The Forest Service Has Lost Their Way

I recently had a very disappointing trip into one of our wilderness areas, which made me very disappointed with our Forest Service. My buddy and I have been talking about doing a 100-mile horse-packing trip for a few years. We finally decided to make it happen this year. We were going to ride into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. The plan was to get dropped off at point A and a week or so later get picked up at point B.

The plan was to ride until late afternoon every day, then stop, set up camp, and flyfish for a few hours every day. We tweaked our plans, changed locations to the Sawtooths, and reduced the trip to 41 miles.

As you can imagine, planning a trip of this magnitude takes a lot of time, money, and labor. We met numerous times to plan menus, gear we’d need, supplies, etc. The day finally arrived, and we loaded up the horses and took off. We hit the trailhead and set up camp for the night.

The next morning, we whipped out a fast breakfast, watered/fed the horses, and threw the saddles on the horses. We then loaded up the packs. There were three of us. We’d each be riding a horse and leading along a pack horse.

With all of the above said, you can imagine my disappointment when we didn’t even get a mile down the trail and were blocked by a log. I didn’t count, but I bet we hit close to 15 trees that had fallen across the trail in the first four miles. We cut logs for four miles but finally ran out of juice.

We still had 16 miles to get to the top. We were going to ride across the top and then drop down another drainage to go down. I can only imagine that the trail down would be just as impassable as the trail going up. In fact, a backpacker had left a note at the trailhead that said the trail up on top was almost impassable- and that was on foot, so it would have been totally impassable on horses.

The above scenario is the norm in our wilderness areas. I have noticed this repeatedly over the past 25 years, and not just in one specific state. In talking to one Forest Service employee, it sounds like they semi-try to keep the main trail open but make no attempt to keep the other trails clear. (This is not the case in this wilderness.)

I hear rumors that the goal of the FS is to lock us out of our wilderness areas, and I can only believe that these rumors are true due to their actions or lack thereof. They seem to view the wilderness as some supreme being, and the presence of man’s footprint in it defiles its beauty and pureness. Man should not intervene in nature at all, which would explain why they don’t maintain trails.

Years ago, we packed into the Frank Church. The main trail going in was passable. But the other trails were impassable. If you’re not familiar with the trail system, let me explain. A main trail may follow a river for 20-30 miles. So you ride in and set up a camp. Then there are trails that go up to the top of the ridges and follow along the ridge system.

Look at an FS map to see the old trails. Here’s the reality, though. Twenty-something years ago, a buddy shot an elk up on top of a mountain. There was a trail by our camp that crossed the river and went up to the top. Back then, the trail was rideable. We rode three horses up and packed the elk down.

Now? I can’t even tell where the trail is since the FS has not maintained it. It is the only trail to ride a horse up to the top, so since the FS hasn’t maintained the trail, they have effectively shut down that whole mountain range.

Let me further elaborate. What percent of the population is physically fit enough to throw on a 50-lb. pack and go on a 1-2 week, 80-mile backpacking trip? Let’s narrow it down. How many people in Idaho can do this? Maybe 40? 75? 100? So if the FS doesn’t maintain the trails into our wilderness so that horses, llamas, or pack goats can pass, then they have locked 99.9% of the population out from being able to go in and explore, hike, hunt, or fish in our wildernesses.

Which brings up the question: What is the purpose of the FS? To serve the public? Do they think that they own the wilderness areas and have their own hidden agenda? Or are they just not properly managed and have lost their way? I’m asking.

As a taxpayer who pays their salary, my first and foremost request is that they maintain trails. Yet, even as much as I am in the mountains, I have never once actually seen a government employee maintaining a trail. I have seen a trail cleaning crew packing in, and have seen them camped along the way. But I have never personally seen them cutting so much as a twig.

I don’t know if this is the gospel, but from what I hear, they don’t really have full-time trail clearers. The FS is heavy with office dwellers and sparse on employees in the field. They only hire young people part-time in the summer to clear the one main in/out trail. This is not sufficient.

Do any of you readers know what we can do to correct this huge issue? I contacted the FS, and they emailed me around from person to person, saying they were trying to connect me to the proper person to answer my questions, but that never gelled.

I tried to contact Rep. Moyle, Rep Fulcher, Sen. Crapo, Sen. Risch, and Gov. Little. Sen. Risch’s office responded but couldn’t meet with me and said that submitting a list of questions wouldn’t suffice to rectify this problem. I received form replies, but Sen. Risch’s office is the only one that I’ve talked to a human. It’s time I meet with someone to set a course of action to rectify this problem.

In the meantime, our wildernesses are basically shut down to the public. Wildernesses have gone from the land of many uses to the lands of no uses! Something needs to be done.

About Tom Claycomb