North Fork of the Big Wood

Posted in Adventure by sarasheehy on 28 June 2009

Mike works on Saturdays. Sigh. This cuts down on our weekend time, but with the weather so beautiful, and summer officially here, we decided to make the most of it. Saturday started off with a *bang* when I broke down and bought a new mountain bike. Isn’t she so pretty? I don’t have a name for her yet (suggestions welcomed) but you’ll learn all about her orogeny in a forthcoming blog post about my weekend at the Dirt Series.

After taking her for a nice ride out Corral Creek I frantically packed up the car so we’d be ready to hit the road when Mike got home. We decided earlier in the week to check out the Amber Lakes Trail this weekend. Amber Lakes’ trailhead is nestled in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) on the North Fork of the Big Wood River. Because we were arriving in the evening on a Saturday, all the sweet creek-side campsites appeared to be taken. As we were doubled back, heading for a sage-filled campsite instead, we just caught a fisherman leaving a campsite. What luck! As we started to settle in the dogs immediately began grazing on fresh grass like they had four-chambered stomachs. They do not, and this isn’t the end of the grass eating story.

After a delicious meal of chili-mac, Fat Tire’s Skinny Dip, and a baguette, we hung out by the water for just long enough to watch the sun slip down. After snuggling into my sleeping bag with Franconia next to me, I was rudely awoken by Mike jumping frantically next to me. I gave him a weary eye just as I stuck my hand in something liquid. Franconia, who had puppies before we got her, has a tendency to leak sometimes. Naturally, one of those times would be when she’s sleeping soundly on both our sleeping bags, and both our Thermarests. Ah, the joy of dogs.

After the leak (and subsequent clean-up) the night passed in relative peace. The creek was high and fast with spring run-off and we were camped right next to it (to all my LNTer’s out there, it was a impacted site), and the near deafening roar made for a nice lullaby.

The morning dawned with Lemhi hopping spastically throughout the tent. This behavior isn’t unusual in itself, and I judged that it was heightened by the sleeping out on open ground. Boy was I wrong. As I wrestled him down inbetween Mike and I, he was still for a couple minutes. Then, suddenly, he kicked himself free and spit up a perfectly round (and very large) ball of grass next to Mike’s head. I have to tell you, living with dogs is a wild ride. Thank goodness they are adorable.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs we headed up the Amber Lakes Trail. The official mileage is 8.5 miles, but we did some cross-country trekking in addition to reach another alpine lake that doesn’t have trail access. All the drainages were flowing hard with spring run-off, and we had to take off our shoes for wet crossings more than once. In another interesting twist, there were a few snow-and-tree slides from the winter that had wreaked serious damage on portions of the trail. Not to mention that the snow was still attached to the ground. We safely picked our way across all the hazards, and reached our two destinations (Amber Lake, and the additional alpine lake). Lemhi found them both delightful, and took to swimming laps. I couldn’t much blame him – today was hot.

The hike took up the good majority of the day, after which we headed home. After unpacking the car and doing a bit of house-cleaning, Mike looked at me with a straight-face and said “Want to go mountain biking?” If I didn’t know Mike better, I’d have thought he was kidding. We had already hiked 10+ miles with a 2000 foot elevation gain. Next thing I know, I’m on my mountain bike heading to Adams Gulch. But as my friend Jenna would say – “It’s the Sun Valley lifestyle!”