couple new projects. We’ll be starting in early March with our in-kind work commitment on what will be the new equine camp facility adjoining Cascade Campground off Highway 135 between Paradise and St. Regis. The Forest Service refers to it as Iron Mountain due to its proximity to the Iron Mountain Trail. Our in-kind work involves installing a split rail fence between Highway 135 and the campground, installing stock holding pens at several of the campsites and clearing/brushing the trail between the campground and the Iron Mountain Trail. Also new for 2024 will be clearing of the new Falls Flat trail which connects the River Trail (Ferry Landing) to the Iron Mountain Trail at Cascade Campground. This work can start in early March as well (completed 3/15/24). Same as last year we’ll work on our Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) grant which involves clearing the roads up to the Big Hole Lookout trailhead of winter debris (March-April). Due to two new spring projects and our prior RAC commitment we’ve elected to pass on the one-day Adult Packing Clinic we’ve put on the last couple years as well as the Spring Trail Ride. We’ll be having our Poker Ride (May 18th). The first weekend through the second weekend in June 1st-7th we’ll campout at the Big Hole Lookout equine trailhead and clear the trail to Big Hole Lookout and open the lookout for the summer rental season. We’ll put on the YCC Packing Clinic June 14th and the last weekend in June (29th-30th) work on clearing the Cabin Lake – South Fork of Four Lakes trail loop. August 9th – August 12th we plan to complete some maintenance on Big Hole Lookout.
The plan for the June camp out is to head up Friday and stay on site clearing as much trail as the snowpack allows and get the lookout open. Folks are welcome to participate as many days as they can. The chapter buys weed seed free hay for helpers and there will be 200 gallons of water there too. Ideally while clearing trails, we like to have a sawyer, a swamper and a wrangler along. Early in the season (May) we sometimes leave our stock at home and hike the first several miles of a trail then come in with stock our next trip. The map below shows the trails we’ll be clearing.
Of course, we’ll have our monthly meetings, some of which will be outside potlucks at members’ homes (weather permitting). The summer continues with many more projects you can find on the events tab at the top of this page.
2023 Recap:
2023 was an exceptional year for getting things done. In early March we once again put on a one-day adult packing clinic which was well attended. Later in March we got started with work on our Resource Advisory Committee grant involving clearing the roads up to the Big Hole Lookout trailhead of winter debris (March-April). In May many of our members completed 1st Aid/CPR training and we once again held our Poker Ride with over 100 riders attending. The first weekend in June (National Trails Day) we started our campout at the Big Hole Lookout Equine Trailhead and over the course of 8 days with 18 members and 19 head of stock the lookout was opened and all our trail/road clearing commitments accomplished. Later in June we put on a packing clinic for the Plains and Superior YCC crews, installed highline poles at the Big Hole equine trailhead, sprayed weeds from Hwy 200 to the Big Hole trailhead and completed chainsaw recertifications. In August we were asked to install hitching rails at the Sanders County Fairgrounds, and we also completed some maintenance work on Big Hole Lookout. In September we were asked by the Forest Service to pack bridge decking into the new Falls Flat trail and in October we closed down and winterized Big Hole Lookout. Whew!
2022 Recap:
In addition to our normal Challenge Cost Share trail clearing we put on 3 packing clinics (March, April and June). In April we packed 15 tons of fill material for a trail reconstruction project of the River Trail on the Cutoff Hwy (135), put our Poker Ride in May. Also, in May we completed our road clearing and weed spraying RAC funded project. In June we completed some maintenance work on Big Hole Lookout. In July we enjoyed a chapter fun ride and in September packed a MCC crew in and out from their camp near Cube Iron Mountain.
2021 Recapped:
Though participation was down from past years we still managed to draw about 80 riders for our May Poker Ride. In June we started with a campout at the Big Hole Lookout trailhead where we cleared several trails, cleaned and opened the lookout for it’s first year on the cabin rental program. Additional work at the lookout involved packing and installing a new sign and reworking the lookout’s water source. We also held the YCC (Youth Conservation Corps) packing clinic once again, packed in some bridge decking for a project the YCCs were working on. On the Superior District we packed in some post to be installed as waterbars on a trail along the State line and a Malheur Fly Free toilet into Heart Lake.
2020 Recapped:
Like everyone, Covid-19 had us altering plans throughout 2020 starting with having to cancel our annual Poker Ride. We did manage to get all the trails on our Challenge Cost Share agreement and the State BCH RTP grant cleared. Along with the normal trail clearing we also helped out the local district Forest Service trail crew out by doing some packing with our stock to support work being done to improve the Spring Creek trail just west of Plains in the Weeksville drainage. In July we spent three days packing to support work continuing on Big Hole Lookout and where able to utilize the new corrals installed by the Forest Service at the gravel pit we’ve used as an operations base in the past. Additionally, we had time and funds to reimburse folks for doing pretty heavy brushing on some trails that have been in need for years.
Tepee Trail #366 Maintenance and Corridor Clearing Project:
Using a Recreational Trails Program grant in the summers of 2018 and 2019 we partnered with youth groups from the Montana Conservation Corp (MCC) and the Plains/Thompson Falls District Youth Conservation Corp (YCC) to enhancing recreational access to the newly restored Big Hole Peak Lookout. We removed fire killed trees that have fallen into the trail corridor, filling root/stump holes burned out in the trail by two wildfires (2003 & 2016) and retreading portions of Trail #366W back to the original width where it had sluffed. This portion of trail 366W is part of a popular loop trail for hikers, bikers, skiers, snowmobilers and equine users visiting the lookout.
Five thousand dollars of the requested grant funds were used to pay for 10 days (40 hours per crewmember) of a youth crew to complete tread improvements on the trail. The remaining $1098 requested was used to reimburse Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen volunteers for expenses involved over their 15 day commitment for fuel and food, stock, horse trailer and chainsaw usage.
Working with our Youth:
Our chapter takes great pride in interacting with our youth every opporunity we get. From working side by side on projects in the woods, to packing camps and supplies in or out of spike camps, to packing clinics, to educational campouts, to delivering goodies to them as they work in the deep dark woods:-)
May Poker Ride
The club’s poker rides continue to gain momentum. From our modest beings of forty-eight riders in 2013 we’ve hit our cap of 150 riders in 2018 and 2019. The ride features views of Baldy Mtn, the beautiful Shallenberger ranch, great food and lots of prizes.
Whitebark Pine Project:
We’ve been helping out the Forest Service with their Whitebark pine cone collection program by packing out the cones and the cages from the remote sites where Whitebark pine grows. In late June/early July the Forest Service hires contract climbers to cage the developing cones to protect them from squirrels and Clark’s Nutcrackers. Near the end of August the FS and climbers once again return to the site to remove the cages and collect the cones. The cones then go to the nursery where the seeds are extracted, grown into seedlings and available for outplanting.
Chippy Fire:
Since the Chippy Fire burned in 2007 our club has been working with the Plains/Thompson Falls Ranger District to complete noxious weed surveys and keep trails open within the fire perimeter. It has been interesting to observe the varying intensities that the fire burned, gather some Morrell mushrooms to enjoy with our Tri-Tip barbecued roasts and watch the vegetation recover since the fire.
Loneman Divide Trail Work:
The Loneman Divide Trail just a few miles northwest of Plains runs between the Baldy (demolished in 1990) and Big Hole Lookouts and was the club’s first trail clearing/restoration project. After attaining permission to restore the trail from the Forest Service, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Plum Creek Timber Company the club spent a couple summers locating and restoring the trail from Loneman Divide to the Big Hole Lookout (approximately 8 miles). Since that time the club annually clears the trail and works with the Forest Service to improve the trail tread and signing along the way.
Bend Guard Station Campouts and Rides:
The old Bend Guard Station located on the Thompson River of the Plains/Thompson Falls Ranger District, Lolo National Forest is a cabin rental that offers corrals, good camping, grazing, a bunkhouse with sleeping quarters, two showers and large kitchen. Our club has rented the facility several times and has enjoyed great potluck foods, each other’s company and several trail rides, including one to the Murr Canyon Overlook.
Perma Remount Ride:
The Perma area is typically free of snow during the winter and has a rich history of mule and horse breeding history related to the old Forest Service remount station along with abandon homesteads scattered about from the early 1900’s.
Blueweed Project:
The Pleiades Foundation, Citizens for a Weed Free Future (CFWW), Wildhorse Plains Backcountry Horsemen, and local ranchers have been working together to reduce the presences and spread of Blueweed in the Plains area. Blueweed, an invasive noxious weed starts as a rosette in its first year and is capable of growing to 3 feet in height and several feet in diameter in its second growing season, invading roadsides, riparian areas, pastures and hay fields. We cut and bagged over 55 large garbage bags of Blueweed along roadsides, riparian areas and pastures. Aside from the direct results on Blueweed populations the project has also increased Blueweed awareness by educating landowners and Backcountry Horsemen members who then pass their knowledge on to others. Already landowners adjacent to the treated areas have begun addressing Blueweed on their properties as a result of information passed on by participating neighbors.
Big Hole Lookout Restoration Project:
by Libby Langston, Sydney Bacon, Forest Fire Lookouts Association, INC. Vol 28, No 2, “Lookout Restorations Completed” and John Errecart
Big Hole Lookout on the Plains-Thompson Falls Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest is back to life after last being staffed in 1972. The log based “Grange Hall” style lookout had sat on its 6922 foot mountain top with no maintenance for over 40 years. After five years, 2013-2017, the project to restore the lookout is complete and the lookout will be available for rent on the cabin rental program in 2021.
The project was a collective effort that included our chapter. But, without a doubt, the credit goes to the Passport in Time (PIT) volunteers and the Lolo Archeologists (Sydney Bacon -1st year and Erika Karuzas –years 2-5) that did all the real work and organized the entire project. Along with Sydney or Erika, folks from the Region 1 Preservation group, the PIT volunteers stayed in a spike camp near the lookout for 2 weeks each summer restoring the lookout. Though our group members helped out with some of the onsite restoration our primary role was daily packing support based out of the basecamp 2.5 miles down the trail from the lookout.
Restoration has been completed from top to bottom of the lookout starting with replacing or repairing the logs on which the lookout sits to the cedar shake roof. The interior flooring, wall siding and ceiling was removed, hardware cloth to installed to keep out rodents, then either replaced or painted with numerous fresh coats of paint and reinstalled. All the windows were removed, taken to the Region 1 Historic Preservation workshop in Missoula, and totally restored. A new stove and stove pipe were installed and Historic Preservation Team shop built all new replica furniture. Outside lightening protection was replaced, new shutters built and installed, gable ends replaced with new material and coats of fresh white paint applied.
Our Chapter participated from start to finish; securing over $30K in funding via RAC (Resource Advisory Council), cutting/peeling replacement logs, organizing/weighing/packaging helicopter loads, painting, packing, packing and some more packing.
In 2019 we installed a highline for stock users and donated close to $1000 worth of furnishings (cots, lanterns, chairs, pots, pans, etc.) to ready the lookout for its introduction to the Cabin rental program in 2021. For 2021 we’ll continue with thinning and piling of trees that have encroached around the lookout during the last forty years in order to enhance the view and provide some protection from wildfires and do some replumbing at the lookout water source located 3/4 of a mile below the lookout.
Check out the full restoration story published in the Lookout Network quarterly publication (Vol.28 No.2) by clicking on the last thumbnail photo below.
To see videos about the great work completed in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 produced by Libby Langston, go to http://youtu.be/T1GeSi8KPaY ,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqG3BF4iqzY , http://youtu.be/dHbRE47ZaS0 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5SSSP8hao and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_NdG1amsA4&feature=youtu.be
