Fisher Creek, Stanley Idaho - August 2, 2009 Words
and photos by Lee Lau unless otherwise noted. |
|| Day 1 - History Rock - Bozeman, Montana || Day 2 - 3 - Trespass/Sypes; Emerald; A big peak || Day 4 - Somewhere || Day 5 - 6 - Corral Creek, Fox Peak - Ketchum, Idaho || Day 7 - Warm Springs ; Pioneer - Long Gulch || Day 8 - Corral Creek, Fisher Creek - Stanley, Idaho || Day 9 - Bull Trout to Bonneville ||
Tyler and I did a quick lap of the Corral Creek trails covering the same trails I had done with Lenny but this time in the daylight. Truly this singletrack is fast and fun. We didn't bother with pictures - only a POV could have possibly captured the joy of that trail. On the way back we were stopped by a herd of sheep proceeding N on Trail Creek road! Not wanting to miss the opportunity and being a bunch of hick city-slicker Canucks who have never, ever been caught in a sheep drive, we ran back - packed up camp and drove off to see if we could catch the sheep herd!
Leaving our gorgeous
camp spot at Trail Creek and Corral Creek junctions
The Mexican Sheep
Whisperers and their trusty heavy metal collar dogs part the way for
us
Herd of sheep! from Tyler Wilkes on Vimeo.
Although we had a lot of unfinished business in the Ketchum area, we had heard a lot about the Fisher Creek trail system near Stanley Idaho. Also we were all fairly destroyed after yesterday's good old fashioned death march. I suspected Fisher Creek could be shuttled so when I found that there was no gate at Pass Creek and when we kept pushing the Volvo further and further up the road and the temps kept climbing to low 30s I was quite overjoyed to be left with only some small token climbs to get to the trailhead.
Fisher Creek is a wonderful buff trail system. The trail is truly a singletrack sidewalk winding its way through burnt forest and along creekbeds and ridgelines. There were only two minor climbs in the entire approx 12 miles of trail and it was over much too quickly. We were done in plenty of time to head to Stanley, replenish cold drinks and head to Stanley Lake to veg for a bit. Then we were off to the Bonneville Hot Springs SW of town on the road to Boise so we could set up camp to do the Bull Trout to Bonneville run the next day. The hot springs at Bonneville were a treat and we finally managed to get a good dirt scraping session.
View of the Sawtooths
from just N of Galena summit
Sign at the Galena Summit lookout
Just off the start of the Fisher Creek trail system with some Trout Slayer!
Either Tyler is trying to
look sensitive or he's trying to smell his own farts - only he knows
More shirtless hero on
the trail out from Fisher Creek