Feather Creek, Clearwater NF (Bob Shelton, trail boss)

Kids Kamp, Asotin Creek area (Pat Bogar, trail boss)

A big THANKS to Laurel and Bob Kuther for allowing us to mess up their place for the chili feed. We will have a card at March's meeting for everyone to sign thanking Brian Bishop for letting us ride on the Hansen Estate. Thanks to all those that participated and made it a fun day!!

The Tucannon River drainage in southeast Washington's Garfield County is one of the most beautiful areas close to Lewiston and Clarkston. The lower end is covered with older ranches and small home sites. The middle has some of the same with an RV park and the headquarters of the local Fish and Wildlife organization sharing the locale. The upper end starts with some man-made ponds that Fish and Game personnel stock with trout beginning in early March. Traveling south, you run out of road but you can head into the wilderness for some magnificent horseback rides.

The area has sustained some heavy burns during the past few years. Some were mosaic burns with a rapid recovery expected. Others were severely burned with a significantly longer recovery ahead.

Fish and Game owns and manages much of the land and did an excellent job in contracting logging as soon as the fires died down. This gave the remaining trees a significant boost and enhanced their ability to recover as well as provided funding for the extensive rehab efforts that were ahead. Most of the campgrounds have been cleaned up, some have been enlarged, and a couple new ones established.

The first campground you come to is at the foot of Cummins Creek. Management was going to close this one and enlarge the next one and add horse facilities. Some members of Twin Rivers voiced their objection, which led to our chapter being invited to participate with the planning, ideas and muscle. There were numerous meetings. The first I attended was Oct. 21, 2006.

What I learned there was turning the next campground into a partial horse campground created a problem in reaching the Cummins Creek Trail Head. One route involved a lot of brushing, building a short section of trail through a wetland and using an abandoned highway bridge to reach the trailhead. The other route caused you to cross the highway twice and then over the same abandoned bridge.

In mid-winter, Twin River was asked to make 15 hitch rails and five high lines using four-inch steel pipe. This task was accomplished and reported on by Mark Bogar. The rails and high lines were stored at the Tucannon Fish and Wildlife Headquarters until March 2007 when nine Twin Rivers members planted them at three campgrounds. The crew consisted of Bob Henriksen, Scott Koehler, Don Uhlman, Larry Taylor, Bob Hough, Dave Favor, Ed Bishop Mark Bogar and Bill Correll.

It ultimately was decided the first campground would be opened for day use only. That means the next campground - about one-quarter mile uproad - now has two toilets, seven hitch rails and two high lines for overnight camping.

Once we figured out who was doing what, our project went quite smoothly.

This is a good example of what BCH can do to help keep our right to use and ride the wilderness and adjacent National Forest areas.

The Cummins Creek campground is 45 miles from Walla Walla Community College at Clarkston, Wash. The Pomeroy Ranger District Headquarters at Pomeroy has maps and information on trails that are assessable in the Tucannon Drainage. Cummins Creek is a good early ride through old homestead areas with an abandoned mine near the end of the valley. A spring ride should produce elk and deer sightings. ~ Bill Correll

Asotin County Fair - Trail Class
April 2007

Take a look at some of the trials presented to the young riders.

Billy Creek is an old ranch house located on the Snake River, owned by Idaho Fish & Game, about 25 miles upstream from Lewiston, Idaho.

Seventeen riders and two by boat joined Rod and Karen Parks for Memorial Day Weekend at Billy Creek. The riders made a loop ride to Disneyland, which is a nickname for Lime Point.We tied up or hobbled at the Lime Point Cabin and took off on foot to do some tread work on the trail over the Mattahorn (a large limestone outcropping). The dirt was flying, the sweat was running, and the mouths were going about what a bad trail we were working on. Almost everyone agreed they would not even walk it, let alone ride it. Rod advised them that they had already walked it once to get to the work area and they could easily lead their stock over this short section.

This is an old pack trail that follows the Snake River on the Idaho side all the way to the Oregon State line. The trail has many steep grades up and down to get around the many rock bluffs. If is a very scenic trail, but not for someone who does not like heights.The opinion of the workers was that they probably would never ride the Mattahorn Trail.

Mikray Moser and Elvis hit the trail
by Mikray Moser

Trail boss' note: Mikray's mom and sister are serious stock riders but Mikray and his dad are not interested. The family came to Billy Creek for Memorial Day weekend, so a mule was borrowed and he had no choice but to come. Mikray started a journal of the weekend.

Twin Rivers BCH has been coming to Billy Creek for a fun ride and work project for over 10 years. Billy Creek is a ranch house owned by the Idaho Fish & Game and is located on the Snake River about 20 miles upstream from Lewiston, Idaho. It is part of the Craig Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

The ranch was purchased in 1978 and is part of more than 100,000 acres in the WMA. It is beautiful country to ride in, with open grasslands at 800 feet elevation, to complete timber cover at 5,000 feet elevation. The trail we were working on parallels the Snake River for about 12 miles. The project consisted of repairing tread work around and over a limestone outcropping that puts the trail about 100 feet above the river.

Mikray's Journal - A non-rider perspective

It's time to hit the road - Saturday, May 26, 2007
Today I am leavingn for Billy Creek. I didn't want to go but I was forced. It's 7:55 A.M. and leaving at 8. Got to go.

The continuous entry - Sunday, May 27, 2007
Yesterday was a lot of fun when I got to the house. I galloped for the first time! I went fishing and caught five fish! Then, when it got dark, Colton went wacko and we (Tel and Megan) had to chase him down. He would get up again and we would chase him down again. Today we are going to Disneyland (not the real one).

I'm at Disneyland right now. We are building a new trail that supposedly horses ride on. I am not going to get my mule, Elvis, near it. The view here on the hilll is awesome! It has a nice view of the Snake River. I will write back soon.

I'm back and guess what? I have not heard one person except Rod and Roscoe that would ride on that trail. I will write back when someone rides on the trail. Bye! Oh, I almost forgot: Over here there is a cave. As you go in, the light goes with you and you adjust to it. There weren't any snakes or bugs or anything in it. It was radical dude! Bye. Got to go. Bye!

Howdy y'all. I'm back. No one road on that steep, rocky, close to the ledge trail. I had a fun time going back (well sorta). All of us had to do down steep hills and up steep ones, too. I loved going in the swamp kind of lands. It has a lot of trees and grass. It was hard to keep Elvis from eating the grass because he is one of those that sneaks stuff from you, and you can't see him take it. Anyway, there were lots of rocks in the road and since Elvis and Roscoe (Rod's pack mule) didn't have shoes on. It probably kinda hurt. When we got back to the house, Karen and Betty cooked dinner and it was good! Colton (my acquaintance) and I played Tony Hawks underground game.

Right now I have to go to bed so, uh, here's the lesson I learned today. Never drink a pop in a can or anything without a lid on a horse or mule or something else going up or downhill or on a holey road. It will spill everywhere!!

The end.
Mikray Moser

The project was logging out a five-mile loop trail located in the Clearwater National Forest about four miles from Bovill, Idaho. Sounded easy, but Mother Nature did us no favors as there was one section about 200 feet long that had about 30 trees piled several deep.

A group of mountain bikers helped us for a short time in this bad area as they could not get through until we had done some cutting. They thanked us many times for the work we were doing on the trail.

Bob Shelton was trail boss and had scoped the trail out on foot. He made a plan to send workers out in opposite directions and hopefully meet in the middle before sundown.

We all came prepared. There were more chain saws than workers. We had three pack animals - one with each work crew to pack tools, gas, lunch, etc. They sure were appreciated as we were pretty exhauted when we finally met in the middle.

Since Bob and Pat had walked the trail twice, they worked on the end with the least downfall and then bragged about how they cleared more miles of trail than the other two groups of workers combined! This trail is almost entirely in timber and an easy ride for a warm day as there is plenty of shade.

Another successful year with only one serious injury. One youth got knocked off his horse by a large limb and broke his arm. We had a full house of 25 youths this year and lots of support riders.

Sam Ledgerwood leases some of the Wildlife Dept Land and explained the life of a cattle rancher and how they are stewards of the land. He led one of the day rides and explained some of the things that we saw on the Pilot Lease Program. The stock is checked every single day by someone, pastures are rotated often, and portable electric fences are everywhere to keep the stock out of the riparian areas.

Asotin County Search and Rescue explained the use of a compass and then everyone was split into small groups and went on a search with compass for some hidden buckets. The kids really enjoyed this!! Bob Shelton spent hours setting up the maze in the barn. This was a real big hit again this year, with beach balls added to competition, which put a new twist on the maze.

One work project consisted of removing and replacing the wood fence at the entrance to the Blacks Ranch, which is where we hold Kids Kamp. Another work project consisted of brushing out several miles of trail. We explained trail clearing widths and heights to all, and when we stopped for lunch, some of the kids wanted to do more trail clearing, as they really enjoyed seeing the results of their efforts.

Big thanks to Karen Parks and Pat Hough for all their hard work preparing all the great meals. The day rides were filled with many sightings of elk, and a few deer. No bear was seen this year. Bob Henriksen presented a very good demonstration on shoeing and hoof care. LNT training on campfires was done by Rod Parks and Paul Bogar covered LNT planning and preparing for a trip.

Thanks to our supporters from the Business Community: JB’s Sack n Tack, Primeland Country Store, Intermountain Feed, ATK, Gateway Materials, Syringa Bank, Potlatch #1 Federal Credit Union, Tri-State Outfitters, Harold Thompson, Lucky Acres Fencing, NezPerce County Sheriff Posse, and Washington Department of Wildlife. Thanks also to all the volunteers who gave so much of their time and effort to make this a successful year!

Kelly Creek Noxious Weed Inventory
July 2007

Kelly Creek drains into the North Fork of the Clearwater River in the Clearwater NF