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Advice on Planning an Extended Backpacking Trip | Frank Church Wilderness- River of No Return, ID United States | 06/18/09, by snowNinjas

Way back in December, the SnowNinjas were sitting in a snow-covered tent in the Sawtooths, drinking Old Crow and talking about Great Trips We've Done.  Ken had done a month-long backpacking trip AND a three-month winter ski trip across the Frank Church wilderness in Idaho, a few score of miles north of where we sat drinking, and I had done a month-long trip in the Wind Rivers in Wyoming, among others.  But we'd never done anything of that length together, so out of the boozy, woodsmoke-filled haze we both said "hey, let's do a big trip this summer!"

When we sobered up, it still sounded like a great idea, so we both immediately rolled up our figurative sleeves and went to work. The first thing that I did was tell my boss that I was leaving for the month of July - it sounds simple, but thank god I did that in January, because I had to jump through so many hoops to take the time off that it practically became a full-time job.  Finally, though, I got it nailed down, but only after we had plunged into full-blown preparations for the trip.  I nearly chewed my fingernails clean off between March and April, until I got the final okay to leave.

Because of the economy and our own inclinations, we ruled out a bunch of exotic locations and decided to once again explore the wilderness that sits at our back door, the Frank Church - River of No Return.
 
For you foks who live outside of Idaho, Lewis and Clark named the Salmon River the "River of No Return" when the Corps of Discovery nixed the idea of boating it - too crazy, senor!  They had to get horses and hoof it overland to the Columbia River instead.  The late, great Senator Frank Church had his name added to it when he managed to get it designated a wilderness area and created the largest contiguous American wilderness outside of Alaska. 

The FC-RONR abuts the Clearwater and Selway-Bitterroot wilderness areas as well, and thus - we could potentially hike through there until our boots rotted off and not see the whole thing.  The only road that cuts across our route is the Magruder Corridor, a famously rugged dirt track that is situated at the perfect halfway point on our trip, and thus, will become our resupply point.  

So, anyway, we've finally gotten our bags packed, the route nailed down, the house rented out, the buddies dragooned to drive us to our starting point and drop off our resupply - it's been a long six months, but starting on June 26th, it should all pay off on a long, long trek between Big Creek, Idaho and Darby, Montana. 

Along the way, we'll have to cross the Main Salmon River (the usual method is to stick your thumb out and hope someone with a raft takes pity on you), and endure about 30 to 40,000 feet in elevation changes.  Our lowest point will be about 3,000' in the Salmon River drainage, and our highest point will be around 9,000', unless we decide to bag a few peaks along the way.  We're taking our year-old Husky, the famous Amos, and he'll be toting his own pack full of dehydrated dog food.  (Yeah, we didn't know about dehydrated dog food either, until we realized that there was no way he could carry his own body weight in kibble and started asking around...so far, he seems to love the stuff, and it's pretty darn light.) 

Ken will be hauling about 75 lbs worth of stuff, and I'll be toting about 55 lbs. When we finally packed and weighed everything, we both heaved a sigh of relief that they weren't any worse - neither of us is a stranger to ridiculously heavy packs, so these should be more than manageable.  Arcteryx set us up with some sweet demo packs - the Bora 80 and the Briza 75 - so we'll post a review on them when we get back.







Meanwhile - Skiing the Backcountry asked us for some tips on planning a huge trip like this, so here are my four recommendations:

1) Only go with a really, really good friend.  Seriously.

2) OBSESS over the route, the gear and the food!  We've spent months looking at maps, fixing and making gear, and dehydrating and weighing food.  We've made miles of lists and have - finally! - crossed off every single thing (except for, like, the last two things - aagh!)  It's been a delightful, frustrating, exciting project, and if we've obsessed correctly, we'll have everything we need when we're as far from Wal-Mart as we can possibly get. :-)

3) While you're obsessing, talk about everything with your trip buddy. Everything. Seriously.  Make sure you're both on the same page as far as where you want to go, how and how hard you want to hike every day, your personal goals for the trip, what you like to eat, what kind of toys you want to bring, your favorite brand of coffee....you don't want any ugly surprises on Day Two, like finding out that you packed a bunch of beef jerky for lunch for your vegan friend.  (For the SnowNinjas, our personal bugaboos revolved around bad food and intestinal parasites on previous trips - needless to say, we didn't skimp on food planning, and we're taking a bitchin' water filter.)

4) Make sure you're in good physical shape for the trip.  The SnowNinjas do a lot of backcountry trekking, so we only made some moderate tweaks to our workout routines, but we made a huge effort to make sure that our puppy Amos was ready and strong enough for his first big pack trip.  He just turned a year old, and so far, it looks like he's ready....hopefully, we're all ready!  Nothing would be a bigger drag that ruining six months of planning with an injury.

So - wish us luck, and we'll post a trip report when we get back in August!  Adios - the SnowNinjas